Water Softener using less salt

[Philip624]

I have a BWTWS455 water softener which is now 9 years old. Over the years it has tended to use up salt cubes more quickly, I know this as I used to obtain 3 bags from the same supplier and the time period in which I was ordering them was getting less and less, no problem as I thought the machine probably gets less efficient over time. Recently however the machine has started to use far less salt and I’m a bit stumped as to why. I have checked obvious things like the bypass valve and checked that there is no salt mushing, neither of these have occurred and the machine still regenerates as normal. The only change I have recently made is that we now only have our hot water turned on in the morning and evening, previously it was on all day, the boiler firing up as and when to maintain constant hot water but idont see how this would be related as I understand it the machine only uses salt when it regenerates. There is no noticeable difference in water hardness, so far I have tried a cheap test strip which suggested the water was someway between soft and hard, perhaps i need a more definitive test to determine the hardness or otherwise of the water, but apart from that I am stumped. Does anyone have any suggestions around why the machine is suddenly using far less salt? I haven’t changed any of the settings

 

[JohnD]

is it meter controlled?

I've had a few, and the control head has a sort of piston that moved up and down to expose (open) various ports leading to water pipes to put it through the regen process

the piston has rubber sealing rings on it

over time the piston and cylinder get scaled up, and the rings wear. this causes various problems, and eventually the piston can jam.

If it is a common make of control head such as Fleck, you can buy overhaul kits with the replacement parts.

If not I suppose you could try to take it apart, clean and polish the working parts and fit new O-rings.

 

[Exedon]

As above but at 9 years old well worth running a resin cleaner through it (just look on line) can transform performance.