Clack WS-1 stuck on "regen today"

[bmulcahy]

Hello all,

I've got a clack WS-1 softener. It has been working just fine for the past 8 years. My problem is that it is wanting to regen every night. It is showing "regen today" in the lower-left corner of the LCD display.

I think the problem started when we were gone for a week and a toilet was left running. This caused the usage for a few days to go to about 5,000 gallons.

To try and fix it I performed a system reset. This reset the gallons used, gallons/day, etc. But that still didin't solve the problem.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Bernie

[ditttohead]

If you do a system reset, you need to reprogram the valve so it knows what it is.

I can post a programming guide for the WS1 but we need to know what size the system is and your raw water hardness and if there is any iron.

This is for the 1.5 Cu Ft WS1 standard.

[bmulcahy]

Thanks for your reply. I have the full set of manuals.

Right after I performed the reset I checked the original settings and they all remained intact (6lbs salt, 17 grains hardness, etc). But the gallons used, gallons/day were all reset to zero.

Am I on the right track thinking that the problem was caused by the excesseive water usage for a few days?

Bernie

[ditttohead]

Yes, the computer will assume you are going to use that same amount, but it will start to back off by itself quickly. I forget the exact programming, but I think it can vary itself by as much as 10% per day. So an unusually large amount of water usage will not cause ti to blow through a tank of salt in a week. This was common when the "smart" prgramming came out 15 years ago. If somebody filled their spa, the softener would assume you are going to use 3000 gallons in a day for weeks, the system would use excessive amounts of salt. Now the programming limits the maximum variability to lessen this potential problem. your problem was the excessive usage lasted longer than normal so the valve had time to adjust excessively.

You should be fine, just let it got for a few days and see what happens.

[bmulcahy]

Thanks again. After the reset it was still showing "Regen today". I let it regen overnight but the next day it still showed "regen today". Since I didn't want to have it regen again I pulled thr power on the unit. I have left it unpowered since Saturday. Should I let it regen one more time?

Bernie

[ditttohead]

Plug it in and let it do its thing. Dont push buttons, just let it go for a couple days and see if it is working properly.

[Gary Slusser]

It sounds to me like there may be a water leak somewhere past the softener.

That Regen Today can be turned off by pushing the Regen button in an then letting go of it.

Clearing the history should have gotten rid of any problem water use data with the variable reserve history but maybe not so....

Resetting the valve back to factory defaults and then reentering your specific programming data will clear the variable reserve data. If you bought the unit from me you should still have the instructions and data.

With no water use in the house or outside, watch for gallons being counted down on the meter over like 10-15 minutes and see if they do. If so you have a leak somewhere.

[bmulcahy]

Hi Gary,

Yes, as a matter of fact I did buy the system from you, about 8 years ago. After resetting the valve, and then letting it sit for a week I powered it back on. It seem to go through a very brief recycle process and now everything looks good. It remembered the programming and the "regen today" message went away. It has been working fine.

The original problem wasn't really a leak, it was a toilet with a bad flapper that was running for a few days while we were out of town. Needless to say, the toilet has been fixed as well.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Bernie

[Gary Slusser]

Thanks for the feed back. I'm glad to hear you found the leak and all's well now.