One of the things that we sometimes get asked is “why is my water softener using a lot more salt than usual”?
1) Firstly, your softener device needs to be of sufficient size for the amount of
water your household is going to use.
2) The hardness of the water will determine how often the softener will regenerate
and the size of the tank or tanks you need to provide soft water.
Connected to this are the different metering settings in the softener head.
(Cheaper DIY softeners may not have this feature)
3) If these hardness settings were incorrectly set from the outset, this may be the
reason why you are getting through salt at a rate.
4) It could be because there is a leak inside the softener cabinet.
To see if this is the case, have a look inside the and check where the
water line is. Is or has the overflow pipe which is normally exiting through a wall leaking?
Is there any white salt residue left on the floor where the overlow terminates?
you might find the overflow by following the overflow pipe attached to the cabinet.
The water line should sit about three quarters of an inch
above the grill (on a block salt softener) and a few inches deep on a tablet salt softener.
Sufficient for the water to touch the salt so that it can dissolve,
in order to create the brine which cleans the water softener. If the water level
is considerably above that level, then it would suggest there is a leak
somewhere in the cabinet, meaning that it is bringing in excessive amounts of
fresh water and the salt is dissolving more quickly than it should. With this can come
intermittent salty which you may discover with a cup of tea or coffe or cleaning your teeth.
This is called salt to service.
There could be a couple of other reasons why salt is disappearing faster than
it should, which may, or may not,be a problem with the water softener itself.
And more of an underlined issue that has gone unnoticed in or around the property.
5) You may have a leaking tap or running toilet that you don’t know about,
which is causing more water to be circulated through the softener.
6) Also make sure that you aren’t using excessive amounts of water beyond your
normal usage, e.g. house guests and extra laundry and showers, garden hoses
that have been left running over an extended period of time. This could cause
your softener to regenerate and use a lot more salt.
7) If you have a water meter check to see if it is going round when you know you
are not running any water.
8) If you have a block salt softener take out the existing salt and add two new
blocks and note how long it takes for them to dissapear. The general rule of thumb
when it comes to block salt is one block per person per month.
9) If you have an Ecowater eVOLUTION or Duo we can look at your recorded water
usage and salt usage remotely. You/we can even be informed of unusual water usage and
leak detection via text and or email. If you were out or away on holiday you or we can
also isolate the water supply to your property from a smart phone, lap top or tablet.
Any of these could be reasons why your water softener is using too much salt
and we would advise that you check everything you possibly can first, to isolate
the problem, before you call us out to check out the water softener itself.
We hope this helps.