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Maintaining Your Home's Water Softener

by Zack Gilbert

In order to improve the quality of your home's water supply, you may have opted for the installation of a water softener. While these systems are designed to combat hard water, they can only remain effective as long as they are maintained properly.

Here are three important maintenance tasks that you can't overlook if you want your water softener to continue working properly well into the future.

1. Check the salt level in your brine tank

Water softeners rely on salt to help remove sediment and other contaminants from hard water supplies before sending soft, conditioned water through your home. Without access to the right amount of salt, your water softener cannot work properly.

Be sure that you know the manufacturer's recommended salt level, and keep the salt in your softener's brine tank filled to this level. Avoid over-filling with salt because this will limit your ability to determine if salt is clumping together and solidifying in the bottom of your brine tank.

2. Use the right kind of salt

Each water softener system is designed to work with a specific type of salt. Without access to this type of salt, the efficiency of your water softener will be compromised. One of the easiest ways you can maintain your home's water softener is to ensure that you always have a supply of the right salt on-hand.

Check the manufacturer's recommendations to determine if your water softener needs rock salt, solar salt, or evaporated salt, then use only that type of salt to refill your brine tank. This will prevent malfunctions and allow your water softener to run at maximum efficiency in the future.

3. Use a water softener cleaner

Over time, organic compounds can accumulate on the interior of your water softener's brine tank. These compounds can compromise the quality of your home's water and cause your brine tank to begin to rust.

In order to keep your softener properly maintained, you should use a cleaner every 4 to 6 months. Be sure to invest in a cleaner with environmentally friendly ingredients and a surfactant that will help clean your brine tank's resin bed as water drains through your water softener.

Maintaining your water softener is critical if you want to continue having access to softened water in your home. Be sure that you are checking salt levels regularly, using only the manufacturer's recommended salt type, and adding a cleaner to your brine tank to keep your water softener working properly in the future. For more information, contact companies like Johnson Water Conditioning. 

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