Returning Rental Water Softner - How to drain Resin Tank?

[darrylwmiller]

I am returning a rental water softner unit and I have pretty much got all the water out of the brine bucket with some salt remaining that I still have to scoop out. Trying to empty the resin tank as it is fairly heavy.

I tried used a shop vac to blow into the inlet port and alot of water came gushing out of the outlet port but still quite a bit remains and I am barely getting anymore out. I don't want to keep pumping air in there and risk damaging anything. Is there another method to wmptying the resin tank? This resin tank actually sits inside the brine.

 

[darrylwmiller]

If I run a full regeneration process after hooking it back up to water supply would this leave the resin tank empty of water or does the resin tank always hold water?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bannerman]

Hooking up and running a regeneration cycle, will cause the media tank to be filled with water.

During each regeneration cycle, incoming water is directed to follow alternate pathways, with almost all water passing through the rein media.

Even after removing all loose water from the tank, the tank will continue to remain quite heavy as the resin media inside, continues to be saturated with water.

The water removal method you have already employed, will likely have removed almost all loose water from the tank as well as possible, but after allowing a rest period (hours/days/weeks), again using the blow through method, you may be able to remove some amount of additional water from the bottom of the tank after precipitating out from the resin.

I would not recommend using the shop vac to suck water out from the softener's outlet port, as any restriction of air entering the tank, could cause the tank to collapse (as shown below).

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

Now Why would you want to do this?? I know that around my area all you have to do is stop paying for the rental and they will come and take it out..... I think for free or perhaps their is a charge to do this..
or you can just disconnect it yourself and drag the unit out the front door for them to pick up...

Why in the world would you want to remove the salt and suck out the resin?? That kind of ruins the unit
and they might actually charge you for this... Most of these rental places have big gorillas working
for them that haul these things around all day long....

leave it alone and let them handle this

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

Hooking up and running a regeneration cycle, will cause the media tank to be filled with water.

During each regeneration cycle, incoming water is directed to follow alternate pathways, with almost all water passing through the rein media.

Even after removing all loose water from the tank, the tank will continue to remain quite heavy as the resin media inside, continues to be saturated with water.

The water removal method you have already employed, will likely have removed almost all loose water from the tank as well as possible, but after allowing a rest period (hours/days/weeks), again using the blow through method, you may be able to remove some amount of additional water from the bottom of the tank after precipitating out from the resin.

I would not recommend using the shop vac to suck water out from the softener's outlet port, as any restriction of air entering the tank, could cause the tank to collapse (as shown below).

That is a cute picture... I have never seen a carbon filter "implode" like this before....

 

[darrylwmiller]

Now Why would you want to do this?? I know that around my area all you have to do is stop paying for the rental and they will come and take it out..... I think for free or perhaps their is a charge to do this..
or you can just disconnect it yourself and drag the unit out the front door for them to pick up...

Why in the world would you want to remove the salt and suck out the resin?? That kind of ruins the unit
and they might actually charge you for this... Most of these rental places have big gorillas working
for them that haul these things around all day long....

leave it alone and let them handle this

The rental company in Ontario is Reliance and they are pretty brutal. They install free and there is no charge other than monthly charge of $25 for 8 years. All repairs are covered but the catch is that even after the 8 years they charge around $500 to remove it. I planned on dropping it off to them and was trying to make it as light as possible for ease of transportation. I have no intention of sucking out the resin.

 

[darrylwmiller]

Hooking up and running a regeneration cycle, will cause the media tank to be filled with water.

During each regeneration cycle, incoming water is directed to follow alternate pathways, with almost all water passing through the rein media.

Even after removing all loose water from the tank, the tank will continue to remain quite heavy as the resin media inside, continues to be saturated with water.

The water removal method you have already employed, will likely have removed almost all loose water from the tank as well as possible, but after allowing a rest period (hours/days/weeks), again using the blow through method, you may be able to remove some amount of additional water from the bottom of the tank after precipitating out from the resin.

I would not recommend using the shop vac to suck water out from the softener's outlet port, as any restriction of air entering the tank, could cause the tank to collapse (as shown below).

Thank you. I will try to push a bit more out after a few days by blowing air through the system. I never tried hooking up shop vac to the out port because I did read about issues like the pic that you have shown.

 

[Reach4]

Thank you. I will try to push a bit more out after a few days by blowing air through the system. I never tried hooking up shop vac to the out port because I did read about issues like the pic that you have shown.

If your vac has a blow connection, you could have the vac blow into the input port, and see how much water comes out of the output port.

If the pressure is not enough to get all of the water, try tipping the tank.

For moving the tank, or tipping the tank, consider lashing the tank to a hand truck with a ratchet strap.

 

[Master Plumber Mark]

The rental company in Ontario is Reliance and they are pretty brutal. They install free and there is no charge other than monthly charge of $25 for 8 years. All repairs are covered but the catch is that even after the 8 years they charge around $500 to remove it. I planned on dropping it off to them and was trying to make it as light as possible for ease of transportation. I have no intention of sucking out the resin.

That sounds kind of like a dirty deal to me to make you pay 500 bucks to remove it
after you have basically paid for the unit probably 5 times over
25 bucks x12 months = 300dollars x 8 years = $2400....
that unit is probably worth only 500 bucks to start with and it could
have been a used unit to start with...

just put the unit on a hand cart and do the minimum you have to..


Doing the water softener rental game is very lucrative in most larger cities
just think if you have 2000 people paying you 25 bucks a month that
adds up to a lot of money per month and most units just chug along with
absolutely no issues... .
Culligan in our town probably has well over 5000++
little old ladies paying them for over 20 years on worn out units ... forever
When the people die they dont even go back out and pick up the old units
because they are antiquated and are not worth the effort...