Re: Iron In Water


Robert Gammon wrote:
James "Cubby" Culbertson wrote:

If your test is accurate, you have very low iron so I would think your
discoloration is coming from somewhere else.
Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions as to where. You might take
another sample down to a pool supply place. They'll usually test
for either free or very inexpensively and their tests are decently accurate.
No point tackling something until you're certain of the problem.
Cheers,
cc

I would, but I'm just getting information for other people in this
case. My sister knows less about this stuff than I do. I just never
done anything with a water softener before. I'll see if she wants to
test it again. The test I spoke of was in November. We would but
there's no point in continuing until we try what we wanted to do. I'm
not kidding when I say it's like someone put a big salt lick the exact
size and shape of the brine tank in it. I don't see how even if it was
working the water could get inside. If anything it saves the guy time
when he comes to fix it. Personally I would tell them to get someone
to come and figure out all the true problems and put in even better
equipment. The water coming stright from the well was very brown
colored. But I wasn't there so I don't know the severity. But it
still looks more like this
http://static.flickr.com/27/99857025_c5aa167ec3_m.jpg than anything.
Not quite that drastic but you can see the brown in it as it flows. If
you drink more than a 5 or 6 oz of it without it having been run
through a filter you get the runs.




A properly working water softener has water in it ALL the time. When
the unit generates brine for backflushing the resin, it floods the salt
tank with water, lets it sit for several minutes, then draws the brine
into the resin and lets it sit again for several minutes. Finally, the
brine is flushed out of the resin with fresh water and the unit goes
back in service.

My suggestion is to dig out almost all of the salt and go to a water
softener service company to buy their Rust Inhibitor salt. The salt
chunks are bigger and are much less susceptable to creating a bridge, or
solid mass. This bridging problem is why most folks are advised to
never have the salt tank more than half full.

This is the current plan I came up with just to start. No point in
spending money on a house call when we know for sure the brine tank is
screwed up anyhow. They put Morton's Rust Remover Pellens over the big
block of rock salt back in November. Removing the salt is the first
step because we have no idea what's under there. There could be a clog
of salt where the water enter, the actual salt could be blocking where
the water comes in.

The funny part is they said there were bags of Morton's System Saver
next to the tank when they moved in. They were obviously never used.


Your water softener controller should have a setting on it for manual
regeneration. Turn the dial to that setting and wait. If you do not
detect water flowing into the brine tank within 15 minutes, then the
control head is damaged and may need to be replaced.

I tried to do this just to figure it out, it wouldn't work. By that I
mean the panel has instructions of how to set the regen cycle and start
a regen cycle manually. You push a red button and turn it. The button
pushes in but won't turn.


I lost a control head once due to a nearby lightning spike that also
produced an enormous spike in water pressure. The resin containment
strainer at the bottom of the pipe extending down from the control head
ruptured and resin went to every water faucet, toilet, washing machine,
etc in the house. Control valves everywhere had to be replaced. I now
have a post water softener filter installed to address this problem.

Talking to a water softener specialist can also make certain that the
resin installed is correct for the water condition.

A whole house filter in front of the water softener helps extend the
life of the resin as silt, mud, salt are trapped by the filter. Even
city water has this problem and 6 months of service will get an
INCREDIBLY ugly looking filter (10 micron).

.