I discovered today that salt has entered and become encrusted in the main body of my water softener - picture here:
Recently I noticed that the salt in the proper compartment had completely run out. I replaced it as soon as I realised but I don't know how long it had been gone: not long, I think, since the water showed no signs of hardening, but could that have been the cause? Is the salt in the main compartment doing any harm? Should I remove it?
Many thanks.
My gut feeling would be to remove all the salt that's in the main compartment, and then have a good look for a crack or leak somewhere in the working body of the softener. It could be a pipe joint. That does not look right at all, and resembles the solid block of salt that had killed the softener in place when I moved here.
Thanks for that. Removing the incursive salt is inevitably going to mean that some of it will drop into the low-level water in the main compartment: I can't see a way of avoiding that, but perhaps it will do no harm.
Fill the kettle before you start ...
I have to admit that my understanding of water softeners is somewhat hazy, but I didn't think that the water at the bottom of the main compartment was the same water as is routed to taps, washing machine, and the like. Am I mistaken?
Indeed, its got through to a place it should not have done, from your description. Could well be knackered unfortunately. I don't have a softener here, not sure how I feel about them nowadays. They were all the rage for a while but apart from lime scale what is the point? Brian
Lime scale may well be the only point, but where I live, lime scale is a very major point indeed. The water here is ruinously hard.
Here in East Anglia, it is officially Very Hard, over 300 mg/l calcium. There is a big difference when showering with non-softened water, and it seriously affects the limescale buildup on taps etc.
The water in the salt compartment (saline) is merely for regenerating the resin beads and gets flushed to waste. Isolated from Domestic water by valve trickery.
The encrusted salt in the container is fine doesn't cause any problems either in-situ or falling off into the water at the bottom.
Having moved from a pretty darned hard water area to one which has pretty soft water, I really appreciate the difference. We did not have a water softener but would often have appreciated one.
Bert - just heard start of Cadfael on R4 Extra. :-)
I've had various different models ever since moving to south-east Kent and wouldn't like to be without one now. As you say, the difference is startling.
Ah yes, The Virgin in the Ice. They're playing the five -part serial over the course of the week. It will be available on BBC Sounds for a while:
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