water softener, well guru's check in.

[beertestr]

While I live smack in the middle of Farmington Hills, I am on a well (with city sewer, go figure).

I have a whole house particulate filter (20 micron filter), Erie control valves for a water softener and GAC (granulated active carbon) filters, with the big composite cylinders, I think both are 10"x55" in size roughly. I run the "iron out" tablets in a brine tank that's holds about 10 40 or 50# bags. I have been having very fluctuating performance out of the system. Everything is going great, then the water starts to taste like crap again. I have replaced the carbon media, and last week, I noticed that the brine tank isn't going down, so I don't think the softener is regenerating. The control valve is set to regenerate every 960 gallons, and I have done a few manual regenerations, but the water still does not taste very good, and I have mineral residue in the tubs and in my freshly washed glasses. I have read the online manuals for the water softener, but everything seems to check out now that I manually regenerated the brine tank a few times.

I'm getting pretty annoyed with eff'ing with it all the time with marginal success.

I like the GAC filter, it's basically a whole house Brita filter.

Anybody have any thoughts or pointers? Any things I should be looking out for in terms of the softener? Is shocking the system with a couple cups of chlorine a good or bad idea?

Thanks.

 

[jspec]

Ahh the pleasure of well water. I had the same issue in west bloomfield. Well with city sewer. $90 water bill but crappy water. My water had Black manganese basically smell black sludge. How old is your softener beads? They get to a point were they no longer work. The GAC filter is doing all the work btw but they get loaded up quickly. You should get a RO system for your drinking water but to each there own.

 

[LT1Pat]

You can test the softness with some test strips to see if the softener is working. I would also bleach the well.

I run everything I drink through reverse osmosis filters and it tastes perfect. Get an RO filter and you won't have to worry about any off tastes no matter what the incoming water smells like.

 

[1BADAIR]

You can test the softness with some test strips to see if the softener is working. I would also bleach the well.

I run everything I drink through reverse osmosis filters and it tastes perfect. Get an RO filter and you won't have to worry about any off tastes no matter what the incoming water smells like.

OFF TRACK.\
You building monster truck tree trimmers now ??????????

 

[beertestr]

You can test the softness with some test strips to see if the softener is working. I would also bleach the well.

I run everything I drink through reverse osmosis filters and it tastes perfect. Get an RO filter and you won't have to worry about any off tastes no matter what the incoming water smells like.

The faucets are not split up to do RO. I think the throughput is a limiting factor, isnt it?

 

[beertestr]

Ahh the pleasure of well water. I had the same issue in west bloomfield. Well with city sewer. $90 water bill but crappy water. My water had Black manganese basically smell black sludge. How old is your softener beads? They get to a point were they no longer work. The GAC filter is doing all the work btw but they get loaded up quickly. You should get a RO system for your drinking water but to each there own.

I might need new beads. They are at least 8-9years old. I'm trying to get out of the guesswork though. I am still curious why the softener stopped pulling brine.

 

[Sledder]

Just had Cribley from Dexter come out and install a new system. Iron filter, softener, and RO for drinking water. In and out in about 3 hours including a new line to the kitchen for the RO. Water is great. Should have done it a long time ago. About $3,600.

 

[LT1Pat]

I assume it's a DTE contractor? I have no idea...

OFF TRACK.\
You building monster truck tree trimmers now ??????????

 

[LT1Pat]

You would drill a hole through the counter or the sink insert. Usually they produce 50-100 gallons per day but there is a reservoir underneath the sink that holds 3+ gallon of instantly available RO water. It tastes much better than city water because it doesn't have that chlorine smell and taste. Once you get used to RO water you will really notice the chlorine.

The faucets are not split up to do RO. I think the throughput is a limiting factor, isnt it?

 

[sofa king]

While I live smack in the middle of Farmington Hills, I am on a well (with city sewer, go figure) .

Dirt road?

 

[jspec]

I might need new beads. They are at least 8-9years old. I'm trying to get out of the guesswork though. I am still curious why the softener stopped pulling brine.

What kind of softener is it? Also how big 4 foot? 3 foot tall 12" diameter. The smaller they are the better the chance of them clogging. I was told get the biggest system you can afford. I had a Kenetico commercial unit. Dual tanks about 5 foot tall 20 " diameter. I got the unit for free but had to buy new beads and tanks as they froze in a commercial building. I went to town and country water around 59 and 23 for tanks and beads it was around $300. I believe it was so much a pound. My guess is the suction line is clogged. Take it apart and check.

 

[beertestr]

Had a guy out to look at it. The control valave is an Erie 2401, which apparently is an old discontinued unit. The rotary valve on the controller had some crap in it that was keeping it from drawing in brine from the tank. It's working ok now, but I'm going to look for a newer control head. I found service parts for it online, but it they are half the cost of a new unit. The service guy recommended a Fleck 5600, which I may change over later this year.

It was worth the $40 service call to have somebody explain what should be happening in each cycle and what it should sound like. I can now better diagnose what's going on.

 

[wrath]

I have an old autotrol metered unit. It flakes out once in a while and then the valve that relies on pulses to suck water out of the brine tank doesn't work. It sucks when that happens.

I have a 1 micron filter into a 5 micron carbon filter. The filters last about a month with two people living in the house. The 1 micron filter gains several pounds of rust before it clogs. I found that paper filters suck.

I found that old water heaters can cause problems, especially when the enamel starts to flake off. I had one eat a Rheem/Richmond rod in a 85 gallon water heater over about two months (they have a resistor in them to try to slow down the reaction). You can get an electric anode rod that doesn't cause the terrible smell/taste that typical anode rods give the water.

I use the Morton Rust Remover salt, it has a mild acid mixed in with it. It seems to work fairly well. If I put acid or Iron Out in the brine tank it seems to cause issues with the media in the softener.

Anyone have suggestions for replacement media with water that pretty much only has iron in it?

 

[beertestr]

I have not been adding any iron out treatment to my brine tank, just using the green bag softener tablets. I also have a gas water heater, but am considering a tankless. Not sure how tankless holds up to well water.

Two regens since the valve got cleaned out, seems to be ok. I amnjust pondering buying $140 in parts for the Erie unit, or buying and installing the recommended Fleck unit, $250-300 in parts all said and done. Changing to the Fleck requires some plumbing work to fit the new valve and bypass, so I'm leaning toward the service parts