My US Filter Water Softner – Model USF938 – hasn’t been working well.  Today, my daughter turned the water on in the bath tub and had bright yellow water pour out- full of bright yellow granules.  It ran yellow for maybe 5 minutes – and then started running clear – but still has granules in it.  It looks like normal water, but with small grains of  probably potassium (I use Potassium instead of salt) any idea what is going on here?

Answer – We are not familiar with this specific model from US Filter, but depending on the age of the system it might use a Fleck 5600 control – which is a good one – and if so, it’s worth repairing the system.  The material that you are finding in the water is actually the cation exchange resin that is contained within the resin tank.  When you say that the water runs “yellow” for a few minutes, it is likely that the resin has deteriorated, and bleeding into the water supply.  Our guess is that you are using municipal water that contains chlorine – if so – chlorine (or chloramines) can have a detrimental affect on cation exchange resin, and it may break down over time.  It is easy to replace this material with fresh resin, available on our site in 1 ft3 bags for $130.00 delivered.  Use a wet/dry shop vacuum to remove the old resin after you unscrew the control valve.  NOTE: be sure to relive the pressure from the softener by placing it into by-pass and then into the backwash position.  If you don’t know how to do this, it best to hire a plumber or water treatment professional.