Whirlpool WHES40 Softener - Odd Problem!


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Old 01-15-19, 04:56 PM
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Unhappy Whirlpool WHES40 Softener - Odd Problem!

Greetings:

I could use some guidance, please, on an issue that I haven't been able to find on the almighty interwebs.

Whirlpool, by the way, has excellent animated diagrams on their website. It's pretty impressive. That said, their customer service was less than impressive.

Problem: resin beads found in the venturi, which are not supposed to be there. Whirlpool claims it's impossible, but clearly it is not impossible. Even more unusual (from what I can deduce), is I found resin beads in the upstream whole-house filter, sitting at the bottom of the housing. How the resin beads got in there, I have no idea. Multiple different searches hasn't turned up a similar problem, anywhere. The problem was noticed by me, when I went to check the salt level, and notice that the water level was very high, and dirty. Yellowish...when you scoop some out, so is it possible the resin beads are in there, too, and causing the discoloration?

I've taken most everything apart, and nothing seems excessively worn. The venturi gasket could stand to be replaced, but most everything else seems fine.

Hopefully you will have some ideas. Thank you!

CRCFX
 
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Old 01-16-19, 09:39 AM
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Are the resin beads whole or broken?
It is possible for either the lower distributor basket to have a crack or the upper basket to also have crack and letting resin get to where it should not be.
Any resin in the faucet screens?
City water with the chlorine can and has done a number on the resin beds in breaking them down , there is also over pressure from the city that can force resin through the lower or upper baskets and into the valve or house.
Remember dealing with the 1-800 service is most if not all of them are reading from statement as to what the Company says...
Here your likely to find people with 20+ years of in the field.
It could be that the system because of age is starting to fail?
 
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Old 01-16-19, 10:37 AM
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Akpsdvan,

Thank you for your response and thoughts.

The beads question is a good one. I don't yet, know. After looking around (general web search), I wasn't able to find much in the way of comparing a good bead, to a broken bead. The beads are very tiny, and too small to be able to discern if they are a whole piece or a part. I'd say they look to be the size of a grain of sand. Somewhere, I heard and some pictures confirmed this, the some are much larger than this.

I did not take the basket out of the vessel, as I assume that once I do that, it's difficult to re-insert it, and then I'll be committed to changing out the resin. That may be the end result, just the same. Can you re-insert it?

The screens do not show evidence of any resin.

The odd part to me: how can resin backwash into the upstream filter? It also as I noted, was in the Venturi, but I don't know if that would be a problem that would necessarily result from a cracked basket. Not sure.

Good point - on the 800 number. That said, it's not much of an excuse for poor CS skills.

The system is from 2005, but I didn't get around to installing it for at least 8 years.
 
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Old 01-16-19, 10:50 AM
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Broken or whole, the whole is like little balls while the broken ones, they are like half? or half will float and whole will normally sink.
The upper basket will come out and can be put back in. The upper basket has an o ring that could have gone bad, or the slots in the upper basket could have opened up enough to let resin through.
If there is no resin in the house then the challenge is more with the upper basket not the rest of the distributor or the lower basket..
 
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Old 01-16-19, 12:36 PM
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Thank you, Akpsdvan. I scooped some out with my hand, and they were too small to pinch between two fingers. Can you direct me to any pictures that show the size, next to other objects? I could not find any.

I pulled out the upper basket, and it is in good shape -not deformed, and all of the o-rings that I saw (took the valve apart, too) look to be in good shape. That said, the beads are so fine, that it would not be impossible for them to seep through the slots on the basket. I'll scoop some out and see if I can post a pic.

Right - no resin in the house, but how does one get resin in the upstream filter? Does that make any sense?
 
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Old 01-16-19, 08:43 PM
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If you get some into your hand it will feel like little ball bearings if they are whole or it will feel like sand if they are not.
City water or private well?
Was this ever laid on its side for any time?
How long ago did you put this into service?
 
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Old 01-17-19, 03:33 AM
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It definitely feels like sand, although it has a greasy/oily feel to it. City water. Put into service around 2016, so it sat around in a box in the basement for a number of years.

Never on its its side once installed. What may I ask is the significance of the question? Thank you.
 
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Old 01-17-19, 09:12 AM
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Sand is gritty , is resin is good it will roll in the fingers while sand or grit will not.

It might have broke down before install, chlorine is a killer on resin and if the resin was more of the cheap line then it could have and that would help explain why resin showed up in the valve.
 
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Old 01-17-19, 10:52 AM
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Haha...yes, sand is gritty. What I should have said, is that it's difficult to characterize this as the feel of ball bearings, when the beads are so tiny, that you cannot easily sense that they are spherical in shape. If you are saying that it will feel very rough, then that's not the case. They are fine, but not rough in texture.

It looks like you need to link to pictures in order to post, so no simple way for me to do that.

I took another scoop of beads out, and it's like mush. Literally, like a 7-11 slushy.
 

Last edited by CRCFX; 01-17-19 at 10:59 AM. Reason: Clarify/correct
 

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