Salty water

[tnahpele]

I have a Intermountain Soft Water "Water Master" with serial# WM327612
Every 4 days the water is salty in the mornings. After we shower the salt is gone. What is going on ?

[greg-cws]

Hi

I work for ISW.

Your serial number indicates that you have a Water Master 32,000 grain mechanical daytimer softener that was manufactured in December of 1976.

Salty water is an indication of an inadequate system rinse cycle or an interrupted rinse cycle. Inadequate rinse cycle can be due to mechanical wear, resin attrition or decreased house pressure.

An interrupted cycle can be caused by mechanical malfunction or tampering.

A couple of questions:-

- When is the last time you had your system serviced ?
-Are you keeping up on your tune-ups ?
-Are you on city water or well water ?

[tnahpele]

Hey Greg,

Never had it serviced EVER :D
Beside this salty water thing it works fine
What is a tune-up?
City water: Provo, Utah -> indian hills (if that matters)

What do I need to do?

thx.

[greg-cws]

Never needed a repair ? That's what I like to hear !
I've seen some of our systems go a full 40-years without a repair, but that's pretty rare these days with the water as bad as it is getting.

With the water degrading as much as it has in the last 10 years, we seriously recommend performing annual multipoint inspections on your system to ensure that it is properly calibrated.

A system that age will have suffered some serious attrition damageto the resin, so I'm sure that's an issue. I would suspect that your problem is probably a combination of resin attrition & mechanical wear.

Since you're an ISW customer, PM me with your address deta and I'll have a test kit sent to you no charge. Test your water every day, hot & cold for a week & post your results please.

Or call our Toll-free service hotline at 1-800-454-3429 to schedule a diagnostic visit.

[ion_avenger]

Greg, what valve is that -> 5600 or Erie D9 ?

[greg-cws]

That's an Erie 541-D9.

Did you know that ISW actually designed that particular valve back when Bill Peltier was running Erie ?

The D9 an amzing little valve. The control is a 12-day timer that was called a 3-cycle back in the day (service, brine, rinse).

Daytimer controls are hopelessy outdated these days, but the base mechanical platform is extremely sound and easy to work on.

tnahpele's valve still has the original rubber hard-chromed brass internals.

Our latest iteration of the drivetrain is all composite & stainless and it forms the heart of our latest residential designs - An open platform modular design with a 35+ year track record that just keeps getting better :D

[tnahpele]

Hi Greg & the other guys !

I got the test kit and noticed that my water was only really soft about 1 day out of every seven. The ISW service department came to my home and checked my system. What a breath of fresh air-the technitian was on time, clean and well mannered. I appreciate the fack that he wore shoe coverings and knocked each time he had to come in while he was diagnosing the system. After looking at the repair options I realized that replacement would be much better for us. We installed a new system recommended by the technitian and it's incredible how much less salt we're using now! - I appreciate the help. I hope we get 30 years out of this system too!

[greg-cws]

Thank you very much for your kind words & your continued brand loyalty.
Don't forget to register your warranty !

[tnahpele]

Greg - I'm reviewing my system here as promised. We've owned it for just over a year and I like it a lot. This system has a meter that watched our water use and a computer controller. I really like the anti-bacterial cleaning rinse that kicks in once a week when we don't use enough water to clean. My neighbor has a clack softener and he says his flushes once a week but if he's out of town for a month like we often are then he has no salt left when he comes home. Our Imperial can see that we didn't use any water so it just flushes and disinfects but doesn't uses any salt at all; that's very impressive. We had out first tune-up this week. Your technician Thayne was on time, presentable and treated me with respect. He wore booties the whole time so he didn't get snow on my carpets. He filled my tank with the Pur-Gard chemical which has really helped us to improve the odor of our water compared to our old water softener. This Imperial is doing a great job on Provo's hard water!

Thank you again for the professional service and upstanding product.