Fleck Control Valve Brine Line Suction Test

For Aquatell water softeners that use a Fleck control valve here's how to test that your softener is able to generate suction through the brine line:

The first step is to force the softener into the regeneration mode by pressing and holding the NEXT CYCLE button as shown on the two images below:



Once the regeneration has begun you will hear the motor begin to move, and eventually the control valve will show BW (backwash) or B1 (backwash 1) and a countdown timer.

Once the countdown begins, press the NEXT CYCLE button once and release it.  This will advance the control valve to the BD (brine draw) cycle.

Once the countdown begins for BD, disconnect the brine line from the brine tank.  The brine line is the 3/8" tube that connects the softener control valve to the salt (aka brine) tank.  This connection point may be one of two kinds:

Push-to-Connect (upper) or hex nut (bottom):



To release the brine line from the Push-to-Connect fitting, push the collet (the plastic collar on the inner part of the fitting) back towards the fitting while pulling the brine line out.

To release the brine line from the hex nut style of fitting, turn the hex nut to remove it and pull the brine line out.  Note that the brine line will have a ferrule and split ring on it when used with the hex nut style of connector.  Be sure not to lose these.

Once the brine line has been removed ensure that the control valve is still in the brine draw (BD) cycle and immerse the open end of the brine line in a clear glass of water.  There should be enough suction to draw the water out of the glass.

Now connect the brine line back to the brine tank.  Watch to see if the water level in the brine tank drops.  If the salt level is too high to see the water level in the brine tank, you can remove the lid from the brine well (the 4" white tube that the safety float mechanism is in) to see down to the water level.

If there was no suction in the brine line when it was disconnected then the issue resides with the control valve.

If there was suction in the brine line when it was disconnected, but when the brine line was re-connected to the brine tank there was no brine solution drawn out of the tank, then the issue resides with the safety float mechanism.