Greetings all,
I appreciate any ideas/pointers people can share with me..
I am on a well and have a water softener. My softener had not had salt in it for many months as the "hard" water doesn't bother me. I am having a guest come that is more sensitive than I so I went out this past Saturday and bought 3 X 40 lb bags of salt and Saturday evening before bed I filled up the softener.
Sunday morning I woke and there was nearly 0 pressure in all my indoor water faucets. There was enough to get the shower head dripping but that was about it.... I resigned myself to a crummy shower and hopped in. About 3 minutes in, I heard my well pump snap on, and BAM, pressure was restored. Yippie. Transient anomoly I said to myself. The rest of the day - water pressure was fine (though I was gone for most all of the day).
Monday morning, I wake up, same problem. No pressure. I curse softly, then turn the shower on and let it run for a few minutes while I surf the web, figuring as soon as my well pump turns on my problems will be magically solved again.. this time - no luck. The pump turns on but I don't get any pressure still. Crummy shower.
So that's where I am at. A little googling shows there is generally a "bypass valve" on softeners - a valve between the incoming and outgoing water pipes but I don't see one on my system. I suspect that in the many months of sitting stagnant some junk has built up in the output of my softener.. does that sound like a possible culprit? I suspect that for months with it empty I was getting water straight from my well and bypassing the softener. But then again in both circumstances I would imagine my hot water is coming from the hot water tank so I can't imagine how the softener being "junked up" would really play a role. Maybe the softener thing is a red herring and there is a problem "earlier" in the plumbing system - IE the well and pump, etc...
I am painfully "unhandy" around the house, so pretty much my question (aside from anything super easy and obvious) would be a recommendation of who to call - a plumber? A water softener company?
Thanks so much for any help! Here's to a life with good showers...
Matt