Re: Water Softener No Longer Removing Iron

"Gary Slusser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> "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

Gary,

Thanks very much for your response.  Our water has between 2.5 - 4.0
ppm of clear water iron.  The softener had, up until recently, done a
great job removing the iron.  I spoke with a rep at Northstar who
suggested that we have a problem with the regeneration cycle. 
Specifically, even after totally cleaning out the unit I am left with
1.5 feet of water in the tank at all times (even following a
recharge).  The rep indicated that this is way above normal and that
there may be a problem with my discharge hose.  My hose is
approximately 30ft long and is elevated about 5ft above the softener. 
The rep indicated that while this setup worked for three years, the
seals in the softener may have broken down.  He suggested I try
draining the hose into my sump pit (which is only 10 feet away and
about 3 feet below the softener).  I'm going to try that and see what
happens.

I have tried the Iron Out solution several times with no luck.  I also
started using Morton's iron removal salt.

Any other thoughts/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks again,
Mike