[Bob999]

If your salt usage has suddenly jumped up check for a water leak. Toilet tanks are a common culprit.

A second cause of a sudden increase in salt consumption is the softener valve malfunctioning and overfilling the brine tank--your observation of higher than normal brine levels could indicate this is the problem.

To get an informed opinion about whether daily regeneration is reasonable we need to know your water analysis--hardness, iron, and manganese levels along with your daily water usage--you indicated 5000 gal/month or 166 gpd. Are you on city water or a well? If city water you can get a water quality report from your supplier.

Also check your softener and tell us the grains hardness setting along with the size of the resin tank--the cubic feet of resin or the advertised grains capacity of the softner.

 

[Bob999]

As noted by AK with the Whirlpool softeners typically you should see only a small amount of water at the bottom of the brine tank because they add water before regeneration. The fact that you are seeing more water all the time indicates either a dirty/defective venturi or a leaking valve causing an overfill of the brine tank. Because your salt consumption has jumped up and you say there are no leaks or other increase in water consumption I am inclined to think the problem is your softener valve. There are rebuild kits sold for the Whirlpool valves but even with rebuild the typical life exectancy of that valve is perhaps 5-7 years. Depending on the age of your unit and your ability to do the rebuild yourself you may want to consider a new unit--if you do I recommend a unit with a FLECK valve.

As you have learned the solution to water that is softer than you want is NOT to change the hardness setting on the control. The setting on the control valve determines when the unit regenerates and to operate satisfactorily it must be set for the hardness of the water--or a higher number but never a lower number. To get it working well again set it at 12 as you originally had it and add 3 gallons of water to the brine tank and then set it to do a manual regeneration. You may need to repeat that process a second time.

If you want to reduce the softness install a blending valve to blend some unsoftened water into the softened water before use.

With water use of 166 gallons per day and hardness of 12 you have ~2000 grains per day. With the Whirlpool softener variable brining I would expect that your salt use should be 1/2 to 3/4 lb of salt per day if the unit is working properly. Frequency of regeneration is controlled by the valve programming which is not user adjustable but I would not expect it to regenerate daily.

I still wonder if you have a water leak somewhere given your reported salt usage and the fact the unit is regenerating daily--have you checked the drain hose on the softener to ensure no water is draining while the unit is is service?

 

[Bob999]

Continuous drainage from the drain hose is a valve problem--not the venturi. The only time there should be water draining from the unit is during the regeneration cycle--typically 90 minuntes or so in the middle of the night. Any other time indicates a problem.

The hose you have marked is the overflow from the brine tank so apparently what is happening is that excess water is flowing into the brine tank to the point it overflows. This explains the increase in salt consumption.

You MIGHT see a problem if you disassemble the valve--there is a large complex O ring that might show damage but more likely you will not see any problem.

Another possibility is that the valve is not indexing to the correct service position at the end of the cycle and because it is not in the correct position it is allowing water to flow to the drain. However I think this is unlkely becuase the Whirlpool unit does the brine fill at the beginning of the cycle--not the end.

 

[Bob999]

Would you mind pointing to (by number) which O-ring you are talking about.

See AK's comments--17 is the "complex o ring" I was referring to. 15 seals against 17 and could be the culprit. Also check the seat 17 sits in.