Water Soft Part IIIII

[Czech]

So the softener stopped working, we noticed that things were not as slippery again in the shower (peanut crowd be quiet!). Anyway, I looked at it tonight, full brine tank, but no power going to the unit according to the wigi. Pulled the plugin unit from the socket, hot, hot, hot. Now I know where that darn smell was coming from when I get home at night. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking the plug in box is a transformer that has gone bad? If so, where do I get one? The box is a Basler Electric, Pri 120v 60Hz 0.3A, Sec 24VAC 25VA. I do not do AC electronics, but I did fix the boat radio at least. Help? Thanks,
Bob

 

[Czech]

Alright, I figured it out. Played with the volt meter a bit, all looked ok. Ended up disconnecting a hose from the powerhead to the tank, started right up. Reconnected the hose and all is well, not sure what that hose does?

 

[burntime]

The transformer can more than likely be bought at radio shack. I have no idea what the hose would do to effect the softener. The softener only has like one small motor and a series of gears and dials that open and close off valves at the right time. The hose from the powerhead to the tank would be a brine hose as a best guess. If so that would not have anything to do with the electrical. Chaulk it up as a water softener fart and hope you get many more years of service

 

[Kenpobldr]

Alright, I figured it out. Played with the volt meter a bit, all looked ok. Ended up disconnecting a hose from the powerhead to the tank, started right up. Reconnected the hose and all is well, not sure what that hose does?

The hose that runs from the power head to the tank serves two purposes. During the brine rise phase the brine solution created from the dissolved sodium in the tank is sucked into the water softener to "recharge" the resin located in the water softener. Later after the backwasing and brine rinse phases that same line refills the resin tank with a set ammount of water to create more brine solution. Where the hose connects to the power head there is an injector and screen that may need to be cleaned and /or changed. If this sceen is clogged it may prevent the brine solution from entering the softener.

Good luck with it.

 

[Gooserider]

So the softener stopped working, we noticed that things were not as slippery again in the shower (peanut crowd be quiet!). Anyway, I looked at it tonight, full brine tank, but no power going to the unit according to the wigi. Pulled the plugin unit from the socket, hot, hot, hot. Now I know where that darn smell was coming from when I get home at night. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking the plug in box is a transformer that has gone bad? If so, where do I get one? The box is a Basler Electric, Pri 120v 60Hz 0.3A, Sec 24VAC 25VA. I do not do AC electronics, but I did fix the boat radio at least. Help? Thanks,
Bob

Glad to hear you seem to have solved the problem, but just to translate the transformer rating as it's a useful thing to know how to do...

PRI = the input side spec... The only real variable here will be the power draw, which is mostly a function of how much power is being pulled out the secondary.

120v 60 Hz = standard North American AC outlet power, 0.3A = how much current the unit draws. (this unit is pulling about as much juice as a 30 - 40watt light bulb so it isn't very suprising that it gets fairly hot)

Sec = The output side spec... This is the important part, as any replacement must meet or exceed the existing part specs, or you will have the risk of future problems at best, and could let the "magic smoke" out at worst...

24 VAC - 24 volts, AC - voltage, and the fact that it's still AC says there's no rectifier in the box. Any replacement unit MUST put out 24 volts AC as that is what the rest of the system runs on.

25VA - the amount of power output. VA stands for "Volt-Amps" which are not quite the same as Watts for technical reasons, but can be thought of as about the same... Note that this number is slightly smaller than the input power number, in a "perfect" transformer, input would equal output, but real world components always have losses which you see as that difference - this comes out as heat and / or noise in the transformer itself. Any replacement unit MUST put out AT LEAST 25 VA, or it will be overloaded and will tend to burn out. A slightly higher output won't hurt anything, but going way oversize is kind of a waste.

From the description, it sounds like the existing part is a "wall wart" type plug - this is towards the upper end of what is allowed in a wall wart, so it might be hard to find a replacement of that style, however it is totally OK to use a free standing transformer that you wire up in a box, as long as the specs are the same. This is easy to do, but I'm not going to go into it here because it's a bit off-topic.

Gooserider