Water softener

[ams]

keeps filling up with water and requires getting rid of 10+ litres per day. Anyone got any experience of such devices. Called the local company, but the agent for this area will not be back for another 9 days.

 

ams

[Bugsy]

Not sure about the quantity, but the fill and discharge is normal. Ours is programmed for 02.00 hours so we never hear it.

 

[Suze01]

[quote user="ams"]

keeps filling up with water and requires getting rid of 10+ litres per day. Anyone got any experience of such devices. Called the local company, but the agent for this area will not be back for another 9 days.

 

ams

[/quote]

Are you sure it's plumbed in correctly?  I don't quite understand your 'getting rid of' bit.  I've had water softeners for donkeys years and it's all automatic and re-cycles in the night on it's preset programme.  There's supposed to be water in the salt holding bit  Are you manually emptying it?

[ams]

When the man came around for the annual maintenance, everything was ok, however he said we are putting in to much salt and that we needed to clear the base as it had hardened. i cleared it out and since then it is not working properly.

 

Now when i say it is not working properly, what i actually mean is it is not working as before as i have no idea as to how it actually works. !!! each day that i look at it the water seems to be about one third to a half full, the overflow pipe needs manual drainage. So we are worried that if we go away for a couple of days it will overflow and flood the boiler room. So each day i drain away (manually) the water.

 

You and the other poster seem to understand this beast any help will be appreciated. The machine is about 3 feet high, no brand name and about 5 years old. i can find no leak and the water in the house appears to be ok. This morning the service company telephoned and said they would be here next wednesday. !!

 

ams

[ali-cat]

Our house had a water softener already installed and we have no idea how it works or what it actually does.  We were shown a tap in the utility room which provides drinking water and which had to be periodically emptied.  I've no idea if the system (Culligan) also softens the non drinking water.  We use bottled water for drinking and the state of the existing bathroom fittings would suggest that calcaire has been a problem regardless of the softener.

If I thought all it did was soften the drinking water I'd ask the company to remove it as the annual servicing costs plus salt would be more expensive than bottled.  I also don't know if I've done any damage by just ignoring it for the last 11 months?

Mr Cat

 

 

[Bugsy]

Our unit is a Culligan and the drain is plumbed into a waste pipe outlet. It is completely automatic and, apart from adding salt from time to time, requires no input on our part.

Their website is HERE.

 

Gary.

[suein56]

[quote user="ams"]

... each day that i look at it the water seems to be about one third to a half full, the overflow pipe needs manual drainage. So we are worried that if we go away for a couple of days it will overflow and flood the boiler room. So each day i drain away (manually) the water. [/quote]

Ours in the UK usually had some hardened salt in the bottom of it and the service engineer, who came occasionally, did not tell us to clear it away. There was also a varying amount of water in the bottom  - between approx 1/4 to 1/3 full. The level changed all the time, I have no idea why; but we certainly never drained any away.

Sue

[Russethouse]

ali cat - if you have done nothing to it (added salt) it is not working anyway and in anycase the installer always leaves an outlet that is not connected for drinking water !

I live in a hard water area and it is a great help, no limescale build up in the toilet or around the taps - thank goodness we found a way of fitting one in !

Like everyone elses ours works at 2am........never touch it apart from topping up the salt.

What would happen if the OP left theirs ? Maybe the timer is out of wack ?

[Suze01]

[quote user="ams"]

When the man came around for the annual maintenance, everything was ok, however he said we are putting in to much salt and that we needed to clear the base as it had hardened. i cleared it out and since then it is not working properly.

[/quote]

The salt container should be fairly full.  When mine gets half way down then I emptry another sack in.

When you say it's not working properly do you mean that you can notice that the water is  not soft, for example when you taker a shower? I certainly notice the difference if for some reason it's not recycled or is empty of salt.

[cheminot]

Water Softener; how it works;

 Hard water from the main supply flows into a coalescent filter element (this is the large cylindrical lump inside the main body {salt chamber} of the softener or, in the case of most Culligan and some other makes it is a separate unit). The water also partially fills the salt chamber absorbing some of the salt to make a brine solution.

The coalescent filter absorbs the hard salts contained in the water and discharges soft water to supply taps etc. Eventually the filter cannot absorb any more of the hard salts and must be cleaned. This is called 'Regeneration'.

To regenerate the filter the softener control unit switches the water supply to 'bypass'. At this time hard water will flow through to the taps unsoftened hence the regeneration is usually programmed for the early hours when water consumption will be minimal.

While the supply is bypassed the control unit takes the brine from the salt chamber and back flushes the filter with it. The soft sodium-based salts in the brine absorb the hard salts in the filter and flush them away, it then backflushes the filter with clean water to wash away any brine residue.

Finally, the control unit switches back to 'service' mode where the mains water is being softened and the salt chamber is refilled ready for the next regeneration.

There are few things to go wrong with a water softener but here are some of the commonest: 

Q. Is the water partially softened or not at all? 

A. Test the water before and after the softener. If the results are the same both sides check the softener is switched on and the manual bypass is closed, this might be fitted to the softener itself or the adjacent pipework.

If the water is softer after passing through the softener but not full soft: Again check the bypass is fully closed. Check the salt level (I have never heard of too much salt being a problem)

Q. Are you using more water than the softener can cope with between regenerations?

A. The harder the water the less can be softened before the next regeneration is required. Some softeners have a simple timer control which starts the regeneration at a predetermined time and if the consumption exceeds the softeners capacity between regenerations it will eventually cease to soften the water resulting in the calcaire deposits on taps etc. In this case you can either manually regenerate it if it doesnt happen often or reset the timer to allow more frequent regeneration if it is happening regularly. Other softeners are throughput controlled, ie. Every X000 litres of water throughput the softener will automatically regenerate. With this type if the water is not fully softened it is usually because the control unit is not set to the correct input hardness.

Q. Is it using any salt?

A.If the salt level doesn't drop check the siphon pipe in the salt chamber. You will have to virtually empty the salt chamber for this. examine the filter (which should be!) on the end of the tube and clean it if necessary, check the tube itself for any perforations, replace if necessary.

After this if you are still not getting soft water then I recommend calling in the service agent as it is likely to be a control unit problem or, if the softener is getting on a bit the filter unit may need changing.

Hope this helps

cheminot