The Why’s and and how’s of servicing your water softener.

Many people purchase a water softener because they understand the value such an appliance adds to their home, as well as the protection it offers to their water using appliances and all the aesthetic benefits in their laundry, dishwasher, glass shower doors, and inside their toilet bowls. When their salesman explains all of this they are excited, and when it gets installed and they begin using the water they are even more excited. Sometimes there is sticker shock with the purchase of a water softener, depending on who they purchased it from, but that fades as they use the treated water and understand it really does pay for itself over time. Their bonding with the water softener increases as they use the water and as they slowly come to realize just how much of a difference this appliance makes.

Then, a year later, when the scheduling lady from the service department calls and lets them know it’s time for their yearly service, all of a sudden the love affair is facing divorce court, and they are upset that the system needs to have service done on it. Stop the presses! Yep, the salesman in his eagerness to close the sale, left out the details of maintaining this expensive system you just purchased. Somehow, he felt if he was completely open and honest with you, he would missed out on the sale, and you, the customer, would have declined to purchase the system because over the years there would be maintenance costs involved.

Well, as with most things in life, there is maintenance. From that Fezzari mountain bike you purchased, to that new Honda Accord, to that new Mac computer on your desk, and that printer that sits next to it, to your favorite fishing reel, and your favorite 12 gauge duck hunting shotgun. Anything that is mechanical needs to be serviced which includes all of your appliances; dishwasher, washing machine, reverse osmosis, and water softener.

Now, you may be a person who is a severe procrastinator, or completely unaware that such things need to be done, or a fastidious OCD person who is on top of it. Which ever it is, your water softener needs to be serviced regularly. Why? Well, the enemy, hard water, enters your home via the main water line which has its beginnings in a well deep in the ground somewhere where it has dissolved calcium, magnesium, iron, and other minerals. This is then sucked up from the ground through pumps and passed through a treatment plant which filters some sediment out of it, is disinfected with chlorine, and then shot through the piping system to your home, where it may even pick up some other contaminants, and then enters your home and goes directly to your kitchen sink, toilets, showers, and some of it via your hot water heater.

This water, which now has these fixture damaging minerals in it, begin to take their toll on your water using appliances and fixtures wearing them down, destroying fragile components such as o-rings and gaskets, and leaving their white ugly stains on and around your brush nickel faucets, your black refrigerator drip trays and on your european frameless glass shower doors. They also become lodged in your water heater eating it up and along the inside of your pipes wearing them down as well. Hence, the water softener. It truly is the hero of your dishwasher, wishing machine, shower faucets, and inner workings of your toilet. They love your water softener.

The problem now is the softener takes the brunt of all that water nastiness and it begins to take its toll on your water softener. The resin beads inside begin to break down with the residual chlorine and gets fouled with the iron passing through it, and gets organically fouled with bacteria and other organics, and pretty soon the positive exchange sites become coated and covered up and the ion exchange process is hampered and your capacity diminishes and the system just doesn’t seem to be keeping up any more.

In order for the system to operate many intricate functions need to happen. The system must meter the volume of water that passes through it so it knows when to regenerate. The injectors and injector screens need to be clean and clear to allow a siphon to occur so it can draw out the salt from the brine tank. The brine line flow control and drain line flow controls need to stay clear and open to allow proper flow into and out of the softer so the resin has the proper bed expansion and the brine tank receives the proper amount of water to dissolve the exact amount of salt to regenerate the precise amount of resin beads, so you have continuos soft water. All of those components need to be cleaned, lubricated and periodically changed so everything functions properly.

Recently I had a 4 mm kidney stone appear. This little tiny stone brought me to my knees with incredible pain and prevented all my other systems from functioning. It clouded my mind, made my legs wobbly, blurred my eyes, and doubled me over when I wanted to stand straight and walk. Something that tiny and simple brought my entire system to a grinding halt. So instead of maintaining my body properly by drinking plenty of water, cutting out sodas, and calcium forming foods, I made poor choices. In the end proper vigilance and maintenance would have been less expensive. Instead I had to undergo lithotripsey and when it was all said and done it cost me $15,000. Maintenance would have been preferable.

A water softener looks simple on the outside, but becomes complicated on the inside. It has seals, spacers, pistons, brine pistons, flow controls, injectors, floats, disks, o-rings, screens, distributors, and electronics. They need to be cleaned, lubricated, adjusted, replaced, and turned. Then after cleaning and lubricating all of the components we can get to, there are small intricate ports and tunnels running inside the valve that we can’t get to that need to be cleaned. This is where a specialized citric acid with detergents is added so it can clean the internal workings of the unit as well as clean the resin beads keeping them in prime operating condition.

The water softener in my home is now going on 24 years. I regularly maintain my system. So in return for the favor, it regularly gives me soft water, which in turn saves me literally thousands of dollars over the years by protecting my appliances, fixtures, clothing, dishes, and plumbing. It also makes my home look nice when guests want to use the facilities.

When I take my Fj Cruiser to the dealer to have the oil changed they ask me each time, based on a print out of my previous services and my mileage, if I would like the radiator fluid changed, the differential fluid changed, the fuel filter changed, the engine flushed, and tires rotated. Each time I pick something so that my Fj is maintained regularly. With almost 200,000 miles on it, it has never let me down, never stranded me anywhere. Overtime, when I call on it to serve me, it is there. That’s how things go when we maintain what we have. It is a law of life. Especially in a world where everything moves to chaos and disorder and disintegration. Doing our part simply makes it last longer and work better. If you didn’t regularly paint your outside deck furniture the weather and environmental conditions deteriorate it in no time and you could buy new furniture yearly depending on where you live.

So, should your water softener be service yearly, yes. Are your required by law to do it? No. Is it common sense to do it? Absolutely. So when you get the call to come over and service your faithful friend in the basement be happy that you have the opportunity to keep your softener in good working order. So when you go to bed that night you can sleep more comfortable knowing that in the morning when you get up you are going to shower and you will have that awesome silky smooth experience where your skin feels moist, your hair manageable, and you use 50% less shampoo and soap. You will know that day after day, year after year, your friend is working away making sure the evil minerals and contaminants don’t make their way into your home.

If you’d like us to come and service your system please call us at 801-796-0940. Also visit us at totalwaterllc.com. We’d love to keep your best friend working great. If you already have a dealer who you trust, call him and schedule a service call.