Another update after watching it go through a full cycle this morning:
- Before it started, the water level in the brine tank was about 25” high (15” from the top of the tank)
- I watched the brine draw and verified that it is indeed sucking up all of the brine down to the float at the bottom of the brine valve.
- Once the brine draw stopped, I let it do the full slow rinse cycle
- While it was doing the slow rinse cycle I removed the valve from the brine tank so I could later watch it fill back up into buckets. While the float was out, I measured and noticed that there was still about 7” of brine left at the bottom of the tank. (This is probably why it fills so high up - because even after the brine draw, the water level is still above even the grid plate.). There is a chance that I removed the valve slightly before it had completed the brine draw but it wouldn’t have gone much longer anyway. The water level was definitely somewhere in the middle of the check valve when I removed it. Even if I had let it go longer it would have drawn maybe another .5-1” at most? So still 6” of water at the bottom of the tank.
- For the brine refill cycle, I lifted the float out of the tank and put it into 5 gallon buckets so I could verify how long it took and how many gallons it filled. Sure enough it took the 14 minutes it is programmed for and filled up 7 gallons
- I then dumped those 7 gallons into the brine well and watched the water level go back up to about where it was prior to the regen starting.
- After everything was done and the water level was right around the level of the salt, I added more salt and it took 3 bags (50lbs each) to be basically full. So 150lbs is about the most I can have in there before it goes below the water level. Is this normal/expected for my setup?
So it seems like it is running through its cycles properly but the main reason the water level ends up being high is because it’s already fairly high to begin with before it refills.
What is the expected height of the water level after the brine draw completes? I know it depends on the length of the valve but this is just a standard new fleck valve and brine tank and I don’t think there is a way to adjust the height?
I will attach some photos showing the heights at different stages of the cycle.
Prior to starting (water level about 15” from the top, or 25” high in a 40” tank):
Water level in brine well prior to starting (about 10” from the top, or 30” high on a 40” tank)
Hard picture to take, but this shows that it drew all of the brine down to somewhere around the middle of the check valve):
Showing after the brine draw, there was still about 7” of brine left in the well (33” from the top of the water to the top of the 40” tank)