Water softener salt level?

[hal1]

About 10 days ago I saw that my water lever was above the salt level. It took 2 40lb bags to bring it to the level in this picture. The tank is 34 inches tall and the water level is at 24", or 70% the height of the tank.

How high above the water level should the salt be?
Does this seem right?
Also, how many gallons should it take before I get soft water out of my shower again?

 

[SH7mi]

I have a similar system, with mine as long as I keep salt in the receptacle the softener works. I don't let the salt run out. My system is about 15 yrs old, if yours is newer it may work differently.

 

[TractorJeff]

If your Softener is before the cold water storage tank and the hot water tank, then you need to empty them of the Hard Water that is in them to get all Soft Water out of a Shower Head. Most Shower Heads are 2.5gpm(last time I replaced one) which means 40 gallons of Hot Water and 40(?) gallons of Cold Water need to be flushed out of your system to get all Soft Water to your Shower. Rough guess is about an hours worth of water going down the drain or in my case with old style washing machine about 2 loads of Laundry!

 

[hal1]

I have a similar system, with mine as long as I keep salt in the receptacle the softener works. I don't let the salt run out. My system is about 15 yrs old, if yours is newer it may work differently.

Mine is brand new - 2 months old. But as soon as the salt was below the water level the water was hard again.

 

[a52-830]

even when i forget to put salt in, and it all runs out, there is never more than six or eight inches of water in mine.

my system is 22 years old.

 

[PurdueSD]

...mine is 3 years old and looks about how mine does. I cleaned mine out after the first year and a half and got some slimey muck out of it. (Very hard Well water)

 

[Dberglind]

I have had three houses with similar water softeners in them, and sometimes the water level is below the salt, sometimes it is above the salt, but as long as there is salt in there the water is soft.

It seems odd to me that the salt level would effect your water being soft of not. The salt will make whatever water is in the tank into a brine solution.

Maybe you should check to see how and how often your softener is cycling the brine solution. Most can be set to either cycle at set intervals like every few days, or after a certain volume of water has gone through the system. Maybe your brine solution isn't refreshing your softener often enough.

 

[matt_i]

Many of the softeners have a "manual cycle engage" pushbutton which starts a cycle Right Now as compared to waiting for the motorized timer.

 

[hal1]

Many of the softeners have a "manual cycle engage" pushbutton which starts a cycle Right Now as compared to waiting for the motorized timer.

Yeah, it's a fleck Econominder (mechanical) with metered. I haven't had soft water in a week. Shold I try a manual regen?

 

[gregtwojeeps]

3 in. of water above the salt should not matter. One has to keep an eye out for salt " bridging" in the tank though.

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

There is a float valve inside of that round, white plastic tube that is supposed to shut off the water that enters the salt tank. It should stop just a few inches above the bottom of the tank. Yours has WAY too much water in it, which can result in the salt all fusing together and becoming a salt brick.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

If you run out of salt and the system goes "hard", you need to replenish the salt and then manually regenerate as many times necessary to regenerate the system.

Tommy

 

[jade97]

If I am not mistaken, the salt does not soften your water. The salt is used to clean the membrane in the system. This membrane holds the minerals, thus softening the water supply.

There should be minimal, if any, salt going into your drinking water.

 

[hal1]

There is a float valve inside of that round, white plastic tube that is supposed to shut off the water that enters the salt tank. It should stop just a few inches above the bottom of the tank. Yours has WAY too much water in it, which can result in the salt all fusing together and becoming a salt brick.

Very useful to know. I've sent an email with the same pic to the company who sold/installed it.

 

[ItsNemo]

I've got a similar setup, a Fleck 5600SXT/Aqualux setup and mine never goes above the salt, it's usually just 6-12 inches in the bottom of the tank.

 

[buddyboy]

like jade said.

the brine solution is just used to 'wash' the beads in your resin tank.

the beads in the resin tank grab minerals from the water, when they can't grab no more they need cleaned off (recharged) the brine does this and is then flushed out leaving clean beads

 

[Richard Cranium]

Jade97 is correct, the salt only clean the resin beads.

 

[hal1]

Okay, I've got to talk to these guys. The 2 men who came to install it just said to keep the salt above the water level. Someone's got some 'splainin' to do.

 

[Fixin'Stuff]

Okay, I've got to talk to these guys. The 2 men who came to install it just said to keep the salt above the water level. Someone's got some 'splainin' to do.

When the system is working right, their instructions are correct. There should be a few inches of water in the bottom of the salt tank. The idea is to let the water sit there and created a saturated brine solution, i.e. the water gets so salty that it can not dissolve any more salt. The brine is then used to clean/rejuvenate the resin beads in the main softener tank. As part of the cycle, the system is supposed to then refill the salt tank with the correct amount of water, to start making a brine solution for the next time the system runs a cleaning cycle. The float valve on yours isn't turning the water off at the correct level.

 

[zak77]

The water level in the brine tank looks too high to me but i have an Autotrol system. My brine tank is about 24" diameter by about 3' tall and has about 14-16" of water in it. I've had issues where the meter wasnt drawing brine in but was replenishing which caused a high water level in the tank. I think there was an air bubble or something. I just keep the salt level above the water and it seems it be ok. Once year i empty the brine tank and clean it out then refill with salt. It's not a bad idea although a little overkill. There can be screens inside the head that could clog and prevent proper operation so best bet is to get the owner's manual and start troubleshooting.

 

[joel]

Hopefully there are installation instructions and an user manual available for your softener. Many units are somewhat generic and use common parts. However, there can be many subtle differences. For example, my unit has basically no water in the brine tank until a prescribed time before regeneration of the resin.

 

[MagKarl]

You need to learn how to set up and maintain your softener yourself. You'll need to test for hardness and iron if you haven't already. This forum has lots of folks that can help you.

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/ind...oftener-forum-problems-installation-and-r.22/

 

[38Chevy454]

Some things I have learned dealing with my Kinetico system:
1. The water level is only about 6 inches in bottom of the tank, the purpose is to make the brine solution which cleans the minerals off the beads inside the softener cylindrical tank. It is OK to have the water above the salt, as long as the brine solution is saturated and there is still salt in the water solution. Best to keep the salt above the water level to avoid this though.
2. It is good to clean out the salt tank every year or so, depending on usage. A lot of dirt and contaminants build up in the bottom of the salt tank, you want to get rid of those.
3. A manual regen cycle can't hurt, but you also have to replenish the lines for the new softened water to reach the end at your shower.
4. I seem to have better results with the larger chunk salt than the finer gravel salt. Not sure why this is.
5. My incoming water hardness changes, but I don't bother to change the regen frequency. Basically set this to cover the worst hardness in summer and then don't worry about it doing a regen a little sooner than absolutely required in winter.
6. I assume you have an incoming filter on the water supply, I use a 5 micron filter on mine and no restriction issues.

I think your water level float is set too high, it only needs a few inches for the brine solution. It will be a pain to remove the salt in the tank now, but check your pickup tube and as long as you have a few inches over top of that it should be sufficient.

 

[GardenaD]

There is a small screen in the head of your softener that is partially plugged. A softener fills the brine tank for a certain time and then ***** that water out of the tank. When the screen gets plugged not enough water is sucked out of the tank and over time the water level rises. The float in the white tube shuts off the water to prevent the water from flowing out the overflow tube on the tank.
Look up your softener on You Tube and it should show where the top screen is at and how to remove and clean it.

 

[James-W]

I don't have a lot of water in the bottom of mine, maybe 5 gallons at the most. It seems to work just fine though.

 

[gungatim]

There is a small screen in the head of your softener that is partially plugged. A softener fills the brine tank for a certain time and then ***** that water out of the tank. When the screen gets plugged not enough water is sucked out of the tank and over time the water level rises. The float in the white tube shuts off the water to prevent the water from flowing out the overflow tube on the tank.
Look up your softener on You Tube and it should show where the top screen is at and how to remove and clean it.

This.

common routine maintenance item that is regularly missed/ignored by homeowners. have fixed too many to count.

couple weeks ago I pulled out a huge double tank system from a gal who couldn't make the payments on it and was going to court for the $8,000 left on the contract. yes, after paying on it for 5 years, she owed more than here car! I put in a cheap, used box store softener for $100, and it works better than the original expensive setup.
and you guessed it, when they repo'd the old one (that was the deal to judge made, she has it removed so they could get it), she asked why it wasn't working and they said because the screen was clogged...she also couldn't believe a cheap box store unit worked just as well.

 

[hal1]

All fixed - Hopefully.

They came out today, confirmed water was way too high. - but think about it, the more salt I put in the higher the displaced water - DUH.

He adjusted whatever it was that was needed to set the water level right - maybe that valve/level thingy (aren't I technical?)- and drained excess water.

It seems the ever rising water level was due to this....if I'm explaining it right....there is a hose that feeds water in (or lets it out?) that wasn't fit right that wasn't sucking water out as air went in - or maybe I have that backwards, I dunno.

Finally, he said not to use the water level to gauge when to put salt in, just keep it about half full.

Anyways, there was lots of collateral info on this thread that was very useful to me and hopefully others that come across this.

 

[BADSIX]

even when i forget to put salt in, and it all runs out, there is never more than six or eight inches of water in mine.

my system is 22 years old.

^^^ Mine is 10 years old and never gets more than 4-6 in. in the bottom

Jay D.