Little yellow beads!

Hello all, i have a ge smartwater softener, and sunday night adjusted the contact at the gear mechanism(sorry for wrong terminology) due to the unit not drawing brine properly. after i manually started a regen, everything appeared to work fine. the unit drew brine without me manually turning the gear a bit. Monday night i get a call from the wife while I'm at work saying the water pressure is gone and the faucets are sputtering. i come home to find every filter in the house clogged with little yellow beads. Those are from the softener, right? Did my unit just crap out on me? Did I cause it with my adjustment? Thanks for alll your help. Chris

you are going to be a whole lot more specific here. Perhaps a picture of the contact that you adjusted, but that said, unless you are a particulary lucky fellow, I do believe that your adjustment was perhaps the cause, yes. Otherwize it is a cruel coincidence

rightlane said:

Hello all, i have a ge smartwater softener, and sunday night adjusted the contact at the gear mechanism(sorry for wrong terminology) due to the unit not drawing brine properly. after i manually started a regen, everything appeared to work fine. the unit drew brine without me manually turning the gear a bit. Monday night i get a call from the wife while I'm at work saying the water pressure is gone and the faucets are sputtering. i come home to find every filter in the house clogged with little yellow beads. Those are from the softener, right? Did my unit just crap out on me? Did I cause it with my adjustment? Thanks for alll your help. Chris

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Not sure what adjustment you did, but it sounds as though you got resin thoughout the house. I don't believe you caused it, just one of those things.

It sounds like resins have gotten though the system. Maybe a broken distributor. If so, your plumbing is going to have to be flushed and water drained. You may see it in the toilet tanks, too. That wouldn't have been due to your adjustments but maybe by coincidence. I think it just crapped ourt on you. How old was it?

I purchased it used about 2 years ago. I'm guessing the unit is @ 8-10 years old. For as long as i can remember, I've had to manually advance the Gear? to draw brine. There is a small arm that is bent and closes a circuit while in contact with the round section of the gear. As the gear turns the arm comes to a notch, moving the arm off of the contact. at that point the brine draw is supposed to start. at this point there is no suction until i move the gear a hair farther. I straightened out the arm hoping to make the gear advance on its own a bit farther, and it"s first run worked fine. Apparently also it's last run. I hope my misuse of terms is not entirely confusing. After pulling all the aerators on the faucets, washing machine filters, and draining the bottom of the water heater, i think i'm ok...Is this a repair or a new unit job? Thanks for all your replies. Chris

quote; If the softener has been giving you soft water although not doing a regeneration automatically, then dump and replace the resin and enjoy the money saved

What? Nothing about repairing the unit so the NEW resin does not plug everything again? I would not invest a penny into a 12 year softener, possibly with a cracked distributor tube, AND a mechanical timer which is not working properly.

And after about $200.00 and two hours time, he winds up with a softener which STILL has an antiquated mechanical timer. If he is doing it himself, he can buy a NEW MODERN softener from Sears for about twice that, and if he is lucky, the new one will "snap" onto the bypass valve without any modification. I NEVER advise the customer to repair an older softener, regardless of who will be doing the work.

big dripper said:

Let us know if you need anymore help beyond what has already been mentioned. Don't worry about those that feel it's more important to attack and ridicule others than provide assistance to you. Good luck.

Do I hear any motions?

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I would go with that..

Either the upper basket is broke or the dist is broke, either way it is time for replacement of the total system.

hj said:

And after about $200.00 and two hours time, he winds up with a softener which STILL has an antiquated mechanical timer. If he is doing it himself, he can buy a NEW MODERN softener from Sears for about twice that, and if he is lucky, the new one will "snap" onto the bypass valve without any modification. I NEVER advise the customer to repair an older softener, regardless of who will be doing the work.

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I don't think his Sears is a mechanical timer, for the last 20 years all their controls are electronic metered.

It sounds as if you don't know what gear and switch he is talking about. Electronic or mechanical (day timer), they all have this gear and switch. So do all other Ecowater made softeners; North Star, Whirlpool, GE, mortonsalt.com etc..

As to fixing used equipment, that's your choice but I did it and did a lot of it for the first 18 years I was a dealer (until I went online in 2002) and I made gobs of money doing it while no one else in my area of central PA would. That got me many referrals that didn't cost me anything to get and many of them led to me selling new equipment. People really appreciate the offer to fix something while comparing the cost to buying new. Anyone refusing to fix something like a water softener is upsetting their prospective customer, and that is easily proven by reading posts on the internet. It also says that the guy doesn't know softeners very well, and who wants to buy a new one from someone that doesn't know all about them but the novice prospective customer?

Plus it really pisses off the guy that calls with a problem that he wants fixed and then is told to replace it instead. That's the bad rep part; "He only wanted to sell me a new one.... so I got online and for X dollars I got a new part and put it on and its been working fine for ...".

I didn't want the bad rep so I learned to fix'em all buy tearing old ones apart to see wha twas wrong with them and I offered repair compared to my price for a new one; right on the phone.

Most people opted for the repair. And they sure as hell will today with our economy the way it is, it's human nature if you think about it.

I've never been arrogant enough to spend my prospective customers money for them and I always saw repair as an additional profit stream for my business. Plus I always fixed my own stuff around the house. And it became a substantial income stream and led to a lot of free word of mouth advertising for me in both water treatment and well pump work for both repair and new sales. You can't beat word of mouth and it is all FREE, which decreased my overhead and thereby increased profit. How do you beat that by refusing to repair a control valve or replace resin?

BTW, you can buy an adapter for his clamp on type tank for $20 and then put a new or rebuilt Fleck etc. control on his present softener IF the cabinet will allow it or he will go without the cover. And most folks usually don't buy a new SEARS/Ecowater softener after having one break and then getting on the internet and reading all the problems people have with them.

rightlane said:

I purchased it used about 2 years ago. I'm guessing the unit is @ 8-10 years old. For as long as i can remember, I've had to manually advance the Gear? to draw brine. There is a small arm that is bent and closes a circuit while in contact with the round section of the gear. As the gear turns the arm comes to a notch, moving the arm off of the contact. at that point the brine draw is supposed to start. at this point there is no suction until i move the gear a hair farther. I straightened out the arm hoping to make the gear advance on its own a bit farther, and it"s first run worked fine. Apparently also it's last run. I hope my misuse of terms is not entirely confusing. After pulling all the aerators on the faucets, washing machine filters, and draining the bottom of the water heater, i think i'm ok...Is this a repair or a new unit job? Thanks for all your replies. Chris

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Let me put it in term you understand. The arm is the micro switch. It's purpose is the turn the motor off once it hits a slot (cam gear). If you must turn the cam in order to draw brine, most likely the rotor shaft is bent requiring the cam to travel past the slot to draw. You could repair the unit, but the cost would be about the same as a new unit. Don't pay attention to the boys fighting. They're just having as good time. LOL

Skip Wolverton said:

Let me put it in term you understand. The arm is the micro switch. It's purpose is the turn the motor off once it hits a slot (cam gear). If you must turn the cam in order to draw brine, most likely the rotor shaft is bent requiring the cam to travel past the slot to draw. You could repair the unit, but the cost would be about the same as a new unit. Don't pay attention to the boys fighting. They're just having as good time. LOL

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Or he could adjust the position of the contact switch. He could lube the disc and gaskets so the disc rotated easier or, for about $50-$70 buy the rebuilt kit from SEARS for a new disc, gaskets, springs o-rings etc.. I see most of Wally's posts and my replies to them have been deleted.

rightlane said:

Is this a repair or a new unit job? Thanks for all your replies. Chris

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I think the answer is "it depends".

The valve mechanism used in the GE Smartwater softener doesn't have a great record of longevity or reliability. If I were in your situation I would get a Fleck valve--with 3/4 inch plumbing the 5600 and with 1" or larger plumbing the 7000. In the long run I think that would be the most trouble free approach.

On the other hand if you are handy and don't mind needing to work on the unit periodically a repair will probably be a smaller current expense.

Gary Slusser said:

Or he could adjust the position of the contact switch. He could lube the disc and gaskets so the disc rotated easier or, for about $50-$70 buy the rebuilt kit from SEARS for a new disc, gaskets, springs o-rings etc.. I see most of Wally's posts and my replies to them have been deleted.

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The micro switch is in a fixed position. I don't see how you could adjust it. Besides, the shaft of the rotor has been twisted due to excess torque caused by the rotor sticking. It is best to replace the rotor and not try to adjust something that was not mean to be adjusted.

Thanks for editing/removing those, I was going to do the same myself when I got home tonight but you beat me to it. They were getting off topic indeed.

I'm with HJ here and would recommend against putting a dime into a 12 year old softener which besides needing parts, will probably need new resin and a re-bed.

Skip Wolverton said:

The micro switch is in a fixed position. I don't see how you could adjust it. Besides, the shaft of the rotor has been twisted due to excess torque caused by the rotor sticking. It is best to replace the rotor and not try to adjust something that was not mean to be adjusted.

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With most contact switches the mounting holes in the switch are a bit larger than the screws and if you loosen the screws you can 'adjust' the placement of the end of the contact arm. He only needs the motor to turn the gear just a slight bit more.

I suggest he tries it before replacing the softener.