Rainsoft Brine Tank Not Filling
You are describing the air check. It is not a float, they are in the brine tank and come in two types; you don't need either type (they don't use one - a por design. How to Maintain a Water Softener Brine Tank. An empty brine tank will not produce air bubbles or cloudy water. Should I just start filling it with.
Can somebody please help me? I have a 4-yr. Old Rainsoft Silver Series softener and it's no longer using salt for about 4-6 months now. Lately, Ive been refilling the brine tank manually using a garden hose until I got fed up with it and put the softener on bypass, for now. The softener was set for the following ever since I bought it: Regeneration - 2am (factory default) Regen Days - daily Backwash Time - 5 minutes Salt Dosage - 12.5 lbs. There are 10 people in the house and I've been using Morton block salts from Home Depot.
Also, I have done the following: - Cleaned the brine tank completely including both ends of the brine line, well, and the float mechanism. Washed and rinsed the brine flow control group of components (connected to the brass fitting) and found no blockage. Washed and rinsed the plastic vortex thingy with the nozzle and 'throat' and also the white screen filter. Found no blockage in both areas. Took out the black injector plug just below the white screen filter assembly and voila! Out came a tiny opaque plastic bead about the size of a pepper corn. At first, I thought it could be a ball bearing or a part of a valve or something.
But after going over the various Fleck control diagrams on the internet, there was no part not even one that closely resembled a pellet. Could this be a resin bead? Anyways, I washed and cleaned the plug injector and put it back in. Still, the brine tank would not fill water. I am at my wits end here. Any assistance from you guys especially H2O man would be much appreciated.:wink. It sounds as if it isn't getting into a regeneration.
Does the control keep the correct time of day? If not the motor or wire connections are bad, or a transformer is bad or there is no power to the unit. Can you suck on the control valve end of the brine line and get salt water?
If not check the float to be able to open close the 2310 valve it hangs on in the brine well. That little ball may be part of the brine line flow control although I've never seen one on any Fleck valve. Is the cam wheel that rotates to depress the brine valve rotating in the brine refill and brine draw positions; it pushes the stem on the brine valve down? Is the drain line blocked or kinked shut? The far end of the drain line frozen in a puddle of ice? Thanks for the quick response guys.:wink: Yes, the control timer is good and the motor too; because I could hear a steady hum every time it is plugged in.
As to sucking on the control valve end of the brine line - nope. IMO, I don't think the unit has a problem sucking brine from the tank. Because every time I put raw water in just a few inches below the topmost salt block, the next morning the water level goes down to where the brine well slits or openings are and that is it.
Water doesn't come back up for next day's regen. At this point, also, the water quality is not as soft and slippery as the first time I bought the conditioner. As to the little plastic ball, I have no idea where it came from originally.
As to the cam wheel, I don't know which of the 2 downward sloping grooves is the refill and draw positions. Also, I have no clue as to the sequence of the operations involved in regeneration but I do know that backwash is the first one. I wish you guys can tell me the timing of the whole regen cycle that is specific to my unit. As to the drain line, I can guarantee that the brine tank overflow drain is free flowing because there is no hose attached to the elbow joint, and there is no obstruction to it.
Brine Tank Cleaning
The resin well drain hose is inserted into a PVC pipe that is stuck deep into the ground, and I could feel and hear water rushing inside of it during backwash. Yes, the timer is keeping and showing the current time of day.
I have yet to experiment blowing into the brine line but that will have to wait until tomorrow because it is so cold outside. BTW, sorry I forgot to mention this. The manual regen lever is not working. I tried pushing it down in the direction of the arrow and holding it for 3-5 seconds, still nothing happened. The only thing tho the lever does is nudge the time pointer of the backwash dial a fraction of an inch and that's it. I'm just curious, what are the sequence of steps involved in regeneration (manual regen lever) and backwashing (backwash dial)? I forgot to mention that I got colds so I'm a bit sensitive to the temperature outside which was 52 degrees last night.
It's a good thing tho that you mentioned 'freezing.' The unit was installed outside partially dug in - atypical to a Florida setup.
I remember we only had 1 freeze warning back in January, I think. Could the unit been affected by the freeze? Do I have to disassemble the whole thing?
BTW, I was able to blow thru the control valve end of the brine line which was attached to the brine well on the other end. So there is no problem there.
What will I do next? H2O Man, With regards to the Silver Series, does it have an up flow or down flow piston? Why does it take a few minutes for it to start regeneration after holding down the manual regen lever? This is ludicrous because you really wouldn't know if the regen has started or not. I went to the ECO web site and found their models very appealing. Their resin tanks have an extra layer of protection which is what I really needed because mine is situated outside. So which of the ECO models would you recommend for 8-10 persons?
Again, thanks. With regards to the Silver Series, does it have an up flow or down flow piston? Why does it take a few minutes for it to start regeneration after holding down the manual regen lever? This is ludicrous because you really wouldn't know if the regen has started or not. I went to the ECO web site and found their models very appealing.
Their resin tanks have an extra layer of protection which is what I really needed because mine is situated outside. So which of the ECO models would you recommend for 8-10 persons? Again, thanks.
Upflow or downflow has nothing to do with your problem but only RS can tell you which piston you have. If the control valve is a mechanical type, the gearing is driven by a clock motor and will take a couple minutes before it can move the piston.
If you want instantaneous, buy an electronic valve. IMO, ECO is a high priced version of the GE, Whirlpool or Kenmore. You'd do better with a softener with a Clack WS-1 control valve.
ECOwater offers a complete system that is professionally installed and serviced. If you get the Clack, you're just getting an over priced version of a Fleck control valve and you're on your own from there. Actually a Fleck valve that can compete with the features of a Clack WS-1 costs more. If he gets an ECO or any other national brand softener and has a problem he must call a local dealer for service. That's where he is now and notice how he is tearing his Rain Soft apart instead of calling for service? He wants to fix it himself, and if he had a Clack WS-1 control he could.
And with parts that cost no more than half what Fleck and ECO, Culligan, Rain Soft, etc. Cost and he wouldn't have to pay for a service call. With a pair of channel lock type pliers he could change all five parts of a Clack and have his water back on in less than 30 minutes. I think someone is stuck on stupid. That would be the guys here that keep telling people that are posting for help in do it yourself forum, to go to local dealers. If the poster wanted to do that, they wouldn't be here!
Water Softener Brine Tank Level Too Low Salt Tank level too low, insufficient salt dose, insufficient regeneration cycle, brine tank float repairs. CONTENTS: How to Diagnose & Fix a Water Softener brine tank or salt tank that has too little water inlet, too small a salt dose outlet, inadequate water softener regeneration cycles, water softener is not softening the water.
about how to diagnose water softener salt dosing tank or brine tank operating problems; too little water is in the brine tank, too little salt, inadequate water softener regeneration, water softener leaves water too hard. InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website. Water softener brine tank level too low: What causes too little water in the water conditioner brine tank or salt tank & how do we fix it.
If too little water enters the salt tank or brine tank the water softener regeneration cycle will be insufficient and the water conditioner will not adequately reduce water hardness. Salt tank problem diagnosis & brine tank float control diagnosis & repair.
Diagnose & Fix Water Softener Problems: this article series describes procedures for diagnosing and repairing water softener or water conditioner problems including water conditioner control settings and adjustment or repair, brine tank and brine tank float cleaning and repair, and the proper amount of water softening or conditioning that is needed. Brine Tank Water Too Low: Not Enough Water in the Brine Tank Question: our water softener brine tank never fills up with water but we do see the salt level dropping - what's wrong with our water conditioner? The salt tank wont fill with water but salt level still goes down - Tom 11/27/12 Reply: probably nothing Tom, The water softener brine tank does not normally FILL with water. Rather, water is pumped into the bottom of the tank, water level rises under control of a brine level float switch usually found inside a vertical plastic tube in the tank, then pumping stops, salt dissolves, and salty water is pumped back out. So you won't see the water unless you've let the salt run out. Sounds as if your system is working normally.
Click to enlarge any image Reader follow-up: what is the brine tank on a water softener? The tank that holds the salt is the brine tank? Or is the small tube with the salt level numbers the brine tank?
- Tom Reply: photo above shows the water softener brine tank, brine level float control tube, and water/brine pumping tube Tom The tank that contains the salt crystals or salt pellets is the brine tank (red arrow in our photo above). The small vertical tube is the location of the brine level float control and will be found in the salt tank at one side (blue arrow in our photo above). Water passes from the water softener resin tank (at the right side in our photo) into the brine tank through the black tube (yellow arrow in our photo above) to dissolve salt, and salty water is pumped back through the resin tank through that same tube.
Question: brine tank & float question - tank is not filling - stuck brine tank float valve assembly I have an autotrol system and a brine tank with float. The tank is no longer reliably filling.
I have replaced screens and filter in the autotrol head unit, which has fixed it in the past. However it is still not filling. I think it may have to do with the float, it looks like when the level is too low, it stops flow??
Water comes out of the tube to the tank if i disconnect it. Slow or not sure when its connected to the float.
Any suggestions? - Scott 7/8/12 Reply: Scott look over the brine tank float switch info in the article above. The float should move freely up and down and the switch operates on float rise. If yours is stuck, clean the float vertical tube and all float parts and switch and try again - or replace The switch if needed. Continue reading at or select a topic from closely-related articles below, or see our complete INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES below. Or see Or see Or see Or see Suggested citation for this web page at - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.
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Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia Use the 'Click to Show or Hide FAQs' link just above to see recently-posted questions, comments, replies, try the search box just below, or if you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly. 1 North Dakota Standards for Water Softeners, North Dakota General Authority Law, Chapter 62-04-08, Water Softener Units 'The objective of this chapter is to provide a standard of quality, capacity, and performance for water softener units. Water softener performance is to be based upon referee tests procedures described in section 62-04-08-09.' . 2 Culligan Mark 10 Water Softener 1994-1998 Installation and Operating Instructions (covering models manufactured after 1995) (1-96) 01881948.pdf available from www.culligan.com.
3 Water Softeners, CMHC, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/wawa/wawa005.cfm - October 2008. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation acknowledges the contribution of Health Canada to the development of this document. For further questions regarding water treatment and water quality, contact Health Canada at or call 613-957-2991 or 1-866-225-0709. 4 'Commercial Water Softener Installation and Operating Instructions', IBC Filtration & Water Treatment Products (Australia) for commercial, industrial and residential application www.ibcwater.com.au (07) 3219 2233. 5 'Non electric water softener, Installation and Operating Instructions', IBC Filtration & Water Treatment Products (Australia), op.cit. 6 'Water Softener Twin Tank Installation and Operating Instructions', IBC Filtration & Water Treatment Products (Australia), op.cit. 7 Our used at originated with but was edited and added to from and also from.
8 Thanks to reader Gail Sanchez for discussing water softener backups and floods after an electrical outage - August 2010. 9, 1900 Prospect Court Appleton, Wisconsin 54914, Tel: 920-739-9401, Website: and their water softener manuals are available online at. 10 General Electric Corporation, Operation Manual, 740/760 Water Conditioner or Water Softener Control, 255 and Performa Series Valves, (268, 268 FA), General Electric Corp. 2007. 11 Ecodyne Industrial, 1270 Frontenac Road, Naperville, IL 60563 Tel: 1 800-228-9326 (USA Only) Tel: +1 630-961-5043 Fax: 1 800-671-8846, Customer Service: 1 800-228-9326, Email: customers@ecodyneind.com, Website:., Woodson, R. Dodge: $ 24.95; MCGRAW HILL B; TP; Quoting from Amazon's description: For the homebuilder, one mistake in estimating or installing wells and septic systems can cost thousands of dollars.
This comprehensive guide filled with case studies can prevent that. Master plumber R. Dodge Woodson packs this reader-friendly guide with guidance and information, including details on new techniques and materials that can economize and expedite jobs and advice on how to avoid mistakes in both estimating and construction. Chapters cover virtually every aspect of wells and septic systems, including on-site evaluations; site limitations; bidding; soil studies, septic designs, and code-related issues; drilled and dug wells, gravel and pipe, chamber-type, and gravity septic systems; pump stations; common problems with well installation; and remedies for poor septic situations. Woodson also discusses ways to increase profits by avoiding cost overruns., Hartigan, Gerry: $ 9.95; ALAN C HOOD & TP; Quoting an Amazon reviewer's comment, with which we agree-DF: This book is informative as far as it goes and might be most useful for someone with an older system. But it was written in the early 1980s.
A lot has changed since then. In particular, the book doesn't cover any of the newer systems that are used more and more nowadays in some parts of the country - sand mounds, aeration systems, lagoons, etc. 'International Private Sewage Disposal Code,' 1995, BOCA-708-799-2300, ICBO-310-699-0541, SBCCI 205-591-1853, available from those code associations. 'Manual of Policy, Procedures, and Guidelines for Onsite Sewage Systems,' Ontario Reg. 374/81, Part VII of the Environmental Protection Act (Canada), ISBN 0-7743-7303-2, Ministry of the Environment,135 St. West, Toronto Ontario M4V 1P5 Canada $24.
Manual of Septic Tank Practice, US Public Health Service's 1959., Art Ludwig; Buy New: $10.17. Installation of Greywater Systems in New Construction & Remodeling; A Supplement to the Book 'Create an Oasis With Greywater' (Paperback). Quoting a review from Amazon: I recommend that you get the 3 companion books on greywater treatment 'Create an Oasis', 'Branched Drain Greywater Systems' and 'Builder's Greywater Guide'. The information in these volumes will keep most of us far more informed than most of the regulators, the system builders, and the experts-in-theory. These volumes are real-world gems. Art Ludwig has cut to the core of wastewater issues. He's obviously done all of his homework, mulled-over the variables, and come up with a common sense, economically reasonable, environmentally responsible approach to wastewater.
I expect to save money that I would have spent on a post-septic tank, aerobic unit that would seemingly have been ecologically responsible; but because of the technological overkill, ultimately that system would have defeated my altruistic environmental concerns. These books talk the talk and walk the walk better than anything else that I've seen.
Buy a set for yourself, a set for your neighbors, and a set for the regulators. (Paperback) Sim Van Der Ryn, Wendell Berry; Quoting from an Amazon review: With a title like 'Toilet Papers' and from a distinguished eco-architect like Sim Van der Ryn, I needed no intro or review to buy a copy of this little, but well researched historical over-view of effluent mitigation and current eco-friendly toilet design. This book is filled with good line drawings and photographs to depict everything from the historical perspective to the current dry toilets and their construction., (Paperback) Rolf Hasse. I have not reviewed this book -DF, but it may be helpful to people constructing rainwater collection and reservoir systems for use in arid climates such as Mexico and the U.S. Quality issues in harvested rainwater in arid and semi-arid Loess Plateau of northern China, K. Chen (out of print, find by search and deferred order).
Amazon's description may be helpful: Loess soils cover vast areas in the arid and semi-arid regions of northern China. Due to the lack of reliable surface water and ground-water, rainwater harvesting has played a prominent role in farmers' domestic usage and agricultural irrigation. An economical and valid type of water storage cistern with optimum design of components has been introduced to rural areas in the Loess Plateau. Different collection alternatives showed apparent variations in rainwater quality. By using different catchments, such as mortar roofs and cement-paved courtyards, compacted land or road surfaces, rainwater can be effectively collected for storage in cisterns. This study focused mainly on the quality of rainwater harvested from the different catchment systems and stored for different periods of time.
By analysis of the water samples stored in these cisterns, it was evident that rainwater quality could be improved significantly by self-purification during the storage. With emphasis on rainwater quality affected by the different catchment systems, it was found that the measured inorganic compounds in the rainwater harvested from roof-yard catchment systems generally matched the WHO standards for drinking water, while the concentrations of some inorganic compounds in the rainwater collected from land and road surfaces appeared to be higher than the guideline values for drinking water, but generally not beyond the maximum permissible concentrations. However, Fecal Coliform, which is an important bacteriological parameter for the three catchment systems, exceeded the limits of drinking water to a greater extend.
Trace amounts of 55 organic pollutants were identified, including aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic compounds and phthalate esters, etc. The analytical results indicated that roof-yard catchments that included the 'first flush' usually provided safe drinking water with low organic contents, even for rainwater collected immediately after rainfall. In contrast, rainwater harvested from road surfaces had poor quality with respect to the organic constituents, regardless of stored time. City eying home water-recycling technology; uses bath and washer water for irrigation., (ReWater Systems' equipment for greywater irrigation): This is an article from: San Diego Business Journal HTML (Digital) available online in digital format. I have not (yet) reviewed it - DF., R. Perkins; Quoting from Amazon: This practical book, co-published with the National Environmental Health Association, describes the step-by-step procedures needed to avoid common pitfalls in septic system technology.
How Much Water In Brine Tank
Valuable in matching the septic system to the site-specific conditions, this useful book will help you install a reliable system in both suitable and difficult environments. Septic tank installers, planners, state and local regulators, civil and sanitary engineers, consulting engineers, architects, homeowners, academics, and land developers will find this publication valuable., Mary Margaret Minnis, Hogarth House 1994 - one of the best septic system books around, suffering a bit from small fonts and a weak index. (DF volunteers to serve as indexer if Burks/Minnis re-publish this very useful volume.)While it contains some material more technical than needed by homeowners, Burks/Minnis book on onsite wastewater treatment systems a very useful reference for both property owners and septic system designers. We refer to it often. While Minnis says the best place to buy this book is at Amazon (our link at left), you can also see this book at Minnis' website at.
Septic Tank/Soil-Absorption Systems: How to Operate & Maintain copy on file as /septic/SepticOperationUSDA.pdf -, Equipment Tips, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 8271 1302, 7100 Engineering, 2300 Recreation, September 1982, web search, original source:., R. Dodge Woodson. This book is in the upper price range, but is worth the cost for serious septic installers and designers. Quoting Amazon: Each year, thousands upon thousands of Americans install water wells and septic systems on their properties. But with a maze of codes governing their use along with a host of design requirements that ensure their functionality where can someone turn for comprehensive, one-stop guidance?
Enter the Water Wells and Septic Systems Handbook from McGraw-Hill. Written in language any property owner can understand yet detailed enough for professionals and technical students this easy-to-use volume delivers the latest techniques and code requirements for designing, building, rehabilitating, and maintaining private water wells and septic systems. Bolstered by a wealth of informative charts, tables, and illustrations, this book delivers:. Current construction, maintenance, and repair methods. New International Private Sewage Disposal Code.
Up-to-date standards from the American Water Works Association., Alth, Max and Charlet, Rev. Blackwell Duncan, $ 18.95; Tab Books 1992. We have found this text very useful for conventional well and septic systems design and maintenance -DF. Quoting an Amazon description: Here's all the information you need to build a well or septic system yourself - and save a lot of time, money, and frustration. Blackwell Duncan has thoroughly revised and updated this second edition of Wells and Septic Systems to conform to current codes and requirements. He also has expanded this national bestseller to include new material on well and septic installation, water storage and distribution, water treatment, ecological considerations, and septic systems for problem building sites.
The NSFC Products List has an excellent list of design manuals/modules or by telephone 800-624-8301. Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair.
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