I'm in serious need of help here. I purchased a GE water softener (Model GNSF35Z) one year ago and installed it myself. Since installation we have noticed sediment in our water (white - almost salt like in appearance). We hired somebody to come out and inspect it and they said it was working great and blamed the sediment in the water on the new water heater. We subsequently drained the water heater twice and we were left with still persistent sediment. I bypassed the water softener and the sediment amazingly disappeared. We called the repair company once again and they don't have any idea why the sediment is in our water. It is not orange color/resin appearing, it is white crumbles in your hand. We have already had to have somebody come and repair the dishwasher as a result of this. I've searched extensively and am unable to find the solution. Does anybody have any idea what may be the problem? I would greatly appreciate it!

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: