Maximize Your Water Quality And Minimize Your Stress - Tips For Troubleshooting Your Water Softener
Water softeners can be a great convenience for a home owner. The decreased water bill and the elimination of unsightly buildup in your tub and shower can go a long way toward helping you enjoy your home more thoroughly, but when your softener seems like it's failing, the thought of diving into difficult maintenance can be extremely daunting.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to troubleshoot your water softener before you struggle with a more difficult job. Below, you'll find a guide to some of those troubleshooting procedures, providing you with the knowledge you need to guarantee that your softener will serve your needs for many years to come.
Check the Control Settings
Many water softeners are designed with electronic controls that allow you to set your desired pressure and temperature as well as the time that your softener should perform maintenance tasks. At some point following extended usage, your water softener will need to recharge its flow. If this is being done while you're trying to use the water, you may have unsatisfactory results.
Be sure to double check your electronic control settings to verify that the recharging process is scheduled for a time when you're unlikely to be using much water. This will guarantee that your softener is running at its highest efficiency during peak times, greatly increasing your satisfaction with its performance.
Break Up Blockages
After continued usage, the salt in your water softener can begin to settle at the bottom of your tank. This process, known as bridging or doming, occurs naturally and is largely unavoidable. Unfortunately, it also can decrease the effectiveness of your softener and even slow down the flow of water.
Before you disassemble your entire apparatus while trying to repair it, you should try to break up a salt dome on the bottom of your softener tank. Simply poking the bottom of the tank with a broom handle should break up a dome and provide enough irritation to the water that it begins to flow more naturally again.
Clean the Resin Bed
If your water source is particularly hard and heavy and your softener is often working overtime, you can develop a sediment problem. While your water softener is designed to naturally flush out the elements you don't want coming out of your faucets, mineral deposits can build up over time and decrease its effectiveness. A full scrubbing of your softener's resin bed should allow your system to return to its full function and allow you to avoid an expensive repair or replacement. For more information, contact a business such as Dupage Water Conditioning.