Purging Air from 155 or 255 Valve after any Repair
QUESTION:
I just order and received an output connector for an Autotrol timer. Great service! I replaced the output connector last night and I am not sure that the brine actually was pulled out of the tank. I had to dispose of the contents of the brine tank because it had a lot of dark particles in it. I assume this happened when the part broke and valves where opened out of sync. So I replaced the salt and added about 4 gallons of water to the brine tank. I set the manual regeneration on and observed most of the cycle. When it got to the first brine cycle, I did not see any water being pulled from the brine tank. How do I know that brine is being pulled from the tank? At one point the ball in the clear cup was pulled to the bottom of the cup but I did not see any water flow on top of it. Late in the cycle I did see brine water in the clear cup, with the ball at the top of the cup, and it appeared to be filling the brine tank. How do I know the system is working correctly? Thanks, Greg L.
ANSWER: Purge Air from the Valve head, Brine line & Air Check
Dear Greg, The system should work the next time it regenerates. It did not work when you first did it because there would have been air in the brine line tubing from your cleaning of the brine tank.
Whenever you disconnect the brine tubing or anything that causes the water to come out of the air check or tubing,
you MUST put the valve in brine refill for about 15 seconds ( after you have everything reconnected )
to purge any air from the air check and the tubing.
You can manually push open the # 1 valve disc ( directly behind the timer assembly ) in the front with a screw driver to let the water flow into the air check and the brine tubing. 
Your system "air checked" too soon because of the air in the tubing. But as I said, it should be okay NOW. You can see the water being pulled into the valve through the air check ( it takes 10 - 20 minutes to empty the brine tank when it has the normal 3 - 4 gallons of water inside ) and watch the water level drop in the brine tank, when the system is working correctly.
I just order and received an output connector for an Autotrol timer. Great service! I replaced the output connector last night and I am not sure that the brine actually was pulled out of the tank. I had to dispose of the contents of the brine tank because it had a lot of dark particles in it. I assume this happened when the part broke and valves where opened out of sync. So I replaced the salt and added about 4 gallons of water to the brine tank. I set the manual regeneration on and observed most of the cycle. When it got to the first brine cycle, I did not see any water being pulled from the brine tank. How do I know that brine is being pulled from the tank? At one point the ball in the clear cup was pulled to the bottom of the cup but I did not see any water flow on top of it. Late in the cycle I did see brine water in the clear cup, with the ball at the top of the cup, and it appeared to be filling the brine tank. How do I know the system is working correctly? Thanks, Greg L.
Dear Greg, The system should work the next time it regenerates. It did not work when you first did it because there would have been air in the brine line tubing from your cleaning of the brine tank.
Whenever you disconnect the brine tubing or anything that causes the water to come out of the air check or tubing,
to purge any air from the air check and the tubing.
You can manually push open the # 1 valve disc ( directly behind the timer assembly ) in the front with a screw driver to let the water flow into the air check and the brine tubing.
Your system "air checked" too soon because of the air in the tubing. But as I said, it should be okay NOW. You can see the water being pulled into the valve through the air check ( it takes 10 - 20 minutes to empty the brine tank when it has the normal 3 - 4 gallons of water inside ) and watch the water level drop in the brine tank, when the system is working correctly.
