Kenmore 370 Series question/problem

Just had a Kenmore 370 series installed. The installer poured a quarter teaspoon of bleach in the brine tank, without pouring water in the tank, but added 3 bags of salt and generated the system. Can the bleach damage something? I currently don't have soft water. The system hasn't regenerated itself since it was installed a week ago. I manually generated it and the cold water's not soft. What could be wrong?

 

Boy, you pretty much summed up why Kenmores are not the top choice.

If you bought it new, then keep on the dealer's rear end until it is fixed and working as they say it should...or get your money back. Obviously something is very wrong with it; it may be simple or major. without more info, it is too difficult to say.

I'm not sure what 1/4 teaspoon of bleach is meant to do except very little. It won't hurt anything, either.
'Andy Christensen, CWS-II

 

There should be a propeller-based flow metering device on the inlet. Make sure it's plugged into the control board properly. Put the unit in diagnostic mode and verify the unit registers water flow when a tap is turned on.

Bleach is simply intended to disinfect the plastic beads inside. It doesn't do any more harm than chlorinated water supplies.

 

"Bleach is simply intended to disinfect the plastic beads inside. It doesn't do any more harm than chlorinated water supplies."

Actually, it does far less harm than city water that supplies bleach as a disinfectant. When sanitizing your softener with a little bleach in the brine tank, the resins come into contact with it for a very short period and then it is flushed away. The concentration may be a slightly higher but the contact time spent on the resins is quite short.

With city water the resins are soaked in chlorinated water 100% of their life and this long-term contact can cause more damage.

Frankly, I don't see what a quarter teaspoon will do. The concentration is too small to be effective.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II