Water Softner Installation

[Jim]

Our water softner (Benson Water Conditioner) was installed after being moved from our old house. The installer put it in and left it unplugged and in bypass mode until I could get some salt pellets. Well, I put the pellets in and plugged it in. And at the installers suggestion, ran it through a regeneration.

After I realized it was still in bypass mode, I moved it to 'service' mode as it was the only other mode labeled. It seemed to complete the regeneration process and later I looked inside the tank and there appeared to be no water inside.

Is that because it was in 'service' mode? Like I said above, there's only two modes, bypass and service. Is service mode the normal operating mode or is it between bypass and service which is not labeled?

Please help.

Jim

[Tony Hwang]

[SQLit]

You probably forgot to put some water in the tank. Depending on the size is how much water you need to put in. Then run regen again.

[Alan]

except that the softener should put the water in, if it is in the service position.

[Gary Slusser]

"Alan" wrote

It doesn't work that way, you have to add an amount of water at least up to the air check of the brine pick up. And then allow the unit to go through its brine refill or you have to add that water manually before the frst regeneration. If not there will not be any brine. I answered this post in another venue.

Gary Quality Water Associates

Gary Slusser's Bulletin Board

[Alan]

I do not doubt your expertise, but my softener added all the water to the brine tank on its own as soon as the water was turned on before the first regeneration. Older model?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Something wrong then with yours. Tony

[Alan]

It works perfectly Tony. The same thing happened each time I cleaned out the brine tank. It has never been necessary to add water to an empty (except for salt) brine tank as the softener does it on its own.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Sounds like it is very intelligent unit. What is the brand/model? Very interested to know. Tony

[Gary Slusser]

Ok, I've failed to mention that some 'less featured' (and Kinetico) softeners rely on a float in the brine tank brine well to control the salt dose. A real problem with that type is that they leave the brine line fully pressurized during Service. 'Real' softeners have a specific brine valve to control water flow to the brine tank. That allows water to the brine tank only when the control is in the brine refill position. That costs more but... you can cut the brine line and you won't have a continuous water leak. At the most, you'd have a leak for the amount of brine refill water only. That's one gallon/ each 2.7 pounds of salt for the salt dose.

Which type would you want in your house?

There's also another type of softener. They add the brine refill water as the first position of the regeneration and then pause for 2-3 hours so the salt can dissolve before they continue the regeneration. During Service, they will have very little water in the salt tank.

The vast majority of softeners add the brine refill water as the last position of the current regeneration. Many of them have the separate float controlled safety brine system mentioned previously. You manually add water to their brine tank and then the volume for the salt dose used for that specific softener or the next regeneration does not get any or the correct amount of brine.

I hope that's all said so it's understandable.

Gary Quality Water Associates

Gary Slusser's Bulletin Board

[Alan]

Yes, thank you. Mine appears to be the less featured kind. It is about 25 years old. I haven't had a problem - yet.