4yr old sears water softener not softening anymore
I recently moved into a house that has a 4 year old Sears water softener which was working just fine until this past week. After an automatic regeneration, it seems to have significantly less softening. Like the softening capability has dropped off the side of a cliff. I peered in during a manual regeneration cycle and water fills the brinewell, brining drains the brinewell, etc. Everything seems to be working like it should. Just to be sure, I cleaned the nozzle/venturi as the Sears manual instructs (wasn't that dirty, holes were not plugged up; it showed some rusty color but that's it). Dumped the Sears Water Softener Cleaner into the brinewell as directed. Manually regen again. Got a little better softening, but still not up to what it was just one week ago. So I've been reading here and stumbled on this one post... http://forum.doityourself.com/showpo...05postcount=6 Sounds like my situation. I took a broomstick (as the Sears manual suggested) and there seems to be a 2 or 3 inch solid cake of salt at the bottom of the tank. I've punched at it with the broomstick, but I'm afraid to break the salt tank. How hard can I beat up on that cake? Should I carefully take a shovel or garden pitchfork to it?? How warm can the water be and how many gallons? (The WS Cleaner said warm water, but I put in just shy of what the hot water tap gave cause I knew the one gallon it suggested wouldn't be warm by the time it was laying at the bottom of the tank and more water was added by the Fill stage :-) Thanks for any advice/ideas/suggestions. GL Beating on the solid stuff in the bottom of the tank isnt going to do much except make smaller hard pieces. Your use of pelletized salt is the cause of that. Solar crystal salt doesn't have or cause the problem... dump the stuff and start over. Add as much water back into the tank as is in it now plus 2-3 gallons, and two or more hours later do a manual regeneration. Then add 2-3 gallons and wait and do another regeneration with as little water use between the two as possible. Otherwise I have no ideas as to why it's not working. Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Company Name Removed Only Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2 Thanks. The solidified pellets is likely my problem and regenerating a couple of times enabled the system to start softening water again. I like the idea of switching to Crystal Solar Salt, however the mortonsalt.com says: This salt contains small amounts of insoluble particles from the environment that may need to be periodically removed from the brine tank. Which makes me wonder which I'd have to do more of--clean out solidified pellet blobs or wet vacumn the bottom of the brine tank. Any idea how often might I have to cleanup after the Crystal Solar Salt? Think about their statement... small amounts of insoluble particles. They mean little pebbles. They take a long time to get your attention if they do at all and leaving them in the tank doesn't harm a thing. The salt does totally dissolve which their pellets and blocks don't; as you've seen in your salt tank... Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Company Name Removed Only Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2 Thanks a million Gary. I'll switch to crystal solar salt as soon as I get the rest of this solidified mess out. I'm hesitant (plumbing novice) to disconnect the water valves to turn the combined tank over to dump the solid salt in there now, so I guess I'll just have to continue adding warm water in until it gets to a point I can dig it out somehow... boy, if I ever have to buy a water softener I'm gonna get one from your website that has 2 separate containers (one for salt and one for resin) so I can easily dump/clean the salt tank in case it needs it). Since you have a cabinet model, bust up the large pieces and use a wet/dry shop vac to suck it out. Or reach in and lift the biggest out first. Gary xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Company Name Removed Only Doug Aleshire, Super Moderator 2
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