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Water Pressure & Bob Float Issues

Bobbie, depending on age of softener it may be economical to service it. As resin gets old it breaks down into a mush that has restricted flow. Give us some details about it or upload pictures.
 
BobbieB said:
So I called the local water treatment company that' branded the softener and they sent someone out right away. I explained what was going on to the guy, and of course we were swamped, so a little hard to hear. He hits the bypass, which was on the softer (I didn't know) and opens the hot at my sink and doesn't see a change. I wanted to wait a little because we had a few customers foaming and not using high pressure, so I knew the float wasn't open. I asked him some more questions and he assured me its not the softener. He wouldn't touch the BOB float because hes never seen one, so I get that, he left and that' that.

So I carry on about my day and pretty much sat and stared at the fill tank. We were 4 deep running full bore, and we were running out of water. I grabbed a bucket and tried to fill it from the sink to the tank as fast as I could, but still it just kept dropping. The float was open all the way, I wished I had the hose hooked up but just kept at it. I was able to hold off for about an hour until the tank finally caught up.

So I thought and thought and said somethings gotta be wrong. I hit the bypass on the softener and waited to see what happened. Again, full bays and running full bore. I hop up and check the tank, the floats not even 1/4 open and it just stayed there. I reached down and felt the pressure and WOW! Night and day, opened the float all the way and it was filling faster than the pumps were drawing. Held the float closed, waited and then let it open and it filled the tank quickly, at the same time, great pressure back at my sink.

So I have found the issue, so glad for everyone's help! Something I would have overlooked! So now, what to do. Anyone have any pointers on how to select a good softener, are they hard to replace.
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Rebedding a softner is no big deal. Id do that before buying new.
 
BobbieB, when was the last time you checked the water coming out of the water softener for hardness? I'd also check your incoming water for hardness. We don't have water softeners, the water is less than 2 grains hardness. The last people I'd ever call would be a local water treatment company, 99% you can do yourself.
 
Thanks for all the input guys!

The system is believed to be original which should be from 89. I attached some pictures.

They tested the water the other day and didn't give me specifics. Just it was bright blue in the test vial. We have great city water so you could be right in not "needing" to be soft. But we honesty give a great wash and I dont want anything to change that. Whats the number grain wise I should be looking for. 20260109_201431.jpg20260109_201427.jpg
 
Buy the hach test kit and test the incoming hardness yourself. You might not even need it anymore depending on the improvements your water co has made since that was installed. 2 of our sites originally needed softeners that don't need them anymore - no need to keep equipment that provides little to no value.
 
That’s a Fleck 9100 twin alternating system with a Culligan sticker…Intended for heavy residential or light commercial installations. Behind that cover is an electro-mechanical controller that harder to understand than Chinese math.

You stated in your initial post that you plan to convert one bay to an automatic. If that becomes reality, a similarly sized replacement will be woefully inadequate for a touchless automatic unless it can be plumbed with soft water for chemical application and hard water for high pressure rinse passes. Regardless, 1.5” plumbing from the backflow preventer to and from a 1.5” softener system would be greatly beneficial.
Clack and Pentair offer several commercial valves for alternating or parallel progressive media tanks.
 
Yes,

It's definitely in the budget to replace this one. I need to test the incoming city water to see where were at as a baseline. Our city water is very good so might be shooting myself in the foot. However I know the quality of the car wash we give and I dont want to compromise on it. We go thought about half a bag of salt on a good day.

Lol, I popped the cover on and wasn't even sure what I was looking at 🤣

We are going for the automatic. Its not a done deal as the city hasn't approved us yet. But thats my hang up, if I replace it now, it would be a waste of money as it would need to be upgraded. If I put the larger commercial one in now, there is no guarantee were getting approved. Also would have to possible plumb it in, to have to change it again
 
BobbieB said:
Yes,

It's definitely in the budget to replace this one. I need to test the incoming city water to see where were at as a baseline. Our city water is very good so might be shooting myself in the foot. However I know the quality of the car wash we give and I dont want to compromise on it. We go thought about half a bag of salt on a good day.

Lol, I popped the cover on and wasn't even sure what I was looking at 🤣

We are going for the automatic. Its not a done deal as the city hasn't approved us yet. But thats my hang up, if I replace it now, it would be a waste of money as it would need to be upgraded. If I put the larger commercial one in now, there is no guarantee were getting approved. Also would have to possible plumb it in, to have to change it again
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Call the city water department an ask them about the water quality, hardness etc. The last time I talked to the water department our water hardness was 3 grains. The head of the water department laugh when I told him I was thinking about installing a water softener, he said I'd be wasting my money. We put out a good car.
 
I know we get a quarterly water report, so Ill see if I can find it there. Whats the number Im looking for, 2 grains?
 
Where are you located? Water source of your water department plays a huge role in hardness delivered to your wash
 
BobbieB said:
Were in Metro Detroit, fed off the Great Lakes Water Authority. Its said we have very good water.
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I'm now thinking that the 99 is PPM and not hardness. Google says that should be around 6 grains, which I think is too hard not to have a softener.
 
Gonna have to grab that test kit, hopefully its fairly easy to use. I can also turn the bypass of and get a result of the softened water to know where were at.
 
There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to use that kit.

Side note, that kit sure has gone up in price in the last few years. Still cheap compared to getting hosed by a local water treatment company
 
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