My town has contaminated water (e-coli and fecal matter), and we will be without healthy water for about a week. It is now going on day three.
Once everything is up and running again, I understand that my water softener machine will need to be treated as well.
I plan to call the manufacturer tomorrow, but in the meantime, does anyone know the steps to accomplish this.
Many thanks.
Kate
Lift the handset. Push the digits corresponding to the manutacturer's phone number. Hold the speaker side of the handset to your ear, and talk into the microphone side.
Where generally do you live? I would like to be sure not to live there. If they just lost water presssure, then there is a slight chance of contamination and they are being cautious. If they really got fecal matter into the water supply, they are totally incompetent and should be replaces asap. The reply about using bleach is pretty much what I have heard is the correct way to clean things out.
Ask the manufacturer if the softener has to be in by-pass, if bleach is used. It might damage the resin. Check your bags of salt/potassium and see if it has sanitizers in it? Perhaps adding a UV light?
You can search this site (Gary used post post here).
Unfortunately, those things happen all too frequently. We had it in our town last year and it was really not a big deal. They test the water in 7 locations every week. Two outdoor faucets showed minor contamination so they put a ban on drinking the water for the entire town. Fact is, most people (including our house) kept on using the water and no one ever got sick. If you read what was tested what the readings were, etc, you'd probably have kept on using it too. None of the indoor taps showed any problem. Could have been a bird that crapped on the tap across town.
Thank you for this info. Great help. Our city is repairing lots of streets and they accidentally cut a main water line as well as a sewer line. Unfortunately, e-coli contamination occured.
I bet the same can happen in a hurricane, flooded places and all, like Andrew or Katrina. The city elders advised to "boil" the shit out of the water...
I'm thinking Boy Scouts, dirty water and boiling, equals potable water.
Did you find a solution for sanitizing the softener?
("inquiring minds want to know")
Yes, I called the manufacturer. They said to put 2 tsp. of bleach in the tank, and run it through a complete cycle.
You younger generation kids are funny. You've probably drank so much e- coli and fecal matter and didn't even know it. The EPA standards for drinking water is so strick that even if you quadrupled the amount of e-coli and fecal matter, it wouldn't hurt you anyway.
Ever drink from a stream? A water cooler? A well? A dug well? A little e-coli is in everybody's intestines all the time anyway. So is fecal matter. It really isn't as scary as they want you to believe.
Relax Kate. You really don't have to do anything. Everything will be fine.
Hank
"Hustlin' Hank" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@b23g2000yqn.googlegroups.com:
While what you say is true in a strict sense, Hank, reality is sometimes different. Life expectancy is longer in developed countries, among which we should count the US, even rural and inner city areas (ducking), because of sanitation. And a water softener system is a great place to start a culture of bad bugs (DAMHIKT). Therefore, I would certainly follow the manufacturer's directions for sanitizing or steilizing the equipment Kate asks about.
But we don't subject ourselves to the mass amounts of contamination as the 3rd world does on a daily basis.
A little dirt never hurt anybody.
Hank
"Hustlin' Hank" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@j37g2000yqe.googlegroups.com:
I agree that a little dirt is probably good for you, but unless I know who's fecal matter I am drinking, I'm going to say, no thanks!
Well, thanks Hank. By the way, I am no spring chicken. LOL
After I posted this question, the City did pass out flyers and they also had a voice recording that called every household advising that we do call the manufacturer re: water softener machines.
They also told us to dump our old ice made from the ice maker, and make a new batch, dump that, and start over fresh.
We did have a young girl die of e-coli in the next county, but I believe she got ill from it while in the hospital.
It sounds like you should have put the water softener system into bypass as soon as you heard of the accident...
While water in the mains got contaminated, you have to be using it in your house to draw the dirty water into your home...
Whenever you hear of big events like this taking place you should bypass water softeners and shut off the feeds to things like refrigerators with ice makers in them and filtered water faucets in sinks...
Because if you do that, when the "all clear" is given you can flush out your general plumbing before you set the water softener back to running normally and turn the ice maker and filtered faucet back on...
Your family is more at risk from stuff growing in your kitchen sponge and the crusty/greasy stuff which could contain primordial life inside your washing machine tub than from water which runs clear and doesn't smell "funny"...
~~ Evan
The water dept. adds clorine to its water all the time. That alone will sanitize your softener as it is used. I would be more worried about the hot water tank, because it will hold much more contaminated water as the softener, and take much longer to flush out.
Hank
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