Sears Valve Body drips at INLET

Customer Writes:

I have a Sears water softener.  Model 625.348590

It is leaking where the supply side water inlet goes into the top valve body.  Just drip drip drip all the time.  quite a bit of water.   I believe I need to get part number 7082053 ( Valve Body standard ).  That is the part in the Sears web site schematic.  I need to check something on that part though.

looking at this image, the top left is the inlet and the bottom left is the outlet.  Inside the inlet, just behind the clip slot (about an inch in from the top left), there is a little "step" that the mating part "butts" up against.  On mine, one side of this is smooth while the "step" goes about 3/4 of the way around.  I think over 10 years of hard water, the "step" on that side has "eroded" away.  I believe that is where the water seeps out since there is nothing for the mating part to butt up against on that side.

Can you check and see that the parts your parts have the step molded into the inlet side and that it goes all the way around the inside of the hole ?

If you look down the "throat" of the inlet, the circle on the left is what mine looks like now.  The circle on the right is how I think it should look. I think the water leaks out where there is no step anymore.

 

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    Thanks for the detailed explanation and diagram. 

* I checked the Valve Bodies we have in stock. They ALL are made the way you describe.

The inner portion of the Inlet has a "step" that only goes around 3/4 of the way. The Outlet is 100%.

And I noticed the larger version valve bodies ( 7171145 ) have NO "step".

I believe the KEY to not leaking is the Oring ( 7170288 ) and the condition of the Plastic valve body.

They are regular plastic, so over time they can warp or crack.

We have been selling a lot of these every month. So, your problem is fairly common.

Sears and GE Smartwater - Water Not Soft - Distributor Oring problem and solution

Sears Kenmore, NorthStar, and GE Smartwater softeners use the same clamp to tank valve for the past 15 plus years. On occasion the distributor oring that fits on the outside of the riser pipe will slip up and off the center pipe in the resin tank.

Here is the way one customer solved this problem ( problem caused by the pipe being just a little too short ).

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I pulled the central tube out completely with the bottom distributor ( # 10 and # 11 ) and cleaned it.  Since I needed approximately 1/8" extension to prevent the O-ring ( # 7 ) from slipping out at the top, I cut the tube at two places, about 10" central piece, keeping at least 6" at the top piece in order to be able to slip the top distributor ( # 9 ) on top without hitting the inserted coupler.  I used two 3/4" PVC couplers to glue the three pieces together.  This extended the length by 1/8" (each coupler has a central shoulder of 1/16").  Waited till the joint dried and lowered the tube into the tank.  While lowering, some resins oozed out of the tank, may be couple of handfuls.  Carefully assembled the rest of the parts and then started the recharge. Glad to say it is working fine so far.  I waited till it recharged and soft water is flowing once again before writing this E-mail.

I would say this may also be possible to extend by using only one 3/4"  PVC coupler, but you will need to carefully judge the amount of "extension" you need to add to prevent the oring from slipping off the top.

This problem is most common on city water because of the higher water pressure and the chlorine causing the resins to swell, but can occur on any type water, since the primary issue is the pipe being a little bit short.

 

Figure "B" with the O-ring over the outside of the pipe is CORRECTLY installed.
Figure "A", with O-ring on top is WRONG.