Help with new Water Softener?

[roberttem]

Had a new water softener installed. GE model from Home Depot. Just wondering what I should see when I look into the main tank? I see the salt pellets that I dumped in, but there doesn't seem to be any water. I programmed it to recharge each night at 2 am.

Shouldn't I see some water in the tank?

[Speedbump]

Depending on how the unit is set up, there should be enough water in the brine tank to dissolve the required amount of salt. A gallon of water depending on how pure it is will dissolve around 3 lbs of salt. There are differing opinions on this topic which are a large non importance to me. Three pounds works just fine. Most softeners come factory set at somewhere between 8 and 15 lbs of salt per cubic feet of resin. Beyond that amount, the unit will have more capacity, but there is a point where the added capacity starts costing too much salt and is counter productive.

Plainly said, when you softener backwashes, it first pushes all the hardness trapped on the resin to drain, then goes into a brine draw and rinse cycle where it draws the salt brine from the brine tank down through the resin. Then there is a rinse cycle to wash out the excess salt then the final cycle is the brine tank refill. It will put so much water back into the brine tank as per it's prior setting.

[rjh2o]

All GE (cabinet style) softeners have the first cycle as the refill cycle as opposed to most softeners which it is the last. There should only be about 2-3" of water in bottom of salt tank normally. The system adds water to refill according to the hardness settings and capacity of system. The softener should not be running every night. It should be set up according to the water chemistry, household usage and capacity of softener.
IE: 20gpg hardness, 300 gallons per day (4 people) = 6000 grains per day
30k capacity softener - 20% reserve = 24k working capacity/regen every 4 days @8.5lbs salt = 29,750 capacity @ 3500 grains per lb of salt.
If the installer did not do a water analysis and set the system up properly for you then a disservice was done and that is why water treatment professionals do NOT recommend Big Box stores! Do NOT use pellet salt either, use Dura-Cube or Hardi Cube salt for best performance.
The backwash cycle is designed to rinse off particulates from resin and under bedding and loosen the bed for resin regeneration. The brining cycle is when the resin is regenerated and hardness ions are exchanged for sodium ions to restore softener capacity.
RJ