Water Softener Tank Is Full of Water

[MonroeAccord]

I have a dumb question that I would like some help with. Last night I noticed that our water seamed hard, so I went to the basement to check the water softener salt level. The display said 15 days left, but when I lifted the lid there was no salt left and the tank was half full with water. I went and bought some salt and dumped it in and then did a regeneration. It was already 11:00pm, so I went to bed before it finished. Anyhow, this morning the water felt softer, but there is still quite a bit of water in where the salt goes. I have never seen water in there before, is this normal? Do I need to have it checked out? I just had to replace our washer and dryer last week, so i'm looking to find out the problem before I spend more money on a service call. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[xkvator]

when you have salt in the tank, it only fills up so far with water...but since your salt was empty, it overfilled with water...
when you regenerated...it only took out the amount of saltwater it usually does. you should have bucketed some of the water out...now more of the salt is soaking

[MonroeAccord]

OK. I did scoop out a lot of water when I got home this afternoon and then added more salt (duh). Should I try to remove the salt that is in there (about 150lbs now)to get the rest of the water? Wil it hurt anything if I don't? Thanks for your help. bow_1

[xkvator]

your float should stop any more water coming in if it's not needed. a little more salt may melt until it regenerates and get back to the proper level. keep an eye on the water level in the tube where the float is, just in case there is a problem with it(float)

[MonroeAccord]

OK. Thanks for the help. :D

[Gary Slusser]

your float should stop any more water coming in if it's not needed. a little more salt may melt until it regenerates and get back to the proper level. keep an eye on the water level in the tube where the float is, just in case there is a problem with it(float)

Most softeners don't use the float to establish the salt dose, although most big box store brands do. Most softeners have a brine valve on the control valve and water to the brine tank is flow controlled at .5 gpm and timed to enable roughly 3 lbs of salt per gallon of water... So... his problem is that the softener isn't drawing all the brine during the slow rinse/brine draw cycle position of a regeneration and then adds what it should have drawn out which raises the level. OR, he has an internal leak allowing water to flow to the brine tank during service. Common causes are a blocked injector, its screen, the drain line or a float that is used to stop refill water is leaking or there is an internal control valve leak to the brine tank. The cause of that depends on the manufacturer of the control valve.

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.