Introduction

Diagnose a bad resin bed problem and replace the resin bed in your water softener. Do it yourself and avoid the expensive service call.

Diagnosing a resin bed problem

If your water softener doesn’t put out any soft water or it regenerates and runs out of soft water quickly (in just a day or so), you probably have a damaged resin bed. A water-softener resin bed normally lasts 10 to 15 years. But iron in well water and excessive amounts of chlorine in city water can “kill” a resin bed. So how do you know if your resin bed has “checked out”?

Simple. Check to see if your water softener is using up salt at its regular rate. If it is, and you have no soft water, the resin bed has probably become saturated with iron deposits or been damaged by chlorine and can no longer be regenerated by the brine. If it isn’t using much or any salt, the problem is most likely a bad valve head, meaning the resin bed isn’t getting recharged with brine water at all.

First, try using iron removal chemicals to clean the water softener resin bed. If cleaning doesn’t work, you’ll have to replace the water softener resin.

How a water softener works

Hard water enters the valve head and flows down through the water softener resin, exchanging hardness ions for sodium ions. The soft water flows up the riser tube to your plumbing fixtures.

Start the resin replacement process by measuring the resin tank to determine how much new resin you’ll need. Then contact a local water treatment company or shop online for the right high-quality resin (avoid the cheap stuff) for your particular application. Also remember to purchase a resin funnel, a new riser tube and gravel if it’s recommended for your system.

Next, rotate the softener valve to the bypass position (or turn off the main water valve). Turn the dial on the valve head to start a manual regeneration (that’ll bleed off internal water pressure). Then disconnect the softener from the plumbing and electrical.

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