Rainsoft Q2 drive motor spins continuously

He was lucky for the reason H2O_MAN said, they don't make the control anymore and some dealers might not be able to service it, remember?

As we know, you have no experience in the industry, so people should take your comments as such.

I have experience as a customer of the worst your industry has to offer and am better qualified to speak to that than you.

Your retorts continue to be personal attacks not helping regardless of whether or not you make a sale as you loudly proclaim on the few forums from which you've not been banned.

I've asked you before and I'll ask you again... how about keeping threads on point and leave the personal attacks out?

H2O,

You're correct, I was satisified. I called the dealer at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and a tech was out here by 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. They told me up front that the base rate for the service call would be $72.50 for the first half hour, plus parts.

I had no problem paying $72.50 for someone to show up in less than 24 hours, fix the problem in less than 20 minutes and not try to upsell parts and/or service I didn't need. Considering that my home is 30 minutes from their office, the tech had an hour and 20 minutes into my job (considering round trip + repair time), so roughly $55.00/hour, which is a pretty reasonable price for a job done well.

Jason

Now that's a happy ending :wink:

That's another of your wildly exaggerated claims. I have 20+ years in this industry and have been told many horror stories by prospective customers and customers. Just like I listened to your Braswell twin tank softener problems before you bought from me.

You've bought what, 2-3 softeners over the last 10-15 years and you think the math would show that you are better qualified than me. That's laughable.

Gary, once gain you have hijacked a thread for your personal attacks and amusement...

Jasolution needed help and posted. He/she got help quickly from a local authorized dealer and at a reasonable price. He/she is more than satisfied with the service and the price, and still you take issue with that reality because he/she was lucky?

I wish I had luck like that with my first (expensive) water softener and the authorized dealer and could have avoided all the grief that followed.

The vast majority of homeowners demand high end H2O products that are professionally installed and serviced.

Very few homeowners (a tiny %) have any desire to become H2O techs - you are serving a niche market.
I service a number of homeowners that purchased H2O equipment online thinking they could do it all themselves
only to find out that DIY installation and service was not as simple as the online seller promised it would be.

My client base continues to grow as a direct result of your efforts so please keep doing what your doing

I had considered repairing the unit myself, had the dealer been unable or unwilling to provide the level of service that I expected at a reasonable price, or had they been unable to provide the parts to repair the control valve.

There seems to be ample room in the marketplace for both local full-service dealers, as well as mail-order suppliers catering to the DIYer. Personally, I'd prefer to pay someone else to do it so that I can spend my free time doing something I enjoy. On the flip side, sometimes if you want a job done the way you want it at a price you can afford, your only option is to do it yourself.

I expect that eventually my control valve will take a final dump, at which point I'll probably consider replacing the control valve myself with a non-RS valve. But I'll also shop the market to see what systems local dealers are offering. In the end, it'll probably come down to a decision based on how much money and how much free time I have in the week that my control valve dies.

Lots of free time and little money = DIY repair

Lots of money and little free time = pay someone to do it

Lots of money and lots of free time = I'll be too busy spending my money and enjoying my free time to worry about my water softener

Hi to all,
I just found this discussion board, and have a similar problem on a
rainsoft Q2, however, the motor it self has popped of the mounting bracket.
I took the unit apart but found no pin holding the motor to the cam shaft. Can any one help with this?
mezz

mezz, could you post a clear picture of the shaft protruding from the motor?

Wipe/clean it off real good before you take the picture - thanks.

I have a Rainsoft with the Q2 valve (AQ844 CT, 1997 - 98 vintage). The unit stopped softening although it was cycling. I found, over time, that the salt level was not changing though checking the salt used for the last cycle showed 4 pounds. I ran a step cycle and discovered that there was no flow to the brine tank. This was caused by a clogged Brine Refill Flow Control (a small rubber plug with about a 1/32" hole in it). The brine tank now fills but the brine is not being picked up from the tank. What step in the cycle (9 step cycle) does this happen? I am thinking it is 3 or 4. Could it be the Brine Injector Assembly? If so, what could I do to fix it. I have had the Piston Assy. out several times to replace o-rings and have used valve grease to ease reassembly and have found that the grease has prolonged the o-ring life considerably although that may have been what clogged the flow control. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Did you replace the two small O rings on the brine injector?

step 5 is brine draw, but what is valve grease? any type of petroleum product will swell the orings . 1 is brine make up, 2 is make it salty, 3 is backwash, 4 is settle, 5 is brine draw

do you find that replacing the the orings on the injector fixes the problem? I've found that usually the valve inside the injector is stuck and it's best to replace the injector, rather than just the orings.

I've only replaced injector tubes that are cracked and broken.
The internal check valve has not been a problem, but the O rings and cap seal have always needed service.

in my area I find that the check valve tends to stick open and still allows untreated water back up in to the house, giving a reading of about 3-5 gpg hardness . I usually check them by blowing through the bottom and if I can,then I replace the injector. This seems to happen about 90 % of the time.

Remember your life time warranty on Rainsoft parts. Even though you have a brass valve which is no longer sold they do have warranty parts available. The Rainsoft dealers were told to try to sell and convert to the new Fleck Valve heads. Remember the most expensive part is the mineral inside the tank. It's lifetime warranty. No other brand on the market has that. Eco claims too but if you read the warranty it states "although the resin is designed to last the lifetime of the unit, it may become nessessary depending on local water conditions to replace the resin" That was one reason we stopped being an Eco dealer. OBTW unless things have changed in the past 5 years, Sears Water Softners are ECO units, alot cheaper to buy and install yourself if your looking to change units.

We used to soak the injectors in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water. 50/50, left them in for a couple days dried them out and they were good to go again. I replaced many injectors with clean injectors and no further problems, Oh yeah You do change the two little o rings, The lubricant of choice for all o-rings is Dow 111.

One thing people forget and I'am sorry to say, Salespeople don;t mention during their sales pitch, A water softner (sorry Rainsoft) , Water Conditioner is like anything else mechanical you buy, It take regular service. No different then having the oil changed in your car or replacing sparkplugs in your lawnmover. Everyone's systems works, If they didn;t they wouldn;t be in business. The happiest customers I've had, have been those that have a service checkup every year. And I was one who would explain for the curious customers how to do some of the simple things, Like cleaning out a salt tank, putting in new Pot-Perm in an Iron system. That went a long way. There are systems that work forever and never need service (10-20 year old Rainsoft valves that still going strong) And you get those that seem to quit working every few months, What the heck. And "most" problem units are customer based or outside interference based. Not the unit itself, Most often well systems, hydrant flushings, Electric outages and on Digital units customers did not change backup batteries like they should. There are many causes and yes some unit things go bad. I worked in the business many years and was a regional service manager for Rainsoft. I got called when the service guys were stumped. I have only had a couple units that I couldn;t figure out. Spun the heads sent them to the factory, They tested them and marked defective and returned new valves. Never did find out that the defect was. But Rainsoft never ever refused to replace a part I sent in for warranty. I have Rainsoft in my home. Installed it when I first started for Rainsoft 15 years ago. I have "horrible well water" 90 gpg hardness (city water is around 5-10)
3.0 ppm Sulfer (0.3- 0.5 causes the rotton egg odor smell) and a little iron thrown in for good ole times. I've had to "work" on my own system but like my truck, it needs service also. And I pay the guy that knows about trucks to fix it. Like most other guys in the water industry, they have heard it all. And I think we could start a "remember when I had that unit over by Millersburg, went out there a dozen times in a couple months and there was never a problem found, except the water was hard" Ended up being a Radio Wave controlled hot water heater. The radio waves were intercepted by the Digital Rainsoft supply cord from the transformer and the unit was messing up cause the hours in the middle of the night when the softner was in regeneration is when the power company was shutting off the hot water heaters to save electric. Ended up wrapping the supply wire to the unit with aluminum foil and never heard from them again till a year later when they needed new RO filters. So had nothing to do with the unit itself. I liked the one where parents worked in the daytime and babysitter kept the kids. Of course they played in the basement. Kids loved punching buttons on the digital units. They would set of a regeneration while the babysitter was washing clothes, and of course the unit is in bypass and filling the hot water heater with hard water. Two day later I get there for service call and water is 100% soft hot and cold, month later get called and no problems found. One day I show up unit is in regeneration in the middle of the day and the babysitter washing clothes. We taped the lid shut on the digital unit, and never had another service call there.
So service has its ups and downs and I've heard of every brand on the market out there and they "ALL" have the same people praising there units, while others "no way no how would I ever recommend this brand to anyone"
Funny thing is I get the most irritated customers, I talk to them while I'am working on the unit and explaining things and when I find the problem and fix it, and then get a check in the mail with a letter saying thanks so much it works great now" That;s all they wanted was for it to work like promised. It's how the dealer/ salespeople/ service people treat the customer that makes the difference no matter what Brand they purchased.