Water softener Maintenance


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Old 08-15-08, 07:34 AM
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Water softener Maintenance

First off, I'm new to the water softener game so bare with me.
Recently our softener stopped working. I went out and bought a new Kenmore to replace the 12 year old one that was in the house when we bought it. Upon dismantling the old one to get it out of the house, I noticed that the salt at the bottom was like one foot thick of fine, not fully dissolved salt.
My questions are, should I keep the reservoir filled all the time, or should I keep only a certain amount in there so it can all dissolve?
After installing the new softener I read the instructions (Isn't that how everybody dose it) it says you should clean the reservoir tank every 2 to 3 years. How do I do that? I mean, how do get to the bottom of the tank and get the fine salt stuff out? Any advise is appreciated.
 
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Old 08-15-08, 07:43 AM
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You do not need to do anything with the water level; that fills as needed automatically during the recharge cycle. In normal operation you shouldn't get a foot of fine salt in the bottom. Are you sure it wasn't silt/sand? I think that would have been more likely, especially if you are on well water (you didn't say). At any rate, the way I clean mine is to let the salt get as low as possible (instead of refilling when it gets down to 6 inches or so). Then I rinse it with clean water and suck it out with my wet/dry shop vac.

It's also a good to periodically disassemble and clean the nozzle and venturi assembly. Mine gets gunked up from the well water and needs cleaning every couple of months.
 

Last edited by the_tow_guy; 08-15-08 at 08:07 AM.
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Old 08-15-08, 08:06 AM
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Thanx "towguy", I was talking about the salt level, is it better to keep it full or at a certain level ( for maintenance purposes). How much salt needs to be in the tank for an effective regeneration?
As far as the undesolved salt in the bottom of the old unit, there was a little bit of silt/dirt but most of it was definitely salt. And yes we are on well water, its pretty hard I think, like 35 ppm.
 
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Old 08-24-08, 02:51 PM
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Hello Samm,

Water is considered soft when it contains 2 grains or less of hardness (34.2 ppm). I presume you to mean 35 grains. The water hardness (grains) really needs to be determined if you are to setup the softener correctly. Many times a swimming pool supply store will test the water for hardness. Such a test shows the result in ppm. Simply divide the ppm by 17.1 to get the grains/gallon. I generally add 1 40lb bag of salt when the salt level falls below the water level.

If one puts too much salt into the tank (like near the top), the salt might creep up the sides of the tank and find its way out of the tank. Also of concern when the salt level gets above the water line is something called salt bridging. The salt solidifies at the water line and prevents the salt above from coming into contact with water, effectively ending the brining process, but there's always salt in the tank.

To clean a brine tank, I wait for the salt level to get really low (use extra regens) then disconnect the tank from the control head and take it to a convenient place where I can lay it on its side and use the hose.

I use Potassium Chloride instead of salt, because I believe it to be beneficial to people (I don't have to worry about someone being Sodium intolerant) and I can water my house plants with soft water. One down side to using Potassium is its tendency to solidify at the bottom of the tank, similar to what you described, but it really is a solid block. I recently cleaned the brine tank of a relative that has been using Potassium for several years without ever cleaning the tank. This particular tank did not have baffling in the base. I'm guessing the weight of the solidified mass at 30 lbs. To get rid of it, I laid the tank on its side above a top loading clothes washer, and used a garden hose to dissolve and flush away the beast. The beast contain a "HUGH" amount of dirt.

Good luck.
 
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Old 08-24-08, 03:01 PM
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Samm,

Had an afterthought. Is it possible that the 2-3 year cleaning refers to the resin tank?
 
 

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