Everything you need to know about why your Puronics is putting out yellow, tea-colored, or discolored water — explained with full technical detail so you understand exactly what is happening in your system.
If your Puronics system is currently producing yellow water — bypass it immediately and use bottled water for drinking and cooking until the system is inspected. Then read this page to understand exactly what is happening and what your options are.
Yellow water from a Puronics water softener is almost never iron, sediment, or a pipe problem. It is resin degradation — the ion exchange resin inside your softener is breaking down due to chloramine attack, and it is releasing yellow polymer fragments directly into your water supply.
Most Florida municipalities — including Orlando, Daytona Beach, Deltona, Palm Coast, Sanford, and most of Central Florida — use chloramines (NH₂Cl) as a secondary water disinfectant. Chloramines are formed by combining chlorine with ammonia.
Compared to free chlorine, chloramines are:
Inside your Puronics water softener is a tank of ion exchange resin — tiny beads of cross-linked polystyrene sulfonate. These beads are what actually soften your water by exchanging calcium and magnesium ions for sodium ions during the softening cycle.
When chloramines attack these beads, they cause oxidative chain scission — the long polymer chains that form the resin structure are literally broken apart. Here is what that produces:
Broken polymer fragments dissolve into the water creating the yellow or tea-colored tint you see. This is the resin itself entering your water supply.
Resin beads become brittle and crack. Instead of smooth spheres they fracture into irregular fragments that pass through the system distributor.
Damaged resin cannot effectively exchange ions. Your water starts feeling hard again even though the softener is running through full cycles.
Fragmented beads create uneven paths through the resin. Water finds the path of least resistance and bypasses most of the resin entirely.
The key factor is cross-link density — specifically the percentage of divinylbenzene (DVB) used in the resin manufacturing process. More DVB crosslinking means a tighter polymer structure with greater resistance to oxidative attack.
Lower DVB content. More open, porous bead structure. Cheaper to manufacture. More vulnerable to chloramine penetration and oxidative attack. Typically fails within 3–7 years in Florida chloramine water.
Higher DVB content. Tighter, more rigid polymer structure. Greater resistance to oxidative attack. Significantly longer service life under chloramine conditions. What your replacement system should use.
This is not a Puronics-only problem. Any water softener using standard 8% cross-linked resin in a chloramine water system will eventually fail this way. The issue is the combination of standard resin and chloramine water — not any single brand.
If your tank and valve are sound, we replace the degraded resin with chloramine-resistant 10% cross-linked resin. Lower cost than full replacement — and your system works properly again.
Get Resin Replacement QuoteTrade in your failing Puronics for a new system built with 10% chloramine-resistant resin. We remove the old unit, install the new one, and apply your trade-in credit.
Start My Trade-InEvery day you run a degrading Puronics softener, more broken resin polymer enters your water. The degradation process accelerates once it starts. Bypass the softener and get it assessed as soon as possible.
We serve all of Central Florida. Get your free diagnostic — we will give you an honest assessment and straightforward pricing on both options.