For effective, lasting relief from hard water problems, follow these tips.
Avoid Salt Bridging and Salt Mush
Salt bridging is when a hard crust forms in your brine tank and creates spaces between the water and salt, preventing the salt from dissolving into the water to form brine. Without brine, the resin beads that soften the water can't do their job. Common causes of salt bridging include high humidity, temperature changes around the water softener, or using the wrong kind of salt. If your salt tank appears full, but you know the water isn't soft, a salt bridge may be present. The quickest way to test for a salt bridge is to carefully push on the top of the salt with a broom handle, breaking it up with a little force if the salt has solidified.
Salt mush is the more serious of the two problems and occurs when dissolved salt recrystallizes and forms a sludge at the bottom of the brine tank. This thick layer of salt prevents the softener from cycling properly, making the water hard and causing severe blockages in the tank. If you test for a salt bridge and it doesn't break when you press on it, salt mush is likely the cause. Draining the water from the water softener, scooping out all the old salt and replacing it with new salt is the only way to fix this problem.
To avoid these salt problems, choose high-quality salt pellets, which can greatly reduce the likelihood of any problems, especially salt paste. Also, don't fill your brine tank with too much salt. Keeping it half full prevents old salt from sticking to the tank walls. Finally, it's also important to control the humidity level around the water softener. If it's too humid, condensation can occur in the brine tank, causing the salt to stick together and bridge.
