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Troubleshooting water softener/reverse osmosis water issue

15 years ago

Hi there. I don't know where to start so please bear with me and I would appreciate any help. We have city water that goes through a water softener (maybe 15 years old) and then through a new reverse osmosis system (5 months old). Without the RO, our water tasted too awful to drink.

The 1st filter on the RO system has been "filling up" every 6 weeks, and is coated with a light greenish slime that prevents the unit from providing water. Needless to say it is annoying and expensive to replace the filter every 6 weeks. I had the RO tech look at the slimy filter and he had not seen this problem before, didn't know what it was. He thought it may be algae but given the unit is entirely under the sink (dark) this seemed unlikely. He claimed that with a water softener the filters usually last 1+ years without replacement. We do not drink an unusually high amount of water.

The TDS in the tap is ~500 (after water softener, before RO), and ~50 after the RO. The water softener slowly draws down the salt in the salt bin but I need to use the "manual regeneration" dial to get it to run, otherwise the dial is parked on "service." It has an Autotrol 1550-TC. It constantly makes a ticking sound which I believe is the timer. The timer dials seem to turn as they should to show the day/time.

If anyone can point me in the right direction to start solving this problem I would greatly appreciate it! I don't know whether the problem is the RO, the water softener, or something else.

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Comments (2)

asolo
15 years ago
1) Do service the water softener. It's not working right. 15 years is a long time. Your media is almost certainly toast, but I would suggest complete service on the rest of the unit also. Probably a couple hundred bucks. This is unavoidable. Service it or replace it. However, your problem will not go away unless you do one or the other.

2) Highly recommend 30-micron particulate filter upstream of the water softener. Easy and cheap.

I agree with your RO tech. Your problem is upstream. Fix that and your RO system will require filter-change maybe once a year or so.
jennifer42
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you very much! I will schedule a service call for the water softener. I appreciate your help.
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