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

[Uncle Freddy]

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)

 

[haus]

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.

 

[haus]

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.