GE water softner not doing it's job

[lew]

the brine well on my GE softner appears to not be holding the brine that is pumped to it. Is this well constructed to hold the water? If so it must be either broken or the hose disconnected. Is this possible?

[Speedbump]

There are far better units out there than GE. The brine well may have a hole in the bottom. It's happened to me before. Drove me nuts for a while. When I set the brine tank, there was a sharp rock in the sand which over time punched a small hole in it. Being out doors it never showed signs of leaking. If yours is indoors and you don't see dried salt all over the place, that's probably not your problem. Generally when a problem occurs with the brine well, it overflows because the nozzle/venturi are plugged and can't draw the brine, so it accumulates until it overflows.

[lew]

Thanks for your replay.

The large tank is not leaking - it's on concrete to I can see any leak - it's the brine well inside that has the float mechanism that will not accumulate any water. I have cleaned the flow plugs and, by feel, I think that water is flowing through the nozzle/venturi into the hose that runs to the brine well. By looking into the brine well with a flashlight, I can't identify that any water is entering that chamber.

I think I am going to need to remove the brine well to find the problem - something I have been avoiding because I'll need to remove the water and salt from the brine thank first.

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

[Speedbump]

OK, so you have an appliance. A tank in a tank. If your looking for the water to be very high in the tank, it won't be if the unit is working properly. Most GE units sold in big box stores (which is normally where they are sold) have a very small capacity. So the water in the brine tank will usually not be any higher than a foot from the bottom. If the salt is higher than that, you will never see the water. If the unit is using salt, it's working properly. If it has a float mechanism in the brine tank, chances are it's not drawing salt brine due to a plugged injector so, no water goes back since the float won't let it.