Greetings all,

I appreciate any ideas/pointers people can share with me..

I am on a well and have a water softener. My softener had not had salt
in it for many months as the "hard" water doesn't bother me. I am
having a guest come that is more sensitive than I so I went out this
past Saturday and bought 3 X 40 lb bags of salt and Saturday evening
before bed I filled up the softener.

Sunday morning I woke and there was nearly 0 pressure in all my indoor
water faucets. There was enough to get the shower head dripping but
that was about it.... I resigned myself to a crummy shower and hopped
in. About 3 minutes in, I heard my well pump snap on, and BAM, pressure
was restored. Yippie. Transient anomoly I said to myself. The rest of
the day - water pressure was fine (though I was gone for most all of
the day).

Monday morning, I wake up, same problem. No pressure. I curse softly,
then turn the shower on and let it run for a few minutes while I surf
the web, figuring as soon as my well pump turns on my problems will be
magically solved again.. this time - no luck. The pump turns on but I
don't get any pressure still. Crummy shower.

So that's where I am at. A little googling shows there is generally a
"bypass valve" on softeners - a valve between the incoming and outgoing
water pipes but I don't see one on my system. I suspect that in the
many months of sitting stagnant some junk has built up in the output of
my softener.. does that sound like a possible culprit? I suspect that
for months with it empty I was getting water straight from my well and
bypassing the softener. But then again in both circumstances I would
imagine my hot water is coming from the hot water tank so I can't
imagine how the softener being "junked up" would really play a role.
Maybe the softener thing is a red herring and there is a problem
"earlier" in the plumbing system - IE the well and pump, etc...

I am painfully "unhandy" around the house, so pretty much my question
(aside from anything super easy and obvious) would be a recommendation
of who to call - a plumber? A water softener company?

Thanks so much for any help! Here's to a life with good showers...

Matt

Matt,

Do you have a bypass valve? Did you bypass the softener when you were not
using it? Is your cold water soft now? Can you bypass the softener now?
If you are unhandy I think you should buy several gallons of water from
the supermarket and call a plumber.

Dave M.

An awesome question, which I should have mentioned in the original
posting.. as of this morning the Softener read "3" (since it has a
single digit LCD) which I believe means 3 am.. it was making what I
would call a "hissing" sound and doing something.. so I guess it may
well hve been in process... Sorry for the ignorance on my part... I
forwarded the time to 8... I guess I will know more when I get home
from work today and see the status of my water pressure...

Matt

You have made a lot of assumptions, have you even looked at the manual. 3
sounds more like an operating code or an error code. Nobody in their right
mind would make a product with a one digit clock (Duh)



"Matt Fuerst" wrote in message
ups.com...
An awesome question, which I should have mentioned in the original
posting.. as of this morning the Softener read "3" (since it has a
single digit LCD) which I believe means 3 am.. it was making what I
would call a "hissing" sound and doing something.. so I guess it may
well hve been in process... Sorry for the ignorance on my part... I
forwarded the time to 8... I guess I will know more when I get home
from work today and see the status of my water pressure...

Matt

wrote:
On 8 May 2006 08:11:49 -0700, "Matt Fuerst"
wrote:


Sunday morning I woke and there was nearly 0 pressure in all my indoor
water faucets.


Did the recharge cycle complete? I am guessing it runs at 2AM each
night but the clock may not be set.
You may have a sticking valve in the softener from not running all
that time. Those are the little metal doodads the cam operates


BTW, you need to run a manual regen FIRST time out with salt in to prime
the resin. Timers are periodic (every few days) or demand driven (so
many gallons flow thru for a given hardness).

The bypass valve is generally a horizontal plunger that connects the
inlet and outlet pipes on the back of the control head. It has arrows
on it to indicate which direction is In and Out.

Matt Fuerst wrote:
Greetings all,

I appreciate any ideas/pointers people can share with me..

I am on a well and have a water softener. My softener had not had salt
in it for many months as the "hard" water doesn't bother me. I am
having a guest come that is more sensitive than I so I went out this
past Saturday and bought 3 X 40 lb bags of salt and Saturday evening
before bed I filled up the softener.

Sunday morning I woke and there was nearly 0 pressure in all my indoor
water faucets. There was enough to get the shower head dripping but
that was about it.... I resigned myself to a crummy shower and hopped
in. About 3 minutes in, I heard my well pump snap on, and BAM, pressure
was restored. Yippie. Transient anomoly I said to myself. The rest of
the day - water pressure was fine (though I was gone for most all of
the day).

Monday morning, I wake up, same problem. No pressure. I curse softly,
then turn the shower on and let it run for a few minutes while I surf
the web, figuring as soon as my well pump turns on my problems will be
magically solved again.. this time - no luck. The pump turns on but I
don't get any pressure still. Crummy shower.

So that's where I am at. A little googling shows there is generally a
"bypass valve" on softeners - a valve between the incoming and outgoing
water pipes but I don't see one on my system. I suspect that in the
many months of sitting stagnant some junk has built up in the output of
my softener.. does that sound like a possible culprit? I suspect that
for months with it empty I was getting water straight from my well and
bypassing the softener. But then again in both circumstances I would
imagine my hot water is coming from the hot water tank so I can't
imagine how the softener being "junked up" would really play a role.
Maybe the softener thing is a red herring and there is a problem
"earlier" in the plumbing system - IE the well and pump, etc...

I am painfully "unhandy" around the house, so pretty much my question
(aside from anything super easy and obvious) would be a recommendation
of who to call - a plumber? A water softener company?

Thanks so much for any help! Here's to a life with good showers...

Matt
call a well service company they can install and service tanks and
conditioners as well as the well. most plumbers dont work on wells or
conditioners. scott

Call a water softener company. When I moved in my softener did not
work (similar scenario -- hadn't been used in a long time). I had a
plumber here doing some plumbing repair and asked him about it, and he
specifically told me to call the softener guy for this. I guess
technically it's not plumbing.

Jo Ann
PS: In my case, turned out timer was broken and had to be replaced.