Low water softener brine tank water level FAQs.

Q&A on what causes too little water in the water conditioner brine tank or salt tank & how do we fix it.

This article series describes procedures for diagnosing and repairing water softener or water conditioner problems including water conditioner control settings and adjustment or repair, brine tank and brine tank float cleaning and repair, and the proper amount of water softening or conditioning that is needed.

Brine Tank Water Too Low - FAQs

These questions and answers about abnormally-low water levels in the water softener brine tank were posted originally

at WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK DIAGNOSIS & REPAIR - home - you should also review the explanation and diagnostic suggestions found there.

[Click to enlarge any image]

On 2018-08-02 by (mod) - With initial soft water set up do I need to add water to the salt tank

NO Gary,

The control head at the softener and the brine float valve at the brine tank should pump water into the brine tank.

But you will want to run an initial manually-initiated regeneration cycle to flush out, clean, and prepare the water softener for normal use.

Watch out: Typically your water softener's installation manual will provide a detailed sequence of steps to install, prepare, program, and then start up the water softener. These steps will vary a bit depending on the specific water softener brand and model.

Here is an EXAMPLE start-up procedure. TAKE NOTE that this is specifically for the Culligan Gold Series water softener so it will NOT be the exact procedure for your machine unless by coincidence that happens to be your model.

If you don't have the manual for your water softener you can get one from the manufacturer or from our list of free downloads:

WATER CONDITIONER / SOFTENER MANUALS

Culligan Gold Series & Culligan Total Home Automatic Water Conditioner

Recommended Aqua-Sensor® Start-Up Procedure

• Close the main water supply valve.

• Install the sensor probe into the tank but do not connect the sensor to the control at this time.

• Set the Cul-Flo-Valv® to the bypass position.

• Ensure that all faucets at the installation site are closed.

• Direct the drain line discharge into a bucket where flow can be observed.

• Plug the transformer into a 120 Volt, 60 Hz, single-phase receptacle.

• Wait for the control to energize the motor and home itself.

• Open the main supply valve.

• Initiate an immediate regeneration to move the control into the backwash position.

• Refer to the section on manual cycling for information on cycling the control through its positions.

• When in the backwash position, slowly shift the bypass to the soft water position until water flows.

• Continue backwash until the drain effluent is clear – at least 10 minutes (use a white foam coffee cup to occasionally collect a sample of backwash water; the stark white of the cup will show the presence of color throw and resin fines).

• After the backwash water runs clear, step the control to the Fast Rinse/Refill position to fill the brine tank and purge air from the brine line.

• Continue or repeat the backwash cycle if needed (while in the backwash step, you can pull the plug on the control and allow it to run as long as needed).

• Unplug the control and connect the sensor to the circuit board.

• Reconnect the power; the control will home again.

• To check the condition of the sensor, press the Information key, followed by the up key (the screen at right appears, HM alternating with the time remaining in the sensor lockout period
– should be 00); with a sensor connected the A enunciator should appear in the second digit from the left.

• Press the Information key and program the control to the desired settings.

• Complete installation and cleanup.

• Sanitize the unit as you leave the installation (see sanitizing procedure).

• Initiate a regeneration and allow the regeneration to run to completion.

The thorough backwashing process should have cleared the fines and color-throw from the tank. The probe should settle into the resin bed during the first couple of minutes of backwashing.

Also see
WATER SOFTENER CLEANING & SANITIZING

On 2018-08-02 7 by Gary

With initial soft water set up do I need to add water to the salt tank

On 2018-04-30 21:10:04.786983 by (mod) -

No, Dee I would not add water to a brine tank by a garden hose.

If your water softener is not properly pumping water INTO the brine tank and then pumping it OUT of the brine tank and through the water softener during a regeneration cycle, then something's wrong with the control head, brine tube, or brine float - the system won't work properly until that problem is corrected.

On 2018-04-30 y Dee

Can I add water with a water hose if water level is low?

On 2018-04-11 by (mod) - water does not enter brine tank at all during brine refill

Look for a cut, crimpled tube between brine tank and softener;

Look for a stuck brine tank float in the brine tank.

Last, and less likely the problem could be the control head.

On 2018-04-11 by Mike

I have a Hague water softener. When regeneration everything works as it should with the exception that water does not enter brine tank at all during brine refill?

On 2018-03-02 by Judy

We have an IQ0820B system. The brine tank has no water in it and all the water is going through the overflow outside. Any idea's.

On 2017-05-05 by (mod) - Hach test for water hardness or for total hardness

Deb

The "Hach test" - properly spelled Hach Test, is known to most technicians as a test for chlorine and is explained in detail at CHLORINE TESTS, WATER

However Hach does indeed provide a total water hardness test kit, Model 5B described by the company as:

Simple drop-count titration measures hardness as grains per gallon CaCO₃ (1 gpg = 17.1 mg/L). Utilizes drop count titration with a range of 1-30 gpg.
Contains approximately 100 tests. Utilizes drop count titration - a simple, economical titration method

Contact Hach (sometimes mis-spelled as Hatch Test). :

• Hach Company P.O. Box 389 Loveland, Colorado 80539-0389 USA Phone: 800-227-4224 Fax: 970-669-2932 www.Hach.com , Website https://www.hach.com
  
  The company has offices world wide.
  

On 2017-05-03 by Deb

A typo correction to my previous comment... water hardness test I bought was Hach, not Hatch.

Thom, you can test your water hardness to verify whether your water is being softened. I use Hatch water hardness tester. It works great and is precise. I've been using it to test my house waters. You cannot go by look or smells.

My water wasn't being softened for the last 2 years and I had no idea until just recently.

The tester is the easiest way to monitor your water softener's performance.
My water softener was drawing water from the brine tank but the refill wasn't happening. I finally found that it was the brine tank line in the elbow connector became loose and blocked water from entering the brine tank.

On 2017-04-22 by (mod) - salt tank is not filling up

If you looked through the diagnostics in the article WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK WATER TOO LOW and none of those worked for you, Jay, I suspect the softener is in bypass mode or that it has a bad control or valve.

On 2017-04-22 by Jay

I have a culligan water softener and some how my water got drained and not filling it up in my salt tank. Any clue or advise

On 2017-03-04 by Anonymous

I'd look first for a crimped or clogged line between brine tank and softener.

On 2017-03-03 by thom TGi WST whole house water conditioner

I have a TGi WST whole house water conditioner. Last week it started making a strange sound when water is used, or toilet is flushed we hear a thrumming (whu wha) like sound .. like a pump is trying but not getting what it needs.... I put the valve in bypass postition, did not make a differnce.

the brine tank is about 1/4th full of salt, water is about an inch over that. This noise thing just started happening this week, but is annoying. Water seems normal, don't know how to determine is water is being conditioned or not, but it tastes ok. I am not sure water is leaving the brine tank, don't know how to tell.

the sound seems to be coming from the water conditioner, but maybe the two pipes on the wall going to the bypass valve, hard to tell.

I manually turned the wheel control to regen . it did go through everthing but the proplem remains.

The tgi wst sytem (serial number 246916 if that helps) It is a whole house thing, we bought the house in 2005, it was already here, no problems with it until last week when the noise began when using water or flushing toilet. We normally use Potassium Cloride instead of salt.

I looked at the float thing in the plastic pipe, It hangs about half way down the tank, neither the salt or the water are anywhere near that level.. water and salt are about 14 tank below the float height.

I need to fix or replace, but don't want to replace if it is something simple to fix. .

water tastes good no smells etc, I don't know how to test if the water is being conditioned or we have been using unconditioned water all this time :(

Again this noise just started this week.

any advise would be appreciated.

On 2017-02-14 1 by Softener

Yes

On 2017-02-14 by wally

my brine tank is dry. no water in with salt. could this be a stuck float ?

On 2016-12-27 by (mod) - when to replace the brine tank float assembly

If you can't adjust the brine float to work properly it's a good candidate for replacement.

But I can't say the specific volume of water to be sent into the tank - that' s a function of the salt dose specified by the controller. Typically it's 6-20" of water depending on the tank size and salt dose specified.

Try this: change the salt dose and see if the volume of water in the brine tank changes. If not, the float or controller is not working.

On 2016-12-27 by Steven

I have a similar low water refill as Scott did.
My controller is the Logix 740 and I have cleaned and cleared all screens and injector valves.
Regen / brine tank is new. The softener is in a new house / town water system.

The system goes through 7 stages when timer kicks in.
The second stages draws brine and will remove all liquid from brine tank.
The last stage refills brine tank. This is the problem.

When it "kicks" in, you can hear it and a little vibe goes through the draw/refill tube.
Very little refill fluid is returned to the tank during the 9 minute timing.
I've had it apart and finally pulled the float/ refill assembly out and hooked it back up to observe what's happening during the refill stage.

It jumps a little when the stage is initiated. Then drips water. I move the float Rod
Manually , giving a little more flow..
Seams like the float stopper at the bottom, is being thruster into the seat

And will not allow proper flow. I took off the stopper and tried it again,
and the water flowed great but excessive.
So, it's not the controller, it's the float assembly ( I think)

How much water should be in the brine tank to give a proper regen cycle?
What do you think? How would you fix this?

On 2016-07-23 by (mod) - that the soap just dies

"Soap dies" ? Not sure what you mean; but indeed in hard water, soap isn't very soapy;

If you have the incoming water hardness tested as I suggested that can stop much of the arm-waving and speculation. Test water as it enters the building, ahead of the water softener; then test the water hardness (and salt level) as it exits the softener.

There can be other issues such as algae contamination that are addressed by sanitizing the water softener - the ARTICLE INDEX citation above gives that link.

On 2016-07-23 by judy Purkey

I guess the one thing that puzzles me most is.....that the soap just dies. You wouldn't think that would happen.

I appreciate your help. I am definitely in the "trying anything" mode.

On 2016-07-23 by (mod) -

Judy,

If your water is not hard enough to merit using a water softener, then using one is not helping you and in fact it may add unnecessary salt as well as making it hard to wash soapsuds out of your hair.

If your water is hard it may leave mineral deposits on faucet outlets - principally calcium and magnesium.

If your water supply is not hard and thus if you're over-salting the water, that too can show up as a white deposit - principally salt.

On 2016-07-23 by judy Purkey

Thanks so much Dan. I did have the water treatment plant here in town test our water. They said nothing wrong.

I am now bypassing both hot and cold water and got a little more soap suds today that didn't die. I think I will let this work for about a week then put the softener on the lowest number.
I did notice a difference in the "white" build up on coffee pot, sink faucets etc when I had the softener hooked up.

I guess it will be a trial and error for a while.
I printed off a Manual from the internet and will study that. Thanks again

...

Continue reading  at WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK DIAGNOSIS & REPAIR - topic home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• WATER CONDITIONER / SOFTENER MANUALS
• WATER SOFTENERS & CONDITIONERS - home
• WATER SOFTENER ADJUSTMENT & CONTROLS
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK DIAGNOSIS & REPAIR - home
• WATER SOFTENER EDUCTOR / INJECTOR REPAIR
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK AIR CHECK VALVE
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK BRIDGING or CRUSTING
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK DRAW REPAIR
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK FLOAT VALVE ADJUST
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK WATER TOO HIGH
• WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK WATER TOO LOW
• WATER SOFTENER CLEANING & SANITIZING
• WATER SOFTENER SALT CHOICES
• WATER SOFTENER SALT DOSE SETTING
• WATER CONDITIONER / SOFTENER MANUALS - download the manual for your softener
• WATER SOFTENER OPERATING CYCLES
• WATER SOFTENER RUNS TOO LONG

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WATER SOFTENER BRINE TANK WATER TOO LOW FAQs at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

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INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

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