I have a 1cu ft Clack WS-1 softener that's just a few months old. Today, just to check if everything was working ok I did a daytime manual regeneration. During the 45 minute "Regenerate" (brine draw) cycle the clear plastic brine line was pulling solid water for about 20 of those minutes. Then I noticed there were large bubbles in the line which made me think that maybe the brine tank had run out of brine water. I dumped a bucketful in and it made no difference. I removed the plastic line from the Guest fitting and re-did the connection at both ends of the Guest elbow. I did the cycle over again with the brine line in a bucket of water and it pulled solid water for the 45 min cycle. I then re-attached everything (brine line to Guest elbow & float assy) and did the brine cycle again. Again - part way through it started sucking air. I quickly disconnected the brine line at the Guest and dipped it into the water in the brine tank. It pulled solid water for the rest of the cycle. This indicates that there is no air leak at the brine elbow at the valve end. I removed the brine float assembly and sucked on the Guest elbow while twiddling the ball at the other end up & down. The ball would shut off my airflow and I could suck a vacuum that didn't seem to leak. So I'm at my wit's end. If I just leave the unit it probably isn't getting a full brine draw. Everything (softener unit and its salt) is about 4 months old. Of course I made sure that there wasn't a salt bridge. As I said, I dumped lots of water in the brine tank. So the question boils down to - why should the line draw solid brine for about half of the 45 min draw cycle when connected to the Guest fittings and float assembly but the whole 45 mins when dipped in a bucket or the brine tank? :wall:

I have a water softener that currently does not run to the ice maker in the fridge and the cold water line to the kitchen sink. There is however soft water running on the hot line to the dishwasher and kitchen sink. My grains of hardness are between 8-12. Is it advisable to have soft water running on the cold line to the sink and ice maker? Soft water is running everywhere else in the house, just not those two places. The plumber ran a separate softened cold line that is currently not being use so changing it would be an easy fix. I was just wondering if anyone knew his logic behind this. Thanks.