All,
I just recently had a new GE water softener installed in my home
and I am trying to confirm whether the darn thing actually works.
Here is what I do know...I originally put a 40lb bag in and 3 gallons
of water. The water is slightly above the salt in the salt tank. I
ran the manual diagnostics to see the meter reading when I turn on the
soft water faucets. The meter runs which seems to me proof that its
working properly. However, I was told that when you run a manual
regeneration you should see water moving into the smaller brine well
tank. I don't really notice anything happening at all when I do a
regeneration other than hearing water noise and water running out the
drain behind the filter. Is there a way for me visibly to see that
this thing is working? It is set to regenerate at 2am...does that
mean it regenerates every night at 2am...or only when it needs to? If
I did multiple regenerations manually, shouldn't I notice a drop in
the salt level?

I am a newbie here...but I don't notice a difference in the "feeling"
of our water. We have had it for a week. Just want to confirm that I
do or do not need to have someone come look at it. Please help.
Thanks in advance.

rlp2955 wrote:

I am a newbie here...but I don't notice a difference in the "feeling"
of our water. We have had it for a week. Just want to confirm that I
do or do not need to have someone come look at it.

You need to buy some test strips or bring two water samples into a store that
will do the tests for you. One sample should be unsoftened water (before the
softener) and one should be after the softener.

rlp2955 wrote:
All,
I just recently had a new GE water softener installed in my home
and I am trying to confirm whether the darn thing actually works.
Here is what I do know...I originally put a 40lb bag in and 3 gallons
of water.

You shouldn't need to add any water if that is what you did.
You probably need more than 1 bag of salt 2 or 3 at least.
You need to wait over night or several hours at least after adding salt
before you do a regeneration.


The water is slightly above the salt in the salt tank. I
ran the manual diagnostics to see the meter reading when I turn on the
soft water faucets. The meter runs which seems to me proof that its
working properly.

What do you mean by 'soft water faucets'?
Do you just have a few faucets on soft water?
Just the Hot water or your entire water supply?
Hopefully the outdoor faucets were plumbed to not be on the soft water.

However, I was told that when you run a manual
regeneration you should see water moving into the smaller brine well
tank.

Did you stand there 1+ hours and watch?
I think it's done at the very beginning or the cycle but not sure?

I don't really notice anything happening at all when I do a
regeneration other than hearing water noise and water running out the
drain behind the filter. Is there a way for me visibly to see that
this thing is working?

Not really that I know of.


It is set to regenerate at 2am...does that
mean it regenerates every night at 2am...or only when it needs to?

Depends on the model. Look it up in the operators manual.

If
I did multiple regenerations manually, shouldn't I notice a drop in
the salt level?


Yes if you gave sufficient time in-between regenerations for the salt to
dissolve and make brine.


I am a newbie here...but I don't notice a difference in the "feeling"
of our water. We have had it for a week. Just want to confirm that I
do or do not need to have someone come look at it. Please help.
Thanks in advance.

Is there a bypass system on the softener or plumbed into the pipes
nearby (3 shutoff valves)? Perhaps the bypass is not set correctly?
Soft water feels slippery or slimy.
Kevin

On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 21:31:12 -0800 (PST), rlp2955
wrote:

All,
I just recently had a new GE water softener installed in my home
and I am trying to confirm whether the darn thing actually works.
Here is what I do know...I originally put a 40lb bag in and 3 gallons
of water. The water is slightly above the salt in the salt tank. I
ran the manual diagnostics to see the meter reading when I turn on the
soft water faucets. The meter runs which seems to me proof that its
working properly. However, I was told that when you run a manual
regeneration you should see water moving into the smaller brine well
tank. I don't really notice anything happening at all when I do a
regeneration other than hearing water noise and water running out the
drain behind the filter. Is there a way for me visibly to see that
this thing is working? It is set to regenerate at 2am...does that
mean it regenerates every night at 2am...or only when it needs to? If
I did multiple regenerations manually, shouldn't I notice a drop in
the salt level?

I am a newbie here...but I don't notice a difference in the "feeling"
of our water. We have had it for a week. Just want to confirm that I
do or do not need to have someone come look at it. Please help.
Thanks in advance.

First off some general good practice guidelines.

Never use rock salt. Use the pellets with rust remover if needed.

Never put more salt in the container than what is needed.

Read the manual. You probably have a screen and injector that
should be cleaned once a year.

********************************

The water softeners salt usage is set by an adjustment. The person
who installed the unit should of adjusted it. The dial is calibrated
in pounds of salt per one regeneration.

The frequency of regeneration should of been set by the person who
installed the unit. Typically it should regenerate two or three times
a week. It really depends on your water use and the hardness of the
water.

********************************
As far as determining the salt usage. It is a slow process. During one
point in the regeneration cycle the brine solution will be drawn out
of the tank. It is difficult to see this occur but if you did not
overfill the tank with salt you should be able to mark the water level
and see if it goes down during that portion of the regeneration cycle.

Toward the end of the regeneration cycle the now mostly empty brine
tank will refill with water for the next regeneration cycle.

The different sequences of the regeneration cycle should be pointed
out in your manual. If not search for a typical cycle on the Internet.
The system will become very simple once you understand the steps
and there order.

I ran the manual diagnostics to see the meter reading when I turn on the
soft water faucets. The meter runs which seems to me proof that its
working properly. However, I was told that when you run a manual
regeneration you should see water moving into the smaller brine well
tank. I don't really notice anything happening at all when I do a
regeneration other than hearing water noise and water running out the
drain behind the filter.

"Manual Diagnostics" ? Is that how you start a "Manual regeneration"?
Are you sure that you are putting the softener into a regeneration
cycle?

I take it your timer is an electronic timer rather than the
mechanical/electric timer. What model? Consult your manual.
Most of your questions should be answered in the book.

rlp2955 wrote:

All,
I just recently had a new GE water softener installed in my home
and I am trying to confirm whether the darn thing actually works.
Here is what I do know...I originally put a 40lb bag in and 3 gallons
of water. The water is slightly above the salt in the salt tank. I
ran the manual diagnostics to see the meter reading when I turn on the
soft water faucets. The meter runs which seems to me proof that its
working properly. However, I was told that when you run a manual
regeneration you should see water moving into the smaller brine well
tank. I don't really notice anything happening at all when I do a
regeneration other than hearing water noise and water running out the
drain behind the filter. Is there a way for me visibly to see that
this thing is working? It is set to regenerate at 2am...does that
mean it regenerates every night at 2am...or only when it needs to? If
I did multiple regenerations manually, shouldn't I notice a drop in
the salt level?

I am a newbie here...but I don't notice a difference in the "feeling"
of our water. We have had it for a week. Just want to confirm that I
do or do not need to have someone come look at it. Please help.
Thanks in advance.

"...had a new GE water softener installed..."
If someone else installed it, you might want to consult with that
person for expectations.

Remember that your hot water heater was filled with previously
unsoftened water, so it might take a little bit of time to flush
all that through.

The water in the brine well should be the same height (approximately)
as the water in the salt reservoir, as there are holes near the bottom.

I installed a new GE softener just a few years ago, and unlike older
softeners, the water level was very low, except during certain
stages of regeneration.

Check your manual, but if it is like mine (and I suspect most newer
softeners), it only runs at 2am "when it needs to". Of course, its
definition of "when it needs to" is probably based simply upon the
number of gallons of water that have passed though since the last
regeneration, not any measure of water hardness.

As other posters have mentioned, the true measure of whether it is
working is whether there is a difference in hardness from before to
after the softener. You can take samples and have them measured,
you can use pool chemistry measurements kits, or you can try
washing your hand in the before and after water with bar soap (not
liquid soap, which is not actually soap).

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. To answer a few questions:

-My softener is setup to provide soft water to most of my indoor
plumbing but due to a finished basement we couldn't get cold soft
water in the kitchen, only hot. (Softener was installed 3 years after
finishing)

-The guy who hooked my water softener up was a plumber...not someone
who is an expert in installing water softeners. But he has hooked a
ton of them up before so I am not as concerned about that....

-My GE water softener lets you electronically set the "hardness"
number. My water before the softener had a hardness level around 23
or 24 so I set it to 24.

-Someone asked about the bypass valve...funny story....when the water
softener was first hooked up, the bypass valve was on so for 3 hours I
was trying to regenerate and nothing was happening. Then realized the
valve was closed. I hope I didn't damage it? Once the valve was
open, that was first and only time since I have had the softener that
I actually saw water move into the brine well. I have manually
generated the softener about 6 or 7 times in the last week and I still
don't see a decrease in the salt in the bottom of the tank??? Should
regeneration that many times have depleted my salt tank?

-On the manual diagnostics questions....it lets me go into a
diagnostics mode where I can see a "meter" type reading that first
starts out at "000". When I turn on a soft water faucet, that number
is supposed to increase as water moves through. It is doing
that...but does that necessarily mean that is soft water? Seems to me
its only a mechanism to show water coming through, even if the water
isn't getting softened.

I guess what I am really wondering bottom line is why my salt hasn't
decreased after a week. All the salt pellets look completely
intact...like I just dumped them in there. My water is about 2 inches
above the salt. In the brine well, as someone else stated, the water
level is the same as what is in the salt tank. My hot water heater
should have flushed through by now (we have three other people in the
house...my wife and two kids...laundry, dishwashing, baths, etc.)

Thanks again everyone...maybe this new information above leads to some
other things I can look at? I definitely need to get one of the water
test kits...maybe that will ultimately provide the answer.

By the way, here is a link to the model I have:
http://www.geappliances.com/smar****...fs.htm?GXSF30H

On Jan 10, 7:39 am, rlp2955 wrote:
Thanks everyone for the quick responses. To answer a few questions:

-Mysofteneris setup to provide soft water to most of my indoor
plumbing but due to a finished basement we couldn't get cold soft
water in the kitchen, only hot. (Softenerwas installed 3 years after
finishing)

-The guy who hooked my watersoftenerup was a plumber...not someone
who is an expert in installing water softeners. But he has hooked a
ton of them up before so I am not as concerned about that....

-My GE watersoftenerlets you electronically set the "hardness"
number. My water before thesoftenerhad a hardness level around 23
or 24 so I set it to 24.

-Someone asked about the bypass valve...funny story....when the watersoftenerwas first hooked up, the bypass valve was on so for 3 hours I
was trying to regenerate and nothing was happening. Then realized the
valve was closed. I hope I didn't damage it? Once the valve was
open, that was first and only time since I have had thesoftenerthat
I actually saw water move into the brine well. I have manually
generated thesoftenerabout 6 or 7 times in the last week and I still
don't see a decrease in the salt in the bottom of the tank??? Should
regeneration that many times have depleted my salt tank?

-On the manual diagnostics questions....it lets me go into a
diagnostics mode where I can see a "meter" type reading that first
starts out at "000". When I turn on a soft water faucet, that number
is supposed to increase as water moves through. It is doing
that...but does that necessarily mean that is soft water? Seems to me
its only a mechanism to show water coming through, even if the water
isn't getting softened.

I guess what I am really wondering bottom line is why my salt hasn't
decreased after a week. All the salt pellets look completely
intact...like I just dumped them in there. My water is about 2 inches
above the salt. In the brine well, as someone else stated, the water
level is the same as what is in the salt tank. My hot water heater
should have flushed through by now (we have three other people in the
house...my wife and two kids...laundry, dishwashing, baths, etc.)

Thanks again everyone...maybe this new information above leads to some
other things I can look at? I definitely need to get one of the water
test kits...maybe that will ultimately provide the answer.

I don't think it is working. Having it by-pass didn't hurt it. You
should have seen the salt go down quite a bit with all the manual
regens. You don't want to fill the salt tank, 1 bag is sufficient and
if you know the salt dose in pounds, you can calculate how long 40 lbs
will last.

When first set up, you have to add water to the salt tank. But now you
have too much water in the salt tank. That is probably due to the unit
not sucking salt brine; lose brine line connections allowing air to be
sucked instead of heavy brine, a blocked/kinked drain line, blocked
venturi or its screen etc.. With Pre refill there should only be 2-3"
of water in the brine tank between regens. Go to:
www.gewater.com and watch the animations of how the softener works and
then go through the troubleshooting animations there. Also, make sure
the in/out plumbing is correct and not hooked up backwards; inlet
water to the outlet etc.. The inlet water comes in on the right rear
looking at the front of the softener and over the top; right is in,
left is outlet water. There may be arrows.

Gary Slusser
Quality Water Associates

rlp2955 wrote:
Thanks everyone for the quick responses. To answer a few questions:

-My softener is setup to provide soft water to most of my indoor
plumbing but due to a finished basement we couldn't get cold soft
water in the kitchen, only hot. (Softener was installed 3 years after
finishing)

-The guy who hooked my water softener up was a plumber...not someone
who is an expert in installing water softeners. But he has hooked a
ton of them up before so I am not as concerned about that....

-My GE water softener lets you electronically set the "hardness"
number. My water before the softener had a hardness level around 23
or 24 so I set it to 24.

-Someone asked about the bypass valve...funny story....when the water
softener was first hooked up, the bypass valve was on so for 3 hours I
was trying to regenerate and nothing was happening. Then realized the
valve was closed. I hope I didn't damage it? Once the valve was
open, that was first and only time since I have had the softener that
I actually saw water move into the brine well. I have manually
generated the softener about 6 or 7 times in the last week and I still
don't see a decrease in the salt in the bottom of the tank??? Should
regeneration that many times have depleted my salt tank?


The softener has a built in bypass but sometimes a plumber will install
a manual bypass usually consisting of 3 ball valves. One on inlet pipe
and one on outlet pipe and one on a cross pipe between the in/out pipes.
If your plumbing does have this then ALL 3 valves must be positioned
properly in addition to the built in bypass being properly set. If the
valve on the cross pipe is open then most of the water will not go
through the softener. The manual bypass system allows you to completely
disconnect, service or remove the water softener without having to shut
off the main water supply.

This does not explain your no salt usage though?
Kevin



-On the manual diagnostics questions....it lets me go into a
diagnostics mode where I can see a "meter" type reading that first
starts out at "000". When I turn on a soft water faucet, that number
is supposed to increase as water moves through. It is doing
that...but does that necessarily mean that is soft water? Seems to me
its only a mechanism to show water coming through, even if the water
isn't getting softened.

I guess what I am really wondering bottom line is why my salt hasn't
decreased after a week. All the salt pellets look completely
intact...like I just dumped them in there. My water is about 2 inches
above the salt. In the brine well, as someone else stated, the water
level is the same as what is in the salt tank. My hot water heater
should have flushed through by now (we have three other people in the
house...my wife and two kids...laundry, dishwashing, baths, etc.)

Thanks again everyone...maybe this new information above leads to some
other things I can look at? I definitely need to get one of the water
test kits...maybe that will ultimately provide the answer.

I guess what I am really wondering bottom line is why my salt hasn't
decreased after a week. All the salt pellets look completely
intact...like I just dumped them in there. My water is about 2 inches
above the salt. In the brine well, as someone else stated, the water
level is the same as what is in the salt tank. My hot water heater
should have flushed through by now (we have three other people in the
house...my wife and two kids...laundry, dishwashing, baths, etc.)

Your salt pellet usage depends on what your hardness level is set
at. It will be difficult to watch the pellets disappear because the
water will only dissolve the pellets if the water is not at 100%
saturation. If the water is saturated with salt it will not dissolve
the pellets any further.

Typical salt usage may be between 15 and 30 pounds per week.

If you are still concerned it would be best to manually regenerate
the softener and actually watch to see if the brine level lowers
during that brine portion of the regeneration cycle. If nothing
else this portion of the cycle can be identified by very salty
water coming out of the small drain hose to waste/sink.

On Jan 10, 8:39 am, rlp2955 wrote:
Should
regeneration that many times have depleted my salt tank?

Dunno, but I do know you have to leave the water in with the salt long
enough to get "salty".
-----

- gpsman

I ran another manual regeneration last night after removing some water
from the salt tank. As soon as I select the manual regeneration, I
see water moving into the smaller brinewell and my float valve starts
to rise. Then about 10 mins in the water level in the salt tank
starts to go up slightly. I didn't stay down there for the full
regeneration. But it does indeed look like its working. I also
bought some of those water test strips and it showed I had soft water
where it was supposed to be soft. I compared that to another area in
our upstairs that was not fitted for soft and it was definitely
hard.

So I think my mystery is solved. I guess my softener is just
extremely efficient with salt. It has an "efficiency" setting that is
on so maybe that is part of it.

On Jan 10, 2:07 pm, Kevin Ricks wrote:
rlp2955 wrote:
Thanks everyone for the quick responses. To answer a few questions:

-Mysofteneris setup to provide soft water to most of my indoor
plumbing but due to a finished basement we couldn't get cold soft
water in the kitchen, only hot. (Softenerwas installed 3 years after
finishing)

-The guy who hooked my watersoftenerup was a plumber...not someone
who is an expert in installing water softeners. But he has hooked a
ton of them up before so I am not as concerned about that....

-My GE watersoftenerlets you electronically set the "hardness"
number. My water before thesoftenerhad a hardness level around 23
or 24 so I set it to 24.

-Someone asked about the bypass valve...funny story....when the water
softenerwas first hooked up, the bypass valve was on so for 3 hours I
was trying to regenerate and nothing was happening. Then realized the
valve was closed. I hope I didn't damage it? Once the valve was
open, that was first and only time since I have had thesoftenerthat
I actually saw water move into the brine well. I have manually
generated thesoftenerabout 6 or 7 times in the last week and I still
don't see a decrease in the salt in the bottom of the tank??? Should
regeneration that many times have depleted my salt tank?

Thesoftenerhas a built in bypass but sometimes a plumber will install
a manual bypass usually consisting of 3 ball valves. One on inlet pipe
and one on outlet pipe and one on a cross pipe between the in/out pipes.
If your plumbing does have this then ALL 3 valves must be positioned
properly in addition to the built in bypass being properly set. If the
valve on the cross pipe is open then most of the water will not go
through thesoftener. The manual bypass system allows you to completely
disconnect, service or remove the watersoftenerwithout having to shut
off the main water supply.

This does not explain your no salt usage though?
Kevin

-On the manual diagnostics questions....it lets me go into a
diagnostics mode where I can see a "meter" type reading that first
starts out at "000". When I turn on a soft water faucet, that number
is supposed to increase as water moves through. It is doing
that...but does that necessarily mean that is soft water? Seems to me
its only a mechanism to show water coming through, even if the water
isn't getting softened.

I guess what I am really wondering bottom line is why my salt hasn't
decreased after a week. All the salt pellets look completely
intact...like I just dumped them in there. My water is about 2 inches
above the salt. In the brine well, as someone else stated, the water
level is the same as what is in the salt tank. My hot water heater
should have flushed through by now (we have three other people in the
house...my wife and two kids...laundry, dishwashing, baths, etc.)

Thanks again everyone...maybe this new information above leads to some
other things I can look at? I definitely need to get one of the water
test kits...maybe that will ultimately provide the answer.

Softeners do not have an internal by-pass valve. They usually have
internal hard water by-pass during regeneration only. Meaning that if
wqater is drawn during regeneration, you get hard water; unless the
control valve is a (rare) no hard water bu-pass type (usually only
used in commercial).

A factory by-pass valve is made for all control valves and are model
specific. A 3 way manual valve by-pass 'system' is plumbed into the
water lines and is not a good choice. If needed, the control valve and
resin tank is easily and quickly removed from a factory by-pass valve
leaving it on the plumbing which allows water use in the house. In 21
years I've only had 2-3 factory types go bad, one was on a seasonal
rental for ten years and used frequently and had been in a house for 6
years before that. And they don't create dead ends in the plumbing and
I've heard they are against code in some locations.

Gary Slusser
Quality Water Associates.

On Jan 10, 3:14 pm, wrote:

Your salt pellet usage depends on what your hardness level is set
at.

Typical salt usage may be between 15 and 30 pounds per week.

The salt usage depends on how much and what type of resin is in the
softener and that establishes the salt efficiency of the softener,
and.the salt setting establishes the K of capacity of the softener and
that establishes the days or gallons of soft water between
regenerations; or the service run of the softener.

There is no such thing as typical salt use because there are varying
sizes of softeners all with varying salt efficiency. Most of my
customers use from 3 to 12 lbs per 8 days with harness from 7 to 60
gpg of hardness.

Gary Slusser
Quality Water Associates