3 Salt Issues That Could Compromise Your Water Softener

Business Blog

Many homeowners install water softeners to help treat their municipal water supply. A water softener eliminates the minerals that can leave your skin feeling dry and stain your plumbing appliances.

Salt is a critical ingredient in any water softener. To ensure that your softener continues to work efficiently, avoid these three salt issues.

1. Salt Bridges

The salt that you put in your water softener's brine tank can begin to harden over time. This hardened salt creates a physical barrier that results in a pocket of air between the brine water and the salt. The hardened salt is referred to as a salt bridge.

Salt bridges prevent the resin beads in a water softener from interacting with your home's water supply. Check your brine tank periodically to see if a hardened salt layer is forming, and gently use a broom handle or something similar to break up any salt bridges. This will help you preserve the function of your water softener.

2. Salt Mushing

Dissolved salt can sometimes recrystallize at the bottom of the brine tank. When this occurs, it is referred to as salt mushing. Salt mushing can create serious problems for your water softener. For instance, the recrystallized salt can become a sludge layer along the bottom of the brine tank. This sludge stops the resin beads from cycling through the regeneration process, leaving your water supply untreated.

A good way to determine if your water softener has fallen prey to salt mushing is to check the water level in your brine tank. If the tank appears full but your water is still hard, salt mushing is probably to blame. To remedy this issue, the brine tank will need to be emptied and cleaned out in order to restore the function of your water softener once salt mushing occurs.

3. Low-Quality Salt

The type of salt that you use in your water softener can have a direct impact on the efficiency of the appliance. You want to select a salt product that is as pure as possible. This will ensure that all of the salt dissolves into the water in the brine tank, leaving no residue behind.

Homeowners should use evaporated salt in their softeners. Evaporated salt is created through both mining and evaporation to remove any impurities. Although this salt can be a little more expensive than rock salt or solar salt, it will prevent your water softener from needing potentially costly repairs caused by salt residue in the future.

For more information, contact a water softening service. 

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28 April 2021

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