Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - Kinetico Quad 51

I have a Kinetico Quad 51 that appears to be several years old (came with the house I bought 18 months ago.)

Seems to work fine in that the water "feels" soft and it consumes salt.

The timer valve thingy (what is it called, technically?) has a phillips screw in the middle and an orange disk with the #3 and which says "brine/rinse" at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions and "backwash" at the 3 and 9 positions.

4 family household, 2 adults, teenager, 10 yr old.

I think I have two problems:
1 - the phillips screw in the middle seems to spin freely, both directions, and does not do anything but move a little black tab around.. no clicking, no ability to manually activate system, etc.

2 - the system seems to run water out the drain tube (and thus down the drain) for several hours straight.. seems like a lot of water is being wasted.

Based on the above two observations I am wondering if the valve is broken or bad? Suggestions or Options, please?

thanks
Bob

Are you pressing down on the screw driver when turning clock-wise? Do not spin it counter-clock-wise. You may break a pawl.

The screw is spring loaded so there should be some slight play.

You say the drain goes for seeral hours. Does it turn off by itself? Or do you have to do something?

It may need a service call if that continues. It should only go to the drain for about 12 minutes, may a few more.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

Thanks Andy-
It ran for several hours the other day then quit by itself. Today I couldn't stand it any longer (Living in the desert... dumping water down the drain drives me nuts..) so I put it in bypass after about 3 hours.

OK new update. I thought I was pressing on screw (I did read the manual) but after reading your reply I went out just now and pressed pretty hard. As I rotated the screw I could hear a clicking, it took about 180d of clockwise rotation to stop it from draining water.

I am wondering if the valve could be dirty / clogged or something.. Anything to be gained by me taking it apart and inspecting / cleaning it?

thanks
Bob

You can take apart the valve, but carefully note how each part comes out. Simply inspecting it for dirt or debris and rinsing with clean water may be all it needs.

Sometimes the valves need a little silicon but those are in a lower level.

PM me if you need more detail.
Andy