Help with Water Softener

[rafael1138]

Hi, I bought a house and I'm has little knowledge about water softeners. Mine is working, I tested the water and looks ok but sometimes I have an issue, after a regen the water get salty and needs to regen.

I'm trying to diagnose the problem so I have initiated a manual regen. The first step the valve does is filling the brine tank and then stop during 120 minutes. My understanding is that during that time, the water level should be decreasing but after 30 minutes, the level is the same. Is that ok?

I have noticed too that the level of water over pass the salt.

 

[KineticoUser]

Don't judge the water on how it looks, run a test. The Hach 5B is a cost effective test.

Contact your softener's manufacturer tech support, and they can give you the ideal settings for your situation. You don't want water showing in the brine tank. That means you haven't put enough potassium or sodium in your tank. The water sits there to dissolve the potassium or sodium. It doesn't drop till the end of that cycle.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[MaxBlack]

...after a regen the water get salty and needs to regen...

The rinse cycle is supposed to wash the saltiness out. You need to find the manual for your unit and verify the cycling is correct.

 

[Reach4]

I'm trying to diagnose the problem so I have initiated a manual regen. The first step the valve does is filling the brine tank and then stop during 120 minutes. My understanding is that during that time, the water level should be decreasing but after 30 minutes, the level is the same. Is that ok?

Yes.

Your softener is set up to keep the brine tank empty most of the time, and to fill before doing the backwash and rest of the stuff. That is normally done if you will use potassium salt, which is very sensitive to temperature changing the solubility. Sodium salt (the more common cheaper salt) solubility, is much less affected by temperature.

If you use Fill First (what Fleck calls it) with sodium salt, that is OK. The only disadvantage that I can think of is that triggering an immediate regeneration, with the buttons, would have a long delay before regenerating. So lets say you find out that you will have an extra need of soft water coming up, with fill-first, the softener will take 2.5 hours to have new softening capacity. That probably would be a rare problem.

 

[Bannerman]

As it appears you are regenerating with sodium chloride (water softener salt), suggest changing your 5-button Clack WS1 controller settings to cause the brine tank to refill with fresh water at the end of each regeneration cycle. Since the water will then be in contact with the salt for an extended time period, the 120 minute delay time will no longer be needed to cause sufficient salt to become dissolved before regeneration actually begins.

Regardless of how much additional time the salt is in contact with the water, only 3 lbs salt will become dissolved for each 1 gallon water that enters the brine tank.

Salty tasting soft water following regeneration, is an indicator of insufficient slow rinse time during regeneration. Suggest stating your softener's total capacity (ie: 32,000, 48,000 or 64,000 grains) along with the settings that are currently programmed within the Clack WS1 controller.

Here is a link to the programming, setup manual for the 5 button Clack WS1/WS1.25 control valve. Clack WS1/WS1. 25