Thanks to all who helped on my water softener trials and tribulations -- If
my softener lasts 20 years I will be very happy.

It will be a couple of weeks before I am sure if it is fixed. I am on
day three and softener has only regenerated the one time I manually called
for it (even with the sensor back in place). For some reason when the tank
ran out of salt "it" knew to halt the regeneration. As soon as I added
salt, the regeneration started again. Not sure how it knows salt is in the
tank, but I guess I don't need to know this.
Can anyone tell me if the excess water in the tank between generations
is a problem? My perception is most components that are exposed to the salt
today are plastic, so long term corrosion is not an issue like it was in the
days when much more was made out of metal.
If not a problem, I'll simply monitor how often it regenerates for a
while.
Thanks in advance.

"1_Patriotic_Guy" wrote in message
k.net...
Thanks to all who helped on my water softener trials and tribulations --
If
my softener lasts 20 years I will be very happy.

It will be a couple of weeks before I am sure if it is fixed. I am on
day three and softener has only regenerated the one time I manually called
for it (even with the sensor back in place). For some reason when the
tank
ran out of salt "it" knew to halt the regeneration. As soon as I added
salt, the regeneration started again. Not sure how it knows salt is in
the
tank, but I guess I don't need to know this.
Can anyone tell me if the excess water in the tank between
generations
is a problem? My perception is most components that are exposed to the
salt
today are plastic, so long term corrosion is not an issue like it was in
the
days when much more was made out of metal.
If not a problem, I'll simply monitor how often it regenerates for a
while.
Thanks in advance.



A few inches of water in the tank is normal. If you can see the water then
you don't have enough salt in the tank. At the time of regeneration the
water softener uses the brine solution from the tank, not the dry salt. The
water in the tank needs to be completely saturated with salt BEFORE the
cycle begins. If not you don't get a complete regeneration or some other
malfunction. Modern water softeners have electronic sensors that measure
the salinity of the water in the tank and stop regeneration's until you add
salt AND the brine is ready. Some can measure the hardness of the water
output to determine when the next regeneration cycle is needed which could
be several days away depending on your water usage.

Kevin

"Kevin Ricks" wrote in message
m...

"1_Patriotic_Guy" wrote in message
k.net...
Thanks to all who helped on my water softener trials and tribulations --
If
my softener lasts 20 years I will be very happy.

It will be a couple of weeks before I am sure if it is fixed. I am
on
day three and softener has only regenerated the one time I manually
called
for it (even with the sensor back in place). For some reason when the
tank
ran out of salt "it" knew to halt the regeneration. As soon as I added
salt, the regeneration started again. Not sure how it knows salt is in
the
tank, but I guess I don't need to know this.
Can anyone tell me if the excess water in the tank between
generations
is a problem? My perception is most components that are exposed to the
salt
today are plastic, so long term corrosion is not an issue like it was in
the
days when much more was made out of metal.
If not a problem, I'll simply monitor how often it regenerates for
a
while.
Thanks in advance.



A few inches of water in the tank is normal. If you can see the water then
you don't have enough salt in the tank. At the time of regeneration the
water softener uses the brine solution from the tank, not the dry salt.
The
water in the tank needs to be completely saturated with salt BEFORE the
cycle begins. If not you don't get a complete regeneration or some other
malfunction. Modern water softeners have electronic sensors that measure
the salinity of the water in the tank and stop regeneration's until you
add
salt AND the brine is ready. Some can measure the hardness of the water
output to determine when the next regeneration cycle is needed which could
be several days away depending on your water usage.

Kevin

Thanks -- Maybe my problem isn't yet fixed. This morning the tank water
level is more apparent. I filled the tank 3 days ago with 250 lbs of salt.
Today the salt covers the first 25 inches in height of the 14" x 24" Oval
tank (was several inches higher with salt 2 days ago). The clear water is
above this level, so there is 5 inches of clear water above all the salt
pellets. This is more water than last night, giving me the perception that
the water is super saturated with salt and using way too much salt in the
regeneration. Bottom line, something is causing consumption of 300 pounds
of salt in a single month.
So where does the brine solution occur? In the main tank? Or in the float
cylinder? Or somewhere else? My perception is the brine solution would be
opaque white because of the salt and not clear, is this right?

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:06:58 GMT, "1_Patriotic_Guy"
wrote:


Thanks -- Maybe my problem isn't yet fixed. This morning the tank water
level is more apparent. I filled the tank 3 days ago with 250 lbs of salt.
Today the salt covers the first 25 inches in height of the 14" x 24" Oval
tank (was several inches higher with salt 2 days ago). The clear water is
above this level, so there is 5 inches of clear water above all the salt
pellets. This is more water than last night, giving me the perception that
the water is super saturated with salt and using way too much salt in the
regeneration. Bottom line, something is causing consumption of 300 pounds
of salt in a single month.
So where does the brine solution occur? In the main tank? Or in the float
cylinder? Or somewhere else? My perception is the brine solution would be
opaque white because of the salt and not clear, is this right?


I had a similar problem although the brine tank actually overflowed
before I noticed what was going on. I called Culligan who sent
someone out. What he did while I wasn't here, I'm not sure, but it
didn't keep the level from rising, so I called again. They sent out a
different guy who appeared to know what he was doing. He replaced the
main valve slider (which didn't slide very easily), showing me some
o-rings that were obviously defective. He also reset the salt usage
which he said was way out of whack. He said the float valve had
nothing to do with it as it was only a "safety" device and it had not
stopped the excess flow into the brine tank because the flow was too
slow and wouldn't force the valve to shut tightly.
Now it works fine, although the hot water tank is still full of hard
water from when I had the softener on bypass. I haven't received a
bill yet, but am expecting a big one for a service call, an hours work
and some parts.