No Soft Water, Not Using Salt


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Old 09-13-15, 04:32 PM
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No Soft Water, Not Using Salt

OK, so the water softener in the house is a GE GXSF39E01. It's almost a dozen years old. I've resurfaced (sanded and polished) the valve rotor twice to get twice the life out of them, replaced the rotor and seals twice, cleaned out the venturi valve assembly a dozen times, changed the resin bed three times .... and I've got the Westinghouse WHES33 units in two rentals that use the same valve/pump body, and I've needed to service them almost as frequently.

So I'm no stranger to servicing these.

Failure mode was relatively acute. A recharge failed and it lost soft water over the course of a single cycle. It went from working perfectly and using salt to doing nothing in three days. It's not using salt. There is no salt bridge -- I've stuck the salt from above and pounded from the side all around with a plastic mallet -- and there's no more than an inch or two of water at the bottom of the tank as visible through the brine well.

I've cleaned out the venturi valve assembly. It was filthier than I've ever seen it before, but it's clean now. I replaced the rotor and seal set, figuring it was about due. I've disassembled the brine well tube assembly and cleaned everything and checked all the seals. Everything there was in pretty good shape and operating smoothly. The controller is indicating no errors and driving the motor through a recharge cycle. The microswitch is triggering and the clock motor stops and starts the valve through the cycle segments.

The turbine wheel is clean and clear and spins freely. A visible inspection of the turbine sensor doesn't show anything obviously wrong.

There were no resin bead fragments or debris in the basket under the pump body when I pulled it. In every case when the resin had worn out, I've always seen resin debris in the basket or in the valve body. And resin exhaustion wouldn't manifest so quickly....

If it were using salt I'd replace the beads, but the fact that it's not using salt tells me it's not cycling water properly, so it's got to be an issue in the valves or lines or seals...

Does the little rubber disk in the venturi valve deform or fail? Even if it's clean does that assembly stop working?
 
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Old 09-13-15, 04:45 PM
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Maybe you have a suction leak on the venturi..

Is brine being drawn out and you just dont have soft water?

You would have a lot of water in the brine tank if its not being sucked out..

Your post is detailed but far from specifics..

Read here. I can help you further is needed as I have had these type softners all my life..

Softenerparts.com
 
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Old 09-14-15, 07:40 AM
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First, thanks for the link to your parts site. I hadn't found it and the prices are great.

Second, I think my unit isn't filling. As I said, there's only a little water at the bottom of the brine well. Both venturi screens and the brine well valve screen are clear. But there's zero salt usage in like fifteen cycles.

There's no apparent roughness or cracking to the venturi rubber disk -- and I see you offer that part all by itself, too.

Let me reassemble it this evening, cycle it, and see if I'm getting water in the tank. I'll cycle it manually and watch it every few minutes. Shoulda done that before, sorry....
 
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Old 09-14-15, 08:27 AM
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Hi.. That is not my site. That site I linked is what I use for parts for your brand softners..

Great customer service and good prices. There are others out there.

Maybe you have too much salt build up at the bottom of the tank. I often have to empty the salt on units and break up the crust at the bottom of the tank. Do this carefully without cracking the tank.

I remove the whole float assembly and clean and adjust...

With no salt in the hopper and when a regen starts it should fill say 1 ft or so of water in the tank.

Read here


Softenerparts.com


If you do take apart too make sure this O ring gets installed correctly..

Softenerparts.com


And here is a good video. This is the head unit you have correct?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rcked1qBg
 
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Old 09-15-15, 11:25 AM
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Fixed

Got it fixed. It was the grandfather of all salt bridges and an exhausted resin bed. Pounding on the sides of the tank usually collapses salt bridges. Didn't work for this one. Used a steel rod from above -- collapsed half the volume. Recharged, immediately had limited soft water. Replaced the resin bed ... all fixed.

Thanks!
 
 

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