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bigroccrek_gw

Fleck 7000 Water Softener More Problems

bigroccrek
11 years ago

Well apparently I'm not out of the woods yet. I ran another regen today because I was concerned that the system did not draw all of the brine the last time. It didn't draw it all this time either in fact it wasn't drawing at all. I took the draw line at the brine tank apart and their was suction so I stuck the line into the brine (in the white tube) and it drew the brine out fine. I checked the float ball in a glass of water and it seemed to float fine. I put it back together and no draw??? So I took it apart and let the tube draw the brine almost to the bottom of the tank and then reconnected the float tube and again no draw. I watched the system finish and on the brine fill it wasn't filling it was blowing a lot of air bubbles up through the white brine tube but didn't fill more than about 6 inches in the bottom. I filled the brine tank with water (used a bucket)and will try again after I receive the new float and brine pickup and the new injector. Any thoughts on why all of a sudden the brine draw and fill is no longer working?

Thanks,

Comments (9)

  • justalurker
    11 years ago

    Stop trying to understand. Stop thinking. Clear your mind and approach the problem as if you knew nothing about water treatment. Take a deep breath and go back to square one and double check EVERYTHING you did and EVERYTHING you touched because you missed something and you can't move the softener close enough to the monitor so we can see it.

    Brine draw not working is one thing... brine fill not working is another thing entirely.

    "Any thoughts on why all of a sudden the brine draw and fill is no longer working?"

    Two words... Yellow Pages

  • bigroccrek
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    That's my plan. Once I get the new injector and the 2310 float and valve I am going to take it apart and see if the screen or injector got clogged. I will replace the draw tube and reset the machine back to the original settings ( I changed them to what aliceinwonderland suggested 15% SF, capacity to 76, and brine fill to 9 minutes) and retry. I don't give up easily......not ready for the YP yet!

  • justalurker
    11 years ago

    You need to stop worrying about what the settings are. You have a mechanical problem and programming will not fix that.

    You had a mechanical problem to start and began worrying about other things and introduced more variables to the problem. Did you sleep through engineering school and just cram for the finals? Apparently you slept through diagnostics 101.

    Here's a hint... you don't have a float. You have a brine pickup with an air check.

    If brine isn't sucked out with the brine pickup connected but brine is sucked out with no brine pickup then what does that tell you? At the end of regeneration is the control valve putting water back in the brine tank with the brine pickup removed?

    You may not give up easily but neither do you take direction from those you've asked for help. Be smart enough to accept the help you're getting. Solve the mechanical problem and then you can set the softener programming however you want.

    Alice and I agree on some things and bang heads on others. She is a why person and I'm a how person. IMO Alice introducing discussion regarding programming only put another fly buzzing around your head and it distracted you from solving the problem you came here for advice to resolve. I saw it going to happen and backed away from the discussion.

    Let us know how it goes...

    This post was edited by justalurker on Mon, Jan 7, 13 at 23:41

  • bigroccrek
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    You know what thanks for the help. I had a salt brick to start with yes I guess you could call that mechanical in nature. But now I have a system operation problem plain and simple, which started to happen immediately after I made changes to the settings. So to use your advise I am planning on going back to the point right after the solution for the salt brick when the "system" was operating correctly and set everything to that point and try to isolate the "System" problem mechanical or otherwise!!! But no need to be rude! I didn't sleep through engineering school and in fact I have been designing, installing, troubleshooting and performing "diagnostics" on some of the most advanced aircraft and weapons systems in the USAF for over 35 years, with great success I might add way more advanced than a water softener. I am smart enough to recognize what I don't know and to seek out advice from those who do. I realize the problem may be "mechanical" and I realize the settings really don't have much to do with the issues I am experiencing now after correcting the salt brick all was well until after the first regeneration so I suspect something is affecting that part of the system so I will begin there with the injector the screen and the aircheck which incidentally uses a "floating" ball to effect the closing of the draw hence my use of the term "Float". If you have so much experience then how about some real solutions instead of a bunch of riddles and questions for me to solve. Something concrete that a simpleton like me can understand like maybe the fact that the brine doesn't draw would possibly indicate that the screen or the injector has something clogging it or that there may be some other concrete specific troubleshooting that can be accomplished to isolate the problem.

    Thanks

  • justalurker
    11 years ago

    Out here we have national labs that build a-bombs for a living and I fix softeners for the engineers and physicists that screw those puppies together. Your achievements or status in other fields doesn't necessarily get your softener fixed. Wise men know what they know and know what they don't know. It isn't being rude it's simply being honest. That's EXACTLY your problem... you're looking at this like an engineer would instead of how a plumber or softener tech would. This ain't airplanes and you don't know what you're doing so you don't know what you see and don't know how to fix it. you weren't doing the routine maintenance on your softener and created the salt bridge problem which may or may not be the cause of these other problems.

    Dumb it down this isn't that hard to troubleshoot.

    Go all the way back to square one. Why did you replace the injector and screen originally before the salt bridge?

    You may hear or feel the ball in the check valve move but there may be a blockage inside the brine pickup.

    Instead of trying to impress me with your engineering prowess read what I posted...

    "If brine isn't sucked out with the brine pickup connected but brine is sucked out with no brine pickup then what does that tell you? At the end of regeneration is the control valve putting water back in the brine tank with the brine pickup removed?"

    There are other causes for not putting water back into the brine tank such as seal and/or piston problems among other things.

    You want someone to reach through your monitor and show you exactly what's wrong when you can't accurately describe the symptoms. You're the only eyes on the problem and don't have the knowledge or experience to see what's wrong even when it's right in front of you.

    Believe it or not the service manual troubleshooting guide covers most of the problems and fixes. It does not go into the minutia or show illustrated step-by-step repairs because the service manual is intended for techs with a working knowledge of control valves and simply covers those unique properties of that specific model and is not intended as a do-it-yourself step-by-step guide for homeowners or DIYers. Are aircraft tech manuals intended for DIYers?

    After a 50+ post thread and this new thread, that you needn't have started, I admit my failure in not being able to resolve your softener problem. My fingers hurt from all this typing so I'm out of here.

  • bigroccrek
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    "If brine isn't sucked out with the brine pickup connected but brine is sucked out with no brine pickup then what does that tell you? At the end of regeneration is the control valve putting water back in the brine tank with the brine pickup removed?"

    It tells me that the brine pickup tube could be clogged but I was able to blow air through it, hence not plugged. The brine line was not putting water out with the pickup tube disconnected. Checked that immediately.

    Aircraft tech manuals are not necessarily made for DIYers but they do offer a significant level of detail to aid 18 year old airman to troubleshoot and repair aircraft.

    I will "dumb it down" and go back to the beginning. I replaced the filter and injector 9 months ago because in checking it I found the injector broken or I broke it taking it out either way it was broken

  • wellwaterissues
    9 years ago

    Justalurker:
    I have a new Fleck 7000 water softener and am unable to get it to fill or suck water from the brine tank. I check the fittings, the pick the overfill float and all are in new condition. Can you help point me in the right direction? Thank you

  • wellwaterissues
    9 years ago

    Justalurker:
    I have a new Fleck 7000 water softener and am unable to get it to fill or suck water from the brine tank. I check the fittings, the pick the overfill float and all are in new condition. Can you help point me in the right direction? Thank you

  • justalurker
    9 years ago

    wellwaterissues,

    Best to start a new thread so your question gets the attention you'd like.