Softener Brine Tank: water going IN during Brine Draw step ?

hello all ....I have a 5 year old whole house Clean Water Systems filtration system, installed new when we built 5 years ago ....I have been noticing far too much water in my brine tank as of late, was told to check venturi for being clogged or needing to be cleaned out: it was spotlessly clean, as was the injector .....after doing the venturi checking & put back together, I marked inside of brine tank with line and then began full regeneration cycle, on the Brine Draw step, I clearly saw water level in brine tank going UP, not DOWN .....also to note: on Brine Refill, that works perfect, water going into brine tank during that step is a-ok .....so now that venturi & injector check wide open & clean, I need to figure out why during Brine Draw water goes INTO the brine tank not OUT of the brine tank ......all help, assist & education appreciated (it's a Clean Water Systems 5900 softener control head)

This is a long shot, but did you ever solve this? I am facing the exact same issue with a 4 year old 5900-BT from Clean Water Systems. I've replaced the injector, brine valve, and o-ring. The screen is perfectly clean. The brine draw works for anywhere from 5 to about 15 minutes, then the vacuum disappears, and water starts trickling back out into the brine well via the tube. It flows faster and faster in the wrong direction and it spends the next 40 minutes or so filling the brine tank.

My water is hard and all my salt is turning to mush. I've removed the salt/mush, rinsed the brine tank and well, pulled the float valve assembly and rinsed it, but given the reversal of the water flow, I believe it is something in the control unit. I'm trying to get help from Clean Water systems but figured maybe you'd solved this.

Just to close this out in case it helps someone in the future, after some more troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that the resin had probably failed. Sure enough, when I pulled the valve and looked at the resin, it crumbled into powder between my fingers and tank was essentially filled with resin "mud".

During the brine draw I had suction on the brine tube for a few minutes while the pressure in the resin tank built up, but eventually the silt at the bottom prevented the brine solution from draining (there was still water coming out of the drain hose, so this wasn't obvious at first). Eventually, sufficient back pressure built up inside the valve to pop the injector valve out of its seat in one case, and actually push one of the injector o-rings out of its groove in another case. That water had to go somewhere, which reversed the flow into the brine tank. There was a noticeable change in the sound coming from the softener while this was happening.

I replaced the resin and everything works perfectly again.

How much water should be in my salt tank? I can add salt, then in a few days there is more water than salt. How much water is normal?

You should probably start your own thread on this specific question (unless you're using a Clean Water Systems 5900 valve), but it depends on your softener settings and size. Mine is a typical small-ish residential unit (32K grains) and adds about 5-6 gallons of water during the last few minutes of the regen cycle. In my brine tank (about 12-14" square) that's about 8 inches from the bottom. Since the brine tank is emptied during the brine draw, that's the most water my brine tank should ever see. There's a plastic tray that holds the salt about 5 inches off the bottom to keep the draw mechanism clear, so there's always a few inches of salt to dissolve in the water. When my brine tank is fully filled with salt, I have a good couple of feet worth of salt above the water line (my brine tank is about 3 feet tall).

Your brine tank should not be full of water. That is what was happening to mine, and the salt was turning to mush. A pic might help, but again I'd suggest starting a new thread, and consider pulling the brine tube off the brine well and checking for suction during the brine draw phase of a regeneration, or at least watching the water level and seeing if it goes down during brine draw.