Can you learn me water softeners?

Ok, we've been in our house for 7 years and have never put salt in the softener because the PO said it wasn't connected. Well, I think it is connected and I may have misunderstood him. Anyway, fast forward 7 years and we want to start using it. I know nothing about it because, growing up in the city, any salt that didn't come out of a salt shaker was for the driveway.
So, it's a Culligan model 90. When I took the cover off the box that told me that, I see this

Except a plastic version of a cool steampunk device, what am I looking at? How does it work and what do I do to it? Can I use an impact wrench on it in any way?
There's also the salt tank. I'd say it's about 1/3 full of water, salt, and a large spider that has seen less water-logged days.

Am I correct in assuming that, because there is water in there it's hooked up and running?
After removing the spider, can I just dump more salt in there and do something to the steampunk aparatus and I'm golden? Should I drain and clean the salt tank before pressing this into service?

In for the replies. I have the same problem as you, been on this house for 5 years and never touched the water softener. I am afraid to know what I been brushing my teeth with, so I never looked in the salt tank.

J

Slippery wrote: I am afraid to know what I been brushing my teeth with, so I never looked in the salt tank. J

Dang! Thanks for that. I'm off to brush mine right now and keep thinking about the spider in the tank...

Another "in for the replies" as I just had to spend $249 on a new kitchen faucet and I am tired of cleaning the coffee pot and dishwasher with CLR.

There should be a valve assembly behind the box with all the gears in it, and the big knob on the side should have arrows pointing towards bypass and something resembling in service. If it is in bypass then your softener isn't doing anything.

The fact that there is still salt in your tank would also be a good indication that it isn't doing anything.

Short answer, since everything in your timer is mechanical, plug it in, turn the valve to in service, and walk away. You may need to break up the salt in the tank if it's solidified, and if you spin the big knob on the lower right correctly you can set it to the current time of day, in which case it looks like it will do a recharge at 4am.

When the timer reaches the correct point it will do several things: First it will bypass your softener, then it will back flush it and a ton of water will come out of a hose on the box that hopefully is routed to a floor drain, then it will siphon a bunch of brine water out of the salt tank and flush that through the softener, then it will refill the brine tank and place the softener back in service.

Your adjustments, the pointers in the gear box, are to adjust how long it backwashes and how long the brine rinse is, as well as when it should perform the undulations. More sophisticated ones have a flow meter and perform the works based on actual water flow instead of time of day, which usually saves you water at the expense of ever being able to predict when you need to add salt. If my wife is gone mine cycles about 3 times a month, if she is home about every other day, which is the difference between a couple of bags a month or a couple of bags a quarter.

You may also have a whole house filter assembly down there, like a big oil filter, and those are supposed to be changed quarterly or the like as well. My well water is so hard I actually have two whole house filters, then an iron filter (type of softener that uses different chemicals than regular salt), then a regular softener, and lastly another whole house filter just in case one of the softeners lets some resin out. All that and this summer we're putting in a reverse osmosis for the ice maker and drinking water as well.

Thanks Oldopelguy. I'll remove the dead spider, break up the salt if necessary and put it in service. At that point, go ahead and dump some salt in and giddyup!
Since I have no idea of the age of this unit, how can I tell if it's doing any work once I put it in service?

DrBoost wrote: Since I have no idea of the age of this unit, how can I tell if it's doing any work once I put it in service?

If you can't seem to get the soap feeling off your hands when you wash them, it's working....

-Rob

oldopelguy wrote: When the timer reaches the correct point it will do several things: First it will bypass your softener, then it will back flush it and a ton of water will come out of a hose on the box that hopefully is routed to a floor drain, then it will siphon a bunch of brine water out of the salt tank and flush that through the softener, then it will refill the brine tank and place the softener back in service.

FYI. you can basically turn your timer dial to force it into this cycle to test the system. Its one way to check if it appears to be working.

Like pointed out before, it definitely is not doing anything if there is still salt in the tank. I need to add 3-4 bags every couple months to mine.

Unfortunately my wife and I ended up on the other end of this equation several years ago. House came with a system that we thought to be in working order, after having several items of clothing apparently stained by the hard water, we had it inspected. It was non fuctional. It was 10 years older than the house. There was some hack job band aid repair feeding a diluted mixture of bleach directly into the water feed to the house. Yeah. We bit the bullet and installed a new system. We've been happy with it since (except for that extra expense right after we moved in)

http://classicmotorsports.net/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-water-softeners/59563/page1/

Zomby Woof wrote: http://classicmotorsports.net/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-water-softeners/59563/page1/

AAahhhhhh!! I totally forgot I posted that. Holy cow, reading that I don't even remember typing any of that. If it didn't start just like my post above, I'd suspect my wife did it. There may have been adult beverages involved....

Kinda freaked out that I have NO recollection of any of that.

I actually remembered that thread but couldn't recall if it was a few months ago, or a few years ago.

Wait til you're in your 50's. It gets worse.

Funny. We removed our old salt tank. I dumped it into a natural spring on back of farm. It is now the best salt lick in the world! Tons of deer.

If I remember right they sell cubes, crystals and something that looks like a roll of paper towels made out of salt.

Zomby Woof wrote: I actually remembered that thread but couldn't recall if it was a few months ago, or a few years ago. Wait til you're in your 50's. It gets worse.

Then you guys are in for a wild ride! I'm still cracking up about that.
Did I ever tell you that I have a car I run on veggie oil?

Most water softeners on the market are based on ion exchange items. This means that the hardness ions – those responsible for turning water into hard water – are exchanged for salt ions.

Unlike water purification tablets, which kill the unwanted things in the water, an ion exchange system will just switch the ions between them and soften hard water.

Obviously, the salt is the main catalyst here – a water softener will not work unless it is fed salt.

• The exchange mentioned above takes place within the water softener’s resin tank.
• As water flows through the softener’s tank, it will come in contact with small resin beads that are covered in salt ions.
• When water flows through these resin beads, hardness ions trade places with the salt ones, making for soft water – and for higher salt content as well.

Salty zombie canoe