Should there be water in the Tank BEFORE a cycle starts?

I totally emptied my softener (no salt OR water) and I want to run some tests; do I need to add some water for a regeneration cycle or will it fill automatically?

My softener doesn't work. It's a GE unit purchased at one of the warehouse stores 10 years ago and it hasn't been giving soft water. I'll be posting my questions later. I cleaned the venturi and a bunch of other things, so I don't need advise on what to look for YET.

I'm about to start all kinds of tests found in the manual and from other sources and I emptied every bit of salt from the unit (removed it and put it on its side and washed it out totally.

I'm about to start a regen cycle with no salt (I figured I'd see how it does without the complication of salt since it's empty right now): Do I need to add some water on the bottom for it to work properly or will the Fill phase do that?

Thanks in advance. -Tony

 

Fill pase will do it... There should be a coiuple of inches of water in there already???

Let me know what you find. I have had those softners most my life and know the controls well..

And how do you know this??/

 

Thanks Mike: Our water is bad so we paid a lab to check our water pre AND post softener and both were 289 ppm hardness. Also, I didn't add salt for like a year, so I realized it hasn't been using it. So I just removed 6-8" of absolute sludge from the bottom (thick as oatmeal), I'm hoping it was the problem. I already cleaned the venturi and it looked good to begin with.
-Tony

 

Put a 1/4 cup of bleach at the bottom of salt tank and regen... This will disinfect it all.

Then let us know...

Was there a bypass valve? Was it every put in bypass for that year?

 

Thats 17 GPG... Set the softner to like 20- 25 GPG..

What was the iron content?

Get a hach 5b and do your own hardness testing to insure the softner is working...

Total Hardness Test Kit, Model 5-B | Hach USA - Overview | Hach

 

Thanks. I'm running it through a cycle right now with no salt in it so I can observe whether it's drawing brine or not. So far it filled OK.

* I never had it in bypass.
* I'm wondering if the sludge (water+salt) stopped it from sucking brine into the resin? I'm waiting right now to see if the water level changes in brine sucking mode - I hope that's what was the problem.
* I'll get one of those test kits if not a few.
* I'll put it at 20 grains - thanks for the advice!
* They didn't test the iron; for the money they charged, I was hoping for a lot more info than just hardness.