zippie
New Member
I just moved into an apartment in a house the landlord recently bought. We're trying to get an old water softener working. He doesn't know anything about it from the prior owner. We get about 150 gallons of soft water each recycle. There's no iron in the water so we don't think the resin is clogged. He's cleaned the venturi, there's no salt bridge. He took out the brinewell assembly and thinks he fixed the float but we aren't sure of that. And we don't agree on how it works or what to try next. My hypothesis (since the user guide doesn't say) : I think (from the diagram) the brine tube feeds down and makes a u turn at the bottom and is stoppered by the float assembly next to the descending brine tube and above the valve. When the fill occurs, rising water in the tank makes the float assembly pull the stopper out of the brine valve so when the brining starts the brine line is open to suction from the venturi. Brining stops when the brine level drops in the tank (from drawing brine) to where the stopper closes the brine valve again. Can anyone confirm this or correct me? This seems awfully dependent on the right amount of water and salt in the tank and the right position of the valve and float to work right. The fill adds about an inch or a little more of water to the brine tank and brine removed lowers the level about an inch and a half. The tank is about 1/3 full of salt. Adding an extra backwash or removing it makes no difference. Same for changing the length of rinse. Resin cleaner and clorox made no difference. Perhaps coincidentally it seemed to start working somewhat when we added salt with iron removers in it. That was fairly early in the troubleshooting and most other steps except salt bridge check and venturi cleaning followed that. There's plenty of water flowing out the drain when backwash and rinse happen. Do I understand the brinewell assembly operation correctly? Do you have any other ideas?