Water treatment tips, industry news, and clean water insights from our team.
… regeneration cycles. Without salt, regeneration can't happen, and the resin bed eventually becomes fully saturated with calcium and magnesium and stops softening. How the Softener Knows When to Regenerate Modern water softeners use one of two approaches to determine when regeneration is needed: Timer-based regeneration. Older and less efficient softeners regenerate on …
SEE MORE… one reason it is placed ahead of the softener rather than after it. Iron and sulfur treatment comes before the softener. Iron coats and fouls softener resin over time, as we explain in our article on why a softener stops softening . Removing iron and the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide …
SEE MORE… at once is a strong signal that your softener needs attention. Check the Salt Level The most common reason a water softener stops working is simple: it ran out of salt. Without salt, the resin bed can't regenerate, the ion exchange process stops, …
SEE MORE… a Water Softener Actually Does That Requires Maintenance To understand why maintenance matters, it helps to quickly understand how a water softener works. Your water softener contains a resin tank filled with thousands of tiny resin beads. These beads attract and capture the calcium and magnesium ions in your …
SEE MORE… problem. It runs out of capacity quickly and regenerates too often, which burns through salt and water and wears the resin faster. If the household uses more water than expected, the softener can run out before its next scheduled regeneration, and hard water will flow into the house until the cycle catches …
SEE MORE… to fix their hard water. Neither works for the problem it wasn't designed to solve. Worse, some people install a softener without a pre-filter for iron. Iron can actually foul the resin beads inside a softener over time, reducing its effectiveness and shortening its lifespan. Sequence and system design matter. That's why …
SEE MORE… "Where will each component be installed, and in what order?" Treatment stage order matters. Iron must be addressed before the softener to protect the resin. UV must be last to receive clear water. pH correction must come before iron treatment. A proposed installation plan that doesn't follow the correct sequence suggests a lack …
SEE MORE… years old with aging resin and other wear, the total repair cost may approach replacement cost. Resin exhaustion or severe fouling: Resin can be replaced without replacing the entire softener. Resin replacement cost is significant but less than full system replacement. Whether it makes sense depends on the age and condition …
SEE MORE… for color. The bigger practical issue is what tannins do to treatment equipment. They are a well known cause of softener resin fouling, because the organic molecules bind to the resin beads and take up the spots where calcium and magnesium are supposed to be captured. A softener that performed well …
SEE MORE… designed to oxidize and trap iron. Neither is built to remove large organic molecules like tannins. Even worse, tannins can foul softener resin. The organic material attaches to the resin beads and gradually reduces their capacity, which is one reason a home with tannins can see a softener underperform over …
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