Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - water went orange color

My softener is 5 yrs old.Water has always been clear,but the other week it turned lite orange color.Even when I reg it, it still
stayed that way.So I tried iron out and it worked great,clear water again,but after 8 days there it is again.lite orange water. I was wondering could the resin be going bad.Oh yea,when its in bypass its lite orange to,so I'm thinking beads bad.
thanks for any help.


:)

It sounds like the resin beads have depleted in total volume and/or are broken. It could possible that they are fouled. Regardless replacing them may be a first step.

It here also a possibility that valve or brine mechanism is not working properly. Could your water quality have changed? Using a different salt?

CAn you erxplain more about the equipment?

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

its a culligan metalist.Culligan wants to much $ to service.I know the salt brine works cause thats were the iron out was poured into and if it didn't work the iron out couldn't have got in the resin tank to clean the beads.the brine tank is full of salt.
I just read about how the beads work in a softener.After reading this i'm sure the beads are bad.Their wore out.
To many ions, ha ha
check it out...
AWQ: How a Water Softener works (http://www.awqinc.com/softener.html)
under "Operation" title

thanks

I forgot to tell you it's on a well system not city water.
lot of iron in water.I guess this wore beads out.
I use course salt from lowes.Regenrate every 1000 gal
or 15 days.salt dosage at10,backwash time 10 mins,Brine draw/slow rinse time 71 min, should the salt dose be that low?

It may not be the rsin at all. Iron will build up in the resin tank. It may take several regens using iron out before all the iron is cleaned from the tank. If you want to check the resin, get a small sample and squeeze between your thumb and finger. If it smashes up, it's bad.

When I regen I did it 4 times with iron out to make sure most iron was out.After that the water was clear.I put it in bypass
just to make sure it was working & the water was orange when it was in bypass,I put it back in soft water mode and water cleared up,but only lasted 8 days in softwater mode
after that soft mode was like bypass mode orange.
Also I took a sample of the resin out and its soft and can be
smashed up.It looks reddish brown color.

thanks

I forgot to tell you it's on a well system not city water.
lot of iron in water.I guess this wore beads out.
I use course salt from lowes.Regenrate every 1000 gal
or 15 days.salt dosage at10,backwash time 10 mins,Brine draw/slow rinse time 71 min, should the salt dose be that low?

Your system might benefit by installing something before the softener to eliminate the iron altogether so the resin isn't getting fouled. We have an average iron level of 2-3ppm most of the year and that increases and fluctuates with rainfall, water usage, etc. and our softener just couldn't handle it. Had to get a chemical injection system to help with the iron to keep things clear.

Approximately how much iron do you have in the water straight from the well? Later!

Just to let everyone know,I installed new beads and the water is clear and working great .so it WAS time for new resin.I installed 1 cubic ft in the mineral tank.Hope this helps Beer 4U2

Good job Rep109. Thats a job I have to get to soon. We have hardness of 14gpg and iron of 3ppm. I have to set the softener up as 30 for hardness (14 and +5 for each ppm of iron).. after about 10+ years its starting to show signs of iron clogging/resin failure. We run Super ironout thru it now and then (maybe once a yr ?), but I think its just time to replace the resin like you did.

Did you get one of the high-end resins the guys talk about in here ? Im curious of the pricing .. I need about 1.5 cuft.

I got mine from this web site:
QualityWaterForLess.com Home Page, Your Source for the Finest Water Treatment Equipment (http://store.qualitywaterforless.com/)

They call it "Standard Hi-Capacity Ion Exchange Resin Media"
I think its
Cation Water Softener Resin CR-8 NA,its yellow.
I got 1.2 cubit ft. I also got the PRO Res-Care & feeder
so the beads won't foul out.My iron is only 1.13They have it all, great site go surf.
also have a # you can call for help.I spent about a wk looking
and researching I read somewere that these beads were good
for iron from 1-5ppm after that its best to get Fine Mesh resin.
they got that to,buy the way the standard resin 1.5 cf is 176.95 no shipping. Hope this helps.:coffee:

My iron is only 1.13


Be careful with any resin cleaner (Iron Out, etc.) as they as a two edged sword. Yes, the help in removing iron build up but are also very aggressive on resins and can break them down.

A softener can remove quite a bit of ferrous iron but more frequent regenerations and high salt dosage maybe all you need.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

well this is a culligan :thumbdn:and to set the settings to the water hardness you have to call them, anyway they said the beads were not bad ,WRONG,and they did not service my area.WOW what a surprize.I bet if they did it would cost $$$$$$$$ So untill I can get a good softener "Fleck" :thumbup:softener and save$$$$$
I'll use all the help I can give this Thing of a softener.