How Often Should Salt be Added to Water Softeners?

Knowing how often should salt be added to water softeners can make the difference between having soft water when you need it most and struggling with hard water for a long time at home.

The question that follows then is how often to add salt to water softener?

As you will soon find out, generally, experts recommend that, generally, you should add to the brine tank once or twice per month depending on the hardness of water.

The frequency of adding salt to water softeners.

How long a salt last depends on the level of hardness of water? If your water has a hardness of above 10 grains, it means your softener will consume a lot more salt.

In addition, water with a high level of iron has a propensity to consume more salt. This is because iron can only be removed through a process of ion exchange which uses a lot of salt.

How fast salt is used up depends on the amount of water consumption in the house. House with a huge intake of water depletes water softeners more frequently.

The number of years a water softener has been in operation will determine the efficiency of the water softeners. Old machines use more salt.

The type of salt determines how much salt is used. Some types of salt will dissolve quickly. On the other hand, you can modify you softeners to consume less salt.

A great solution for this problem is buying a model that has a remote monitoring alert. This system will alert you when salt is about to run out, so as to ensure you keep receiving an optimum quality of water continuously.

How much salt do you put in a water softener

The level of salt should be around 3 inches above water level in the brine tank. Experts recommend you strive to have the salt to fill up the brine tank to around the halfway mark of the tank.

Therefore, if you have a large tank, the amount of salt you tank will consume will be high. The standard size of tanks is normally around 9 inches diameter. Tanks that are above this range will consume more salt.

However, if you have extremely hard water, it might require you to add more salt more regularly because more salt will be consumed. Also, as we had said earlier, old equipment will deplete salt more quickly.

Common Problems with Water softeners

The water softener is not using salt

Water softener needs to consume salt for them to function. At some point, you might face a situation where the softener seems to be performing, but it is not depleting the salt while at the same time the quality of water is deteriorating.
This is coursed by a salt bridge. What happens is salt on top bind together tightly and forms a thick solid such that water is not mixing with salt.

This solid crust is what is referred to as a bridge. When a bridge forms ion exchange between salt and water doesn’t take place. It is mostly caused by putting too much salt in the tank and high humidity.

The solution for dealing with a salt bridge it to look for stick such as broom or mob and use the handle to break up the crust into small chunks. Before doing this, you should ensure that you have turned off the incoming water.

Blockage of water softeners

Like other water appliances, water softeners face the risk of minerals accumulating and creating a blockage. The same way timescale normally accumulates and block plumbing systems. Softeners can run into the same problems, and thus, preventing water from flowing into the softeners. Blockage can easily fix by following user manuals.

Dysfunctional Resin Beans

A water softener that uses salt use resin beads. This is used to ensure that the water softener functions properly by being the source of positive ions that replace negative ions in water. Although this resin is long lasting, they sometimes get depleted and therefore need to replace. One sign that indicates that you need to replace your resin beads is when you start seeing them on the surface of the water. Another indication that you have a damaged resin bed is when the water softener regenerates and it does not produce any soft water.

Motor Failure

As you probably know motors can sometimes fail. Although it is not common for moto the r to get spoil, you should be on the lookout in case of sudden failure of the appliances. Motor failure can be caused by improper lubrication, misalignment, wrong installation, and incorrect handling. To prevent motor failure, it is important that you keep you regularly maintain your motor. Ways of maintaining motors include regular cleaning and changing of filters.

Dirty Filters

Because all water softeners make use of sediment filters at the beginning of the filtration process. Water sediments like minerals can accumulate on this filter thus causing water pressure to reduce, or even cause water blockade.. To prevent this from being a challenge from materializing it’s important that you regularly change your sediment filter.

Final thoughts

Deciding how often salt should be added to water softener depends on how hard is the water and rate of consumption of water. Generally, it is recommended that you refill salt once a month or twice a month. Water that is very hard will tend to deplete salt quickly. The amount in the brine tank should be around halfway. Therefore, the larger the tank the more salt will be needed.
Finally, some of the common problems that affect water softeners include Dirty filters, motor failure, and dysfunctional resin beds.

Looking to buy the best water softeners

Thanks for stopping by. If you are looking to buy the best water softener for removing iron, You can read our comprehensive guide and reviews. The list includes where you can buy some of this model and get a good deal. Checks out the Full article here.