I installed my water softener about 8 months ago. I also installed a sediment filter, inline before the softener. I just changed the sediment filter a couple of months ago.

My wife and I are the only 2 that live here. After I installed it I checked it everyday. It was regenerating about once a week, if that. I haven't been home much in the last 2 months because of work so I don't know what it has been doing. I was laid off last week so I have been staying up at night online (AR15.com) the last few days so I can hear it when it starts at 2:00 A.M.

It has ran the last 4 nights that I know of. Nothing has changed as in our water usage. (Laundry, showers, etc.) The salt isn't low so I don't think it could have been doing this that long.

I just looked through the book and of course it doesn't say a thing. I will be going into town tomorrow to pick up my check so I guess I could stop at Sears. (It's a Kenmore.) I'm sure they will be a big help.

Any ideas?

Something in your timer settings,maybe?

Quoted: Something in your timer settings,maybe?

I just went over them and nothing has changed. Really the only setting there is to cause this would be the 'forced regeneration'. You can set a maximum number of days it can go before it will force a regeneration. I have that turned off.

There is also the hardness setting. I don't see how my water could have turned so hard overnight that it clogs the filter in one day causing it to regenerate, clean the filter.

Maybe the timer is actually fried or has some other malfunction,or the system is not telling itself when it kicks on and runs,so it keeps doing it.My water treatment system did the same thing and I had to change the whole "brain" or timer system, whatever its called.

I thought they are supposed to recharge everynight?

Quoted: I thought they are supposed to recharge everynight?

My system was originally set up to recharge when a specified number of gallons was used. The brain fried,and when they replaced it they set up a simple daily timer that ran the system every couple of days regardless of how much water got used. If i go away,I just pull the plug and reset the timer when I get back home.

Quoted: Maybe the timer is actually fried or has some other malfunction,or the system is not telling itself when it kicks on and runs,so it keeps doing it.My water treatment system did the same thing and I had to change the whole "brain" or timer system, whatever its called.

That's what I'm afraid of. I bought the thing over 2.5 years ago but just installed it 8 months ago. One year warranty is long gone. My luck, I get a piece of junk.

i know my water softener has a specific time at night that regenerates itself...kinda annoying but yea well, nothing to be alarmed at

Quoted: Quoted: I thought they are supposed to recharge everynight? My system was originally set up to recharge when a specified number of gallons was used. The brain fried,and when they replaced it they set up a simple daily timer that ran the system every couple of days regardless of how much water got used. If i go away,I just pull the plug and reset the timer when I get back home.

I didn't know they made models that do it at X gallons of use. Learn something new everyday

Quoted: I thought they are supposed to recharge everynight?

No, that would be a waste unless you used a lot of water and/or had really hard water.

A water softener is really a filter. A bunch of resin beads that the water flows through. The resin beads attract and hold hard minerals. Obviously they can only hold so much until they need cleaned. That is when the softener regenerates. Brine, salt water, is pumped through the resin beads and cleans the minerals off. When this happens depends on how much water you use, how hard your water is, and what kind of softener you have.

Old style, you set a timer for what days in the week you wanted it to regenerate. This was inefficient because it could be running when it didn't need to. You could also go days with hard water waiting for it to run. After the beads are 'full' you will get hard water because they can no longer filter till cleaned.

Mine is a new style like tc556guy said with a 'brain.' I punch in a number that lets it know how hard my water is. It keeps track of how much water flows through the resin bed. The brain can then determine when to regenerate. This way you always have soft water and the softener is not wasting water, salt, and electric regenerating needlessly.

Water softner primer:

Water softners are rated at the grains hardness that they can remove. Typical 1cu/f resin can remove up to 32,000 grains before regeneration. You test your water, lets say it has 12 grains per gallon. You can run 2666 gallons of water thru it before regeneration, theoretically.  In actuality, it's better to derate the softner to 21,000 to 24,000 max. The reason is, it takes a significant greater amount of salt to get the last bit of capacity. It's exponential. 6 pounds of salt will give you 20,000 grain capacity from 1 cu/f of resin. It takes 15 pounds of salt to get 30,000 grains from the same cu/ft of resin. 8 pounds will get you 24,000 grains. For best salt efficiency $ savings, use 6-8 pounds for regeneration. Using the same figure of 12 gpg, you'd have a capcity of 1666 gallons @ 6# before regeneration. Also, it is important that the softner regenerate once every 7 days regardless even if it hasn't reached capacity, or you run the risk of the resin becoming fouled.

Now, two problems could be occuring with your Kenmore. The most probably is you have a leak somewhere, check  the flow indicator on the softner with everything shut off in the house. If you have flow, you have a leak. See if there is a garden hose left on with the nozzle attached, it doesn't take much. If no flow & no leak, then you have a timer problem. You can order replacement parts online from sears.

Maybe you got the caffeinated salt pellets

Quoted: Quoted: I thought they are supposed to recharge everynight? No, that would be a waste unless you used a lot of water and/or had really hard water. A water softener is really a filter. A bunch of resin beads that the water flows through. The resin beads attract and hold hard minerals. Obviously they can only hold so much until they need cleaned. That is when the softener regenerates. Brine, salt water, is pumped through the resin beads and cleans the minerals off. When this happens depends on how much water you use, how hard your water is, and what kind of softener you have. Old style, you set a timer for what days in the week you wanted it to regenerate. This was inefficient because it could be running when it didn't need to. You could also go days with hard water waiting for it to run. After the beads are 'full' you will get hard water because they can no longer filter till cleaned. .

mine has the brain to sense water hardness.  A couple months ago mine was running every night also.  There was some kind of cam in the head which broke and caused it to be able to  run w/o re-charging the resin beads.  So, it would read the water as being hard, attempt to re-charge by cycling at night, the cycling attempt didn't actually work, so it would try again the next night.  call for service.

FAQ

Check for leaks in your lines on your side of the softener. I hope I'm wrong.


Either that or somthing has made your water supply get......horny!

I just bought one a few months ago, and it was explained to me that they are made to purge themselves. They do it every day at a set time. The time depends on when you program it for. You may have set the time for it to purge and not even realized it. Most people will set it to purge at night since that is the time it is not used and they will not wait for it to finish ti shower, do laundry etc. Check your manual, it should tell you about it in there.

.