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Replacing water softener resin

ericmueller | Posted in General Discussion on October 5, 2007 06:48am

Hello everyone.

Recently, my water softener isn’t doing a very good job.  It is cycling fine, and there’s plenty of salt in the brine tank, but the water is noticeably harder.  It’s an 11 year old single tank unit with a timer.  I’ve read that on average, the life of the resin inside the tank is about 10 years, and after that it needs to be replaced.  Is this just a marketing scheme?

Based on the descriptions I read, the actual replacement looks pretty straightforward, but the resin is relatively expensive (roughly $100 per cubic foot) so I’d sure like to know if this really is the issue.  Thanks in advance.

Eric

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  1. McPlumb | Oct 06, 2007 05:06pm | #1

    If you have alot of iron in your water softner it can, bridge, this prevents the resin from regenerating efficiently. There are products like Iron X or Rust Out that can be used to help bring it back around.

    I have seen some softners dump resin to the drain, as the volume of resin goes down so does the softner efficientcy.

    I think new resin is kind of a drastic first step when there could be other problems that would still be present after you change the resin.

    1. DanH | Oct 06, 2007 07:24pm | #3

      Yeah, before replacing the resin it's wise to be sure that the old resin is even still there. If the outlet screens fail or the dip tube cracks then the resin can leak out, either down the drain during recharge or into the house plumbing (looks like sand and clogs sink strainers).It's not unusual to have a softener damaged during shipping, allowing a slow leakage of resin. Especially likely if a used softener is bounced around, since the wet resin has a lot of weight.I've personally never seen the Iron X type chemicals do any good, even though we have a lot of iron in our water, but there are different chemical makeups for water-borne iron, so the chemicals could help in other areas.
      If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader

      1. McPlumb | Oct 06, 2007 08:10pm | #5

        Some of the homeowners in my area have to use the Iron X type products on a regular basis. They have a problem with what is called bacterial iron, it's a slimy reddish coating in the pipes and equipment.

        If the op had an idea of his current salt usage it could be a plugged screen where the water enters the unit if salt useage is down. I usualy start by checking the screen.

        Next check to see if it is drawing brine.

        Not drawing brine can be caused by, a plugged screen, vacum leak in brine line, control valve not moving to the right position, seals in the head worn out.

        Maybe he will post more info.

        1. ericmueller | Oct 08, 2007 11:00pm | #6

          Thanks for the help, so far.  I've done manual regenerations twice, and the unit is cycling and using salt at what appears to be the same rate as before.  Admittedly, the water doesn't seem as hard as it was last week.  I checked for a salt dome before I posted my original message and didn't find one, but I'm wondering if I had a temporary blockage in the brine tank.  Anyway, I'm running another regen right now and if all seems well after this, I'm going to leave things alone for a while unless someone suggests another possible course of action.  Thanks again.

          Eric 

  2. DanH | Oct 06, 2007 07:19pm | #2

    I replaced the resin once in a roughly 10-year-old Sears unit and it did indeed improve both the softening and the flow rate through the unit. In my case I had no specific instructions, so I cobbled a scheme to siphon out the old resin, then put the new stuff in with a trickle of water. The resin was about $75 back then (about 20 years ago), IIRC. (I based the amount of replacement resin on what the manual said the weight of the resin was, vs using volume.)

    Unfortunately, the softener failed more completely about a year later. (I forget what the specific problem was, but I'm thinking the timer unit essentially fell apart.) So replacing the resin in a cheap unit may not be the best economy.

    If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
  3. DanH | Oct 06, 2007 07:27pm | #4

    Another thing to check is that the unit is even recycling (drawing down salt at a reasonable rate), and that it's not being stuck in "bypass" after recycling. Hard to check on that latter point, unfortunately -- you can have, eg, a bad gasket that allows hard water to bypass even when the control is apparently in "normal" mode.

    If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader

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