Whole House Water Filer/softner problems

[stubbsz]

High

I have a filter that filters the water for the whole house. There is an attached salte holding tank that the system uses to flush out the filter from time to time. (as far as I can tell after inheriting this system.)

Recently, the salt reserve, stopped depleting and there is an unpleasant odor from the salt. Something is obviously awry and I wondered what could have happened here and what I need to to to fix it. I found many systems like it for sale but no faqs on how to service them or what can go wrong.

This is a link to something that looks just like mine. A few differences but the unit on top of the filter looks identical.
http://cgi.ebay.com/64k-Complete-Water- ... dZViewItem

 

[Anonymous]

It is a regular water softener system. It is probably due to the control malfunction, and you either try to trouble shoot it yourself, or call the installer/manufacturer to ask for service. They don't run without electricity, so first thing to check is to see if the control panel has power. It is not a aquarium-related hardware, and I wish you good luck.

 

[stubbsz]

It is not a aquarium-related hardware, and I wish you good luck.

Indirectly it does involve filtered water and that is an aquarium related topic at least. I guess I'm asking in the wrong place; I wish I could find the right place.

Anyhoo, after digging out all the salt, cleaning out the gunk and running it manually, I can see that the functions on the dial involving Brine seem to be working; the brine refills (water flows back to the salt container) and on the brine+rinse cycle, I can see the level of water go down as it sucks the brine out.

Next step I guess to make sure it is kicking off automatically and I'll reload some dry salt tablets.

Thanks for answering; I'm hoping it's a question of the gunk, stopping the brine returning to the filter and that I've cured that problem with a cleanup.

-Adrian

 

[Anonymous]

A lot of time when you got these system from previous owner, they are often abused to some extend. Hopefully the cleaning is all it need to get it to working order.

I would not load the salt all the way up, maybe 20 lb or less (depends on the capacity, some hold 200 lb of salt or more), and so you can check the brine cycle easier without digging a well to check the water level there.

 

[Reefer2b]

When I had mine installed I remember reading something that talked about the slim possibility of the salt forming a dam....it was in the users manual. In theory, the water at the bottom of the tank dissolves the salt at the bottom of the tank and the overall salt level drops. But I recall reading something that said if the salt level didn't drop, to probe through the salt to the bottom to make sure it was stirred up and in contact with the water when the system flushed every night. Never had the problem myself....that might have been what you experienced. If you cleaned it all out and refilled it, nothing more you can do if that was the prob.

tom