The BLFC is .5

What is the hardness of the untreated water?

I just tested the water right out of the well tank and it's not much different from the tap. Maybe 10.

You current programming is wrong, but I don't believe that is what is causing your problem. You softener is programmed for higher hardness than you actually have and lower capacity than you actually have. We can fix that, BUT there is something else wrong.

Look in your brine tank. How high is the water?
Force the softener into a regen cycle (press and hold the extra cycle button for 5 seconds) This will force it into the first regen step. Verify that water is flowing through the softener. Use the extra cycle button to step through the cycles and observe each cycle for a few minutes.

During the backwash cycle, verify water is exiting the drain. If not, you need to check valve for proper operation.
During the brine draw cycle, open your brine tank and watch. Is the water level decreasing? If not, the most likely culprit is a clogged injector nozzle and/or brine line screen. If you are not handy, you will need to get someone out to do that for you.

Do you have a problem with sediment in your water?

Hit the extra cycle button until you get back to normal operation. If brine draw was okay, hit the extra cycle button one more time to force a regen tonight. If brine draw was not working, get someone out to fix it right away, or I can point you to some instructions to do it yourself. It's not terribly difficult, but you do need to pay attention to detail.

Also the tank you refer to as the filter. Please verify - this is an iron filter? What media is being used? Is this tank installed before the softener or after?

Thank you so much for you help with this. So the filter is for sediment and it's before the softener, I remembered after you said that. There is lots of sediment from the well water, when we bought the house a couple of years ago the builder installed one of those $50 globe filters that would fill up with sediment after less than a week and slow the water pressure beyond use.

So I checked the brine tank and the water level was about 1/3 with the salt. I had to remove a lot of salt to see the water. I forced the system into regen cycle and water is exiting the drain. The system did not seem to be drawing the water very good, so i move the salt around to see if it would allow the water to draw better and that seemed to help. It's set to run a full regen tonight.

Okay, if the first tank is a sediment filter, we need to know how much iron and manganese are in your water prior to the softener. Preferably, take your sample after the sediment filter.

I will do this tonight when I get home. Is this as simple as bypassing the softener by turning the valve? I did test the Iron yesterday with a test strip both before and after the system and really didn't see a difference in the color. I will test the manganese tonight. Thanks again.

Bypassing the softener briefly will work just fine. I am bit confused, however. You say iron was quite high before the systems were installed and now it is low. So, either your iron was all particulate and the sediment filter is removing it, or you actually have an iron treatment, or your water conditions have changed dramatically.

Let's get three different samples:

1) Raw water - NO treatment
2) Tap water with the softener in service
3) Tap water with the softener bypassed (make sure you run the water for a few minutes first to clear softened water from the line)

Just to save a little time/$ get both iron and manganese on the raw water, but just iron on the other two.

Was this treatment a DIY project or did you have a local water treatment company involved?

A local company installed the system. I'm not sure what the iron count was before we had the system installed, maybe I just thought it was high and was really sediment. The house sat empty for almost 2 years after being built before we bought it and we had to have the plumbing system and well flushed a couple of times to clear it up.

I did test a Raw Water last night for iron and it wasn't really any different than the tap. So either I'm just making things up or the water conditions changed. Either way it looks like iron isn't an issue anymore.

I will test the manganese today.

Is there any routine maintenance that needs to be done on the filter system?

I had to order the manganese test because the kit I had didn't have it. I tested the iron again from the raw water and it looks like it may be 1ppm to 3ppm after getting my wife to give it a look. So it looks like the filter is working for that. I did notice the raw water has a bad smell to it.

It's time to take a sample and get it to a certified lab. Now that we've added an odor issue, you just need good analysis. Additionally, the difference between 1 ppm and 3 ppm iron is HUGE in terms of treatment.

At this point, it could be that your softener is just set incorrectly for the iron,or it could be that your resin is damaged (possibly from the start), or it could be that your testing method is poor, or it could be that your filter and softener are all fouled up with sulfates. Without good, solid number, I'm flying blind here. If you have 1 ppm iron, we can make this work. If you have 3 ppm iron, your softener is egregiously undersized.

So, ask the lab for:

Calcium
Magnesium
Hardness
Alkalinity
Sulfates
Nitrates
Ferric Iron
Ferrous Iron
Manganese
TDS
pH

In the mean time, perhaps we can get it to function better while you await results, but it will be inefficient, somewhat trial and error, and you will use a lot of salt.

Ok I ordered the testing kit to collect the samples to send off to the lab. What can we do in the mean time? Thanks again for all your help.

Ok, the first thing you want to do is check your brine injectors and screen. If you are not the handy type, consider calling your water treatment guy to do this. I'm attaching a link to a youtube video that shows you what to do. The video is for a timer model, but the parts you need to worry about are the same.

Here is a link that might be useful: Check injectors

Once that is completed and the softener is back in operation, go into your master program mode and change BF (brine fill time) to 15. We are going to maximize salt to try to get your softener resin stripped of hardness and iron. Add iron out (predissolved in water) to your brine tank and press the cycle change button to force a regen that night. Wait 48 hours and do it again.

Test your hardness the next morning and see what you get.

Alternately - call the company you purchased this system from and have them get their butts out there to fix it. This has you jumping through a lot of hoops they should be jumping through. Until we get lab numbers I can't say for certain, but it appears your softener is undersized.

I checked the injectors and screen, everything looked good there. Iron Out in the tank and ready for regen tonight.

I'm not really interested in giving the company that installed the system any more money. I hired them to get rid of the smelly/hard water and they installed this system. Within a week I had them back out because the water was still hard and smelly on the hot water side. They made a few adjustments and bleached the system. After about two weeks the water started smelling again and was still hard they said the anode rod in the water tank needed to be removed and it would cost $150. Needless to say I did it myself. The funny thing is I questioned the size of the system when they installed it, but they assured me that it was going to resolve our issues. I thought I was trusting the experts.

I'm sorry to hear that - it always amazes me the number of people who sell softeners that have absolutely no clue what they are doing. It's not as if the math is even difficult so there is really no excuse.