Soft water yellow, is softener going?

[Mitch]

I have no idea how old the softener is, maybe 10 - 15 yrs. It cycles once a week, when it does the water is yellow, very yellow. But it flushes out after couple hours. The softener stoped working a couple years ago, the timer mechinism on top froze up, I doused it with wd-40 to get it going again. I'm on a private well, the pressure tank is fairly new. Any Ideas?

[Mr T]

I'd take a "softened" sample in along with a unsoftened (outdoor faucet) for testing. (Sears) See what it is doing and if it is up to snuff..

I would also bypass the softener for a few days to a week to see if your well is changing or your softener is dying further.

[Mitch]

What do you mean by "well changing". Your starting to scare me.

[DUNBAR PLUMBER]

Sometimes the well water has changes in it, which would or could be the symptoms showing here.



I would follow the advice given and rule this possibility out by determining if the resin is bad in the softener.

[Mr T]

Your water table could be higher or lower then mormal. Your well could be full of sediment/sand/ect.

Try what I posted earlier and get back to us.

[Mitch]

Sorry for the 20 questions, should I take the yellow water for testing, or clear? Right now, its clear and feels softened, but if I hit the regen button I can get some water that looks like a urine sample.

[DUNBAR PLUMBER]

Yummy!
puke_1


I would take the sample as it is discolored.

[Mr T]

I'd also take a sample to your health dept or if you are in/near a city, their water dept.. Make sure you dont have any bad things swimming in it too.

Either way, go to Sears and your city/county first for a free sterile sample bottle and follow their draw instructions.

[xkvator]

the water is yellow, very yellow. Any Ideas?
Mitch, i have to ask.....did you notice any dogs hanging around your well? :eek:

[Mitch]

Of course not, I keep the dogs away. I dump my used oil and antifreeze down this pipe, wouldn't want the dogs to get into that. :D

[Mitch]

Well water tested fine, 13g hardness, and 0 clearwater iron.
amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10-20, Ph 8.5.

He couldn't get any readings from the discolored soft water, so I'll take some in tonight when its cleared up.

Could my resin tank have crud at the bottom that gets stired up when it regenerates?

[xkvator]

Of course not, I keep the dogs away. I dump my used oil and antifreeze down this pipe, wouldn't want the dogs to get into that. :D
OK Mitch...just checking :cool:


sure seems like there might be a problem with the softener resin...find a dealer who services that brand...they might be able to help.

[Gary Slusser]

Well water tested fine, 13g hardness, and 0 clearwater iron.
amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10-20, Ph 8.5.

He couldn't get any readings from the discolored soft water, so I'll take some in tonight when its cleared up.

Could my resin tank have crud at the bottom that gets stired up when it regenerates?

This is a bit late but... hopefully you or others that read this will realize the importance of Nitrate and that the EPA MCL (maximm contaminate level) is 10 ppm or mg/l. That is a serious health problem. Especially for pregnant women, the fetus and infants less than six months old. Long term exposure is serious. The usual treatment is ion exchange with Nitrate specific sodium form anion resin in a softener regenerated with softener 'salt'. There are other ways of treating Nitrates but they are POU (point of use), not 'whole house'.

The yellow color could be from tannins or iron loaded resin, which is more likely. Use of a resin cleaner should have cleaned the resin and got rid of the problem. Hopefully you didn't buy a new softener because of this, but you really need to stop injesting the water with that amount of Nitrate in it.

Gary

The usenet newsgroup and web forum goto water softener guy since Jan 1997. Doing plumbing installations in water treatment and well pump work since 1987.

[Mitch]

Nope, not to late, and thanks Gary.

I thought I saw something like a resin cleaner, wasn't sure if it was for real or a myth, I'll have to give it a try.

I'm not too worried about the tannins, I used daughters fish tank kit to test it. We had it tested twice in the last 2 years, once by the county, and once buy the well guy and they both said it was fine. Didn't know tannins were a bad thing, there a good thing for the fish tank.