Re: Water Softener No Longer Removing Iron

"Mike Hoffman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
> My house is about 3.5 years old.  We originally had a very bad iron
> staining problem (toliets, tub, etc.).  My builder installed a
> Northstar water softener a few months later.  This unit worked great
> (no more stains) up until recently.  We have been noticing iron stains
> on the toliets, and in particular in our large whirlpool tub.  The
> water in the tub looks dirty and when the jets are turned on they
> produce "iron bubles".  The water looks clean coming out of the
> faucet.
>
> I took the softener apart and removed all of the salt.  A large (1.5
> ft. high) mass of salt was found at the bottom.  The water was over
> three feet high in the tank.  After cleaning the unit and replacing
> the salt I ran some Sears water softener cleaner through the brine
> well.  Now the water (and salt) are about 1/3 of the way up the tank.
> Everything seems to be working fine.  However I'm still getting iron
> in the tub.  Could the Resin be fouled?  (it was a red colored, but
> I'm not sure this isn't normal).  Any ideas why the softener would
> work for three years and now all of the sudden stop working?  I ran it
> those three years without ever running any cleaner through it.  Should
> I be using something other than a softener to remove the iron?

You don't say how much iron you have in your water but certainly the resin
can be iron fouled. Especially if the unit is 'short' salted for salt
efficiency. I'd have to know how much iron to sau whether you need an iron
filter or if the softener could handle it but... that make won't handle much
or last long on iron of say over 2 ppm.

> Any suggestion are greatly appreciated.

Mix about a 1/2 cup of  Iron Out (cleaning section of grocery stores,
hardware stores) in a gallon of warm water and pour it into the water in the
brine tank. Then do a manual regeneration. That will clean the resin and the
internals of the control valve.

Gary
Quality Water Associates