Water Softener Troubleshooting Too much Water in Brine Tank 

Thank you so very much for posting this video. I just moved into my house 5 months ago and I have never owned a water softener before. When the brine water would not drain out of the tank I searched RU-vid and found your video. While my water softener is a bit different than the one that you showed, I have an Eco Water Softener that came with the house, the concept was exactly the same. your video was very helpful in showing what to look for and how to remove the line clamps. like I said thank you very much for posting this video, you saved me a $100 service call.

Thanks Gary for your videos. My brine tank wasn't draining. You mentioned several possible problems. Mine was the brine float tube had salt accumulating in the bottom blocking the slots. I siphoned the water out of the tank and used a shop vac to suck the salt out of the float tube. Did a recharge and it worked properly.

Very knowledgeable. Thank you. Only one question remains. How do you empty the water overflow? Can I just suck it out with a shopvac, or as soon as the problem is fixed, the softener will empty itself?

How high should the water level be in the brine tank? My guess is that mine is set too high as I'm going through a lot of salt ( 50 lb/ week) and the tank is 3/4 full of water. Have been trying to find out what the correct level is, but the videos I've seen don't address that. Thanks, Jim

Great video. Too much water in the tank and would not drain out. I had to manually remove the extra water out of the tank. I located the plugged orifice just as shown. Cleaned it now and will see if this is it. I am confident my problem is solved. Thank You!

I had water spewing from the water softener last week, paid company to “fix” the issue, cost me over 500 bucks, 3 weeks later same thing! I got awoken at 1:30 am with noise from basement went down and water was spraying everywhere, am so furious!

thanks I figured that was the answer, will my water softener function the same with out the seal

Can you please explain to me what the hard water setting does? Does that determine the amount of time between regens or does it do something with the way it makes the water flow over the media? How do you determine what that setting should be?

Hey Gary, first off - THANK YOU for all of these informative videos. They’ve been such a huge help! I’m new to my softener system and wanted to know if my water level in the brine tank seems too high or if it’s fine as-is. It’s a Clack WS1 3-button valve on a tank that’s probably around 40-45 inches tall. The brine tank is about 32.5 inches from the ground to the inside lip (without the lid on top which would add some height) and it’s a square tank likely a 14x14 or even larger. I have brownish foamy water above the salt. The salt is about 9 inches from the ground and the water’s about 11 inches from the ground. I watched the entire regen cycle to see if I had air leaks in the brine line or any other issue and it operated totally normal without issue as far as I could tell. The water level drained way down so I could see the top of the air check and then the system filled to the height described during the final fill cycle. I waited over night to see if the level changed and it didn’t move at all. I also did the steps in this video to look for water movement between the drain and the brine by removing the E clips and fittings. No movement even when I turned faucets on. I’m just concerned about seeing water above my salt (11 inches) when the salt is about 9 inches high. Is that something that sounds normal or abnormal? If it’s abnormal and all of the other high water causes are eliminated, could it be the tech entered a setting that’s sending too much water to the brine tank? It’s at my first home I just bought, which had been vacant for a few months and therefore had brine tank with no salt so I had a tech come out to clean the tank, fill it, and put the system settings in to make sure I started off right. Thank you!

Thanks Gary, I found the salt had formed a dense block around the brine tube. I used a shop vac to remove the excess water and removed most of the salt. That was yesterday and the water level in the brine tank is at its normal level and all seems to be fine. Thanks for the great RU-vid video!!

Thank you for posting this video. I have little beads (?resin) clogging up my faucets, does this mean the water softener system (Kinetico K-50) has failed?

How many inches of water should be in the tank at all times?

Great video. Clear explanations & good video quality.

Gary thanks for your video, I have a question and hope you can answer , I have a new 64,000 G Aquasure water softener, my question is that it came programmed to use 60 minutes for the brine draw time, but it uses all the water in the brine tank way before the 60 minutes is up, is this normal? And if it is why would it need 60 minutes when it only takes about 40 minutes to use all the salt water brine ?

I really enjoy watching your videos Gary and have learned so much! I'm hoping to get help troubleshooting a problem that I'm having with water constantly dripping out of the brine elbow into the brine tank. I have to use a pail to empty the brine tank every several hours. Everything else seems to be working properly during regeneration. Any insight as to what could be causing this problem would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Gary, My 2 piece water softener was installed about two years ago by the same plumbing company that did the plumbing in our new build home. During a recent water filtration maintenance appointment the technician noticed that the drain line was to small that had been installed by the original installer. He said that the drain line need to have a 😂1/2” line to drain properly. What do you think?

Great video, editorial & well spoken. He reminds me of my Army Captain.

Our brine tank is not draining. Water flows in but not out. We check all the stuff you mentioned in the video except the float tube. The float is working fine. If there is not salt at the bottom of the tube is there anything else to check? All lines are fine, too. Thanks for your videos. Because of youtube I fixed my dishwasher and a ton of other stuff. So grateful for people like you who share your knowledge. I so don't want to call Culligan...they'll just wanna replace the whole unit.

Again Thank you such I was able to fix my softener I followed all the steps you suggested........

I think that your video was quite informative, however I do believe that you should point out to viewers that softeners need pressure to work correctly. Too lower pressure on the incoming supply would cause a brine bin overflow. The Clack system that you are showing will need a minimum of 2 Bar pressure to function correctly. Good overview Gary.

This video was the most educational one. Thank you so much. My softener completely stopped working. I will let you know how it goes after following these steps !!!!

Thanks I will look into that.

Dear Gary, please let me know how much vacuum should I have at the venturi? I have 14-16 HG vac. Thank You, Steve

Hi Gary, so brine line should not have water pressure if removed with the valves open i.e. not in service? Thanks.

Hi Gary, I have some problem with clark ws1 CI head. It is working with greensand, regenerated by kmno4. Regardless of the length of backwash, regeneration and rinse, purple water appears in the system. I have test turned off the kmno4 sucking stage to make the "regeneration" consist of backwash and rinse only. Despite this, purple water still appears in the system. I noticed that probably the head is sucking the regenerate from the tank during the completion of the whole regeneration process, while going into filter mode. I think so, because during the rinse clean water comes out into the duct, and at the very end of the process, when you can hear that the mechanism in the head switches to the water filtration position, very purple water comes out into the duct for a moment. Therefore, no matter how long the rinse times are set, I always have purple water in the system and have to pour several minutes of tap water until the system clears. I checked if and when it was sucking fluid. I unplugged the hose from the brine tank and while holding my finger on it I observed the suction. It looks like when the head goes into backwash mode, meaning the piston is moved deep - to the end of the head, the hose spits out some water. But at each successive stage, as the piston is moved back to the max, and as it moves to the next stage it goes back to the front from the end, at the same time it sucks up some fluid through the hose. As a result, it actually pours fluid on my filter column at the end while moving back into the filtration position.... I checked the basket and the pistons, they look rather functional - the pistons move quite tightly inside the basket. Is this slight spitting and sucking during piston operation normal in Clack heads or is something wrong here?

Thank you Gary for your info, check everything step by step, and looks clean, but inside the spacers, one of the gaskets is turndown (broken). I need to replace the espaces. Where do I get the spacers for this Valve you showed in this video ?

thanks for your video. can we do all these steps with the softener being ON, or it needs to be turned off first?

Great video (from a plumber in Collingwood)

I liked the video you made and quit informative. I have a Whirlpool that very close to the one in your video. It is only about a year old or so. But I am having a problem with the larger "O" ring leaking and filling the outer salt tank and over flowing in to the overflow tube. I have taken it apart several times but with just a little fix of it leaking. It appears to be pretty much strait forward, but is there a secret to this.

Should the water level be above the salt in the tank or only a few inches of water in the salt tank?

Thank you for the good video. My problem is a high pressure leak between the resin tank and the unit that sits on top. The screws are tight on the base connection with resin tank. Any ideas what's wrong?

I am a bit confused. It seems most of the things you mentioned control restricting the water going to the brine tank which means there will be less water in the brine tank, not more than expected. In my case, my float stops flow so the max water allowed in the brine tank is always in there and not controlled by my Fleck 5600 mechanical timer water softener. Maybe I don't understand the regeneration process. Does the water softener meter how much water is put into the brine/salt tank or does it put the max into the tank and then meter how much is drawn out of the tank at regeneration time?

can you show one totally connected, i see water coming in from the drain line during regeneration, is this correct??

First, I'm SO glad that I came upon your channel; so many great videos. I'm trying to troubleshoot mine, which has water coming out and into the sump pump area, but it's still filling up. EDIT: I broke up a salt bridge, confirmed that the venturi area is fine (although, I believe that I only found 1 flow plug), and now water is flowing in but not rising. Previously, even with water flowing out and into the sump pump area, it was still rising. There's a few inches of water, about where it should be during normal operation, but I still hear water being "pulled"/allowed in. EDIT 2: now, in looking at videos/pics, I see that there's another flow plug besides the lower one: FLOW PLUG 15 GPM GEH-WS22X10036 So I took it apart to cofirm that it is not there - and it isn't - but when I re-assembled and turn things back on, just as before the water is heard flowing - and is exiting the tank - but now the level is also rising inside of the brine tank?! I didn't make a single change to anything, and yet now it's both heard pulling water (and flowing out), but also the level is increasing. ANY thoughts on what could be going on, or how I should proceed to troubleshoot?

Got flooded into a farm home and went from city to well. I knew nothing and with your videos and others I have become a well water plumber. I thank you.

I have the opposite problem Gary. I have way to little water being returned to the Brine tank.... Only a quarter of a gallon is returned to the tank.... It's a high efficiency water softener but that seems crazy low

So checking the spacer stack and pistons...the part you removed the drain line and brine line on mine both were quite filled with water which means I need to replace my spacer stack and pistons? Thanks! I’m learning lots from watching your videos

Hi Gary, I have a Excalibur Chlor A Soft water softener brand new installed. i noticed the brine tank has water in it after each regn.... each time it adds more and it doesn't drain at all. in Manual it says Improper program setting could be the cause of the too much water in brine tank... any suggestion on how I can program it?

So, I go through easy over 200lbs of salt in 60 days. For 4 years its been full of water with brown stuff floating, regardless of how much i washed it in the driveway with bleach. I thought it was bacteria and now realized it was iron. So using iron out things are better, but still over flow of water by 20 inches. I think i have to take it apart like you and check all this. The home builder made me waste so much salt, time and money on salt for 4 years by not installing it right. It was never not floating full of water even when it was a brand new house.

Clear but technical. Thanks.

Great advice, thanks. Also... my right speaker has an issue and doesn't play sound sometimes. I have to hit it a few times to make it work again... so, I just slapped the hell out of it, before realizing it's the video.

My brine tank is 20 years old and I think has a small leak as water builds up outside of it - though I am not sure where the leak is coming from. I just had the tank replaced thinking it may be caused by that but it is not. What should I do - as I am annoyed that the people I hired to fix the problem just wanted to sell me a new water tank for $1,300 rather than fix the real problem which I believe is the brine tank.

Very helpful! Thanks for the video.

I've got a crazy problem. My brine tube keeps popping off of the float tube. I've changed the insert, I re-tightened, several times. Each time it is "on" but by a cycle or two, it comes off. Any ideas??

Hello Gary, I let my KCL level get down to a few inches low but not empty and the brine tank was full of water when I went to add more. I drained the water and added the KCL but my EcoWater is not softening the water anymore. I have watched the way the unit works and everything seems right. It starts with a fill, then a long brine, then a backwash, then a fast rinse and then to service. the fill works, fills the brine tank with about a foot of water. Then during the brine cycle the brine tank is almost emptied. Then the slow backwash and fast rinse cycles complete and it goes into service. My kettle calcifies and the water doesn't have a salty taste like before. Any Ideas? THX

Thanks for posting these videos. I got a question, I have a 5810 valve and most of the time it is draining. I'm loosing lots of water down the drain. I believe my unit is about 48000 capacity and the hardness is 25. I also have it on softener metered. Any idea what I can do to fix this. Thank you

Your video is very helpful! I am going to go threw the process of it but I have a question I hope you can help on?!? I have a culligan water softener and I don't know where to find the little filter you pulled out to soak in CLR? Also do you put it in bye pass when the lines are unconnected to see water flow? Also any chance on knowing where the big grey filer you you pulled out would be located? 😕😢🙏 hopefully you can help me...

Hi. I have a problem with my soft water machine. It is draining the water every 3 to 4 days and we are not using a lot of water. Can you tell me what can I do. I really appreciated your help.

How often should I have to refill my brine tank? We are using potassium, on city water and there are five people in our household. I have been having to add three 40 lb bags a month

Thanks for the video! You make sound simple!

I've checked all of these issues. I'm thinking my issue may be due to the overflow hosing being connected with the valve drain hose. It drains fine until the last cycle of the regeneration process (backwash?) then all the sudden water comes gushing in to the brine tank from the overflow hole. Any thoughts on this?

My brine tank is filling up with water too. It’s 10” from the top. Sears is scheduled to come out August 3rd. Do I need to take out some water? Will it be okay till then?

Do you have a video for the model 900? My water levels are very high and won’t drain.

I have a Clack valve that is re branded as a Hellenbrand H-1.25. I purchased it from someone who had it installed in a larger application. It does not seem to be creating suction and drawing brine. I have attempted to clean everything and there is no active flow between brine tube and the drain tube so I don't think it's the piston assembly. It has the yellow injector installed could it be the wrong injector that is preventing the system from drawing?

my culligan softener will not finish a regeneration cycle. Could u tell what to check and how to repair it has never worked very well and it is only a little over a year old had culligan people out of dallas tx several times and still dosnt work well most of the time

What do you mean in service? Can you expand on that? If you remove the Brine cap and the discharge wont you get sprayed?

Gary my injector does get clogged. My question is what are the steps to checking the injector when the system is hooked up..in your video you are using a softener that is not actually running. Do I just put in bypass? I put in bi pass but the cap is hard to remove to get to the injector.

Very straight forward video! Fixed my issue.

so are you supposed to put the system into bypass BEFORE checking any of this?

Hello, i have the same problem as this user... Please help!.Question: what would cause water to flow INTO the brine holding tank during the brine drain cycle? I removed the hose from the pickup and observed water coming out when it should have been sucking it up

Hi. My aqua science softener is 5 years old. Recently the water feels dry. Difficult to lather n shave. The service tech came. Everything tested fine. He increased the salt mix, but this did not help. My neighbors are Not having this issue. Any thoughts on what this issue is? Should it be replaced? Thank you sir.

I have a rather old system (20+ years old) which the previous owner neglected for several years. He was quite old and couldn't lift the bags to add salt to the brine tank so he just didn't at all. The resin tank looks like a big air tank (like what is used for welding gas) with a mechanical device on top that whirs like a clock when powered up. When I turn the knob on front to regeneration, It cycles and I can feel water rushing through the discharge tube to the drain. The brine tank looks like a big blue trash barrel with a single hose going into it and an overflow port on the side that drains on the cellar floor. The tube from the brine tank leads into a clear, hard plastic, bulb on the side of the mechanical device on top of the resin tank which is full of water with no air space. The base of this bulb is molded into the housing of the mechanical device and cannot be removed. The brine tank fills with water though this tube but does not draw water from the brine tank. There's a small plastic cage on the end of tube inside the brine tank but it appears to be clear of clogs. I've looked all over the mechanism to see if there is a hose missing from which brine would be drawn but there isn't any. My suspicion is that there is a clogged valve somewhere inside the mechanism allowing water to be added to the brine tank but not withdrawn.

Gary, you have saved me so much money with your videos, thanks!

After my Hellenbrand FM-1600 with a low water piston regenerates during our sleeping hours, the first time the water is turned on at any sink, the water is quite foamy and very white and tastes very salty. After running for a few minutes it gradually runs clear again. This began a few months ago. I have thoroughly cleaned the brine tank and all components such as float and brine well. What can cause this? Would cleaning the injector help? I have not removed the injector yet and do not have the replacement/rebuild kit and wondered about simply removing and cleaning it. A kit 3 was installed in 2010 according to the label on the back of the meter. No other work since then. The new installation was in 1998 and has only been worked on once (2010). I have not made any changes to the meter settings and they have always served us well. Revision: I removed the injector. There were two pieces, the injector nozzle first and inside was an injector throat, according to the diagram. The injector throat was broken. Could this have caused the foamy water? None of the injector pieces or the filter screen were clogged and they were very clean. How could the broken (at the threads) injector throat cause the water foaming if that is what causes it, but also what could have broken the part? I have turned the the lever to bypass for now and need to purchase the part. I hope that fixes my issue.

Do we need to put the resin tank in bypass mode to check the brine flow control connection, the drain line flow control and injector?

Hi, thank you for the educational video but in my case the filter itself is leaking the water like if it was sweating on condensation. Any tips on a repair or do I just have to replace the unit? Thanks in advance.

We moved into a house and the Brine Well doesn’t have any bottom to it. It’s just open. I don’t know how that is supposed to work. Maybe I just need to buy a replacement brine well. Our brine tank is just a regular tall black round tank.

Hi Gary, my softener has water to lever 4 for many days. Should I remove it?

excellent video

Do you recommend a brine tank float valve? My WS1 is overflowing the brine tank even after doing everything recommended.

How muchsalt should the salt brine tank have?

To check the spacer stack and pistons, you need to have the valve in service. What exactly does “in service” mean? Thx

Hi Gary. I am experience the complete opposite of this problem. My system is drawing water but not returning it. When I go to inspect salt levels I find all the water has gone. I add water and by the next day it has all gone. How do I address this problem?

Thank you.

Thank you well done 👍

thanks for this video.

Just out of curiosity, can you temporarily detach and reset the brine line from the valve while the unit is operational?

Hi. Great video. I have a Culligan which I inherited when I rented the house. The brine tank was completely empty but very clean so I filled and it worked fine for 4 months. Refilled with salt and the next regen I found thick moist saltwater around the brine tank as a small puddle but the brine tank looks just the same as before and no water visible. The salt tended to drop more closest to the tube part where the float lives. Water still soft. Any ideas why it might leak like this? I don’t see any salt tracks down the side of the tank either. After the pint or so of water dried I had around a cupful of salt. Thanks for any help you can offer!

I now empty the entire brink tank. Can I reuse the salt I took out from the tank ? About 3/4 of the tank and some of them are no longer large gravel size but like sand size. Thanks

I have a quick question....not only is the brine tank completely flooded, but my water softener won't turn on now. Would the high water in that tank have any thing to do with the loss of power? I've unplugged it and tried to plug it back in and nothing is happening. I don't think, or at least see an on/off switch... thank you in advance!

Are there sediment screens by chance in the bypass valve or where the bypass valve connects to the softner??

hi sir good day, i have a problem to my manual head water softener, under the brine slow it doesn't absorb water instead it refills water in the brine tank. what should i do ? thanks for accommodating my concern .

Please tell me where to get rid of the dirty water

Recently have a softner issue. Guy came out and cleaned softner tank and iron tank. But softner seems to still not be working. When water is running I herd the iron tank filling with water but not the softner tank. Should I be able to hear the softner tank filling? And the salt I. The brine tank is not moving down so make me think m the water is not getting b salt, plus my husband and I are extremely itchy after taking a shower. Oh and water is slightly green, when you fill up tub only slightly looks green but if you let it set for awhile it is more noticeably green. Already had water guy come out twice, still seems to be not working? Help!!

I lost a little rubber seal on where the water filter filters the water, can I buy a new one from a local hardware

My daughter put 2 40lb. Bags of salt in the brine tank and the salt has not gone down in 2 to 3 months. What should do? Also, the surface of the salt is hardening.

My client had a manual water softener filter.. Is that same tutorial?

Hi. My abc water softener is doing something I have BD showing on the lcd and a count down. It’s the first time I noticed this freaking out please help what it’s doing or what I need to do. Thanks.

How do you remove those 2 hoses without water spraying all over? Is there a way to drain it first?

How much is too much water in brine tank?

Do I need to depressure the system before taking off the cap to the injector?

My water seems to be constantly running and my water bill has more than doubled. What would cause the water to be running nonstop? I had to shut off the water supply.

Awesome video!! This solved my problem. Needed to clean injector.

Thanks for this great video...my problem solved due to this great and informative video...

Any idea why this thing would keep running? I just worked my butt off on this thing all night. I ran out of running water, went back down in the basement and it was running again.

yeah, but what to do if you've already ended up with water in the tank, *before troubleshooting* the underlying issue. i.e. how to address the symptom of the high water, after it has already happened?

Good videos, but you should look into why there is no audio on the right audio channel.

I have a water boss and I have high water by accidentally filling it twice before first regen. How can I fix it?

Clean it oot, wash it oot! Thanks for the video!