Water Softener Salt Bridge Problems
The most common reason why your water softener will stop using salt is because of a salt bridge that has formed at the bottom of the brine tank.
Water softener salt bridge problems. Both salt bridges and salt mushing are diy fixes. A salt bridge can sometimes form in the brine tank causing a space between the water and the salt due to high humidity or from using the wrong kind of salt. Salt bridge water softener. Sometimes the indication that a salt bridge is present is when you notice that the water softener is no longer correctly conditioning the water.
Before delving deeper into water softener salt bridge repair it is important to understand exactly what a water. How to fix it. But if the salt seems to be dry then checking for a salt bridge would be a good place to start troubleshooting your hard water issue. Water softeners are designed to prevent minerals from scaling on your pipes and fixtures but funnily enough they are subject to salt which is still a mineral scaling inside the tank and within the system s lines.
Similarly salt mushing can also cause issues with your water softener s performance. The big air pocket created by the salt bridge means that the water may not be using salt. Flush all the broken up salt by doing a manual regeneration. Salt bridges forming inside the tank can cause the machine to stop working properly.
Follow the steps below to rid your water softener of salt bridges or mushing. To resolve this problem open up the water softener tank. A salt bridge is caused when pieces of salt are bonded together to create a hard crusty surface on the top of the water in the brine tank. The salt won t dissolve in the water to make brine and the resin bed does not regenerate.
Symptoms of a salt bridge. A salt bridge is very uncommon when the water level is high in the salt tank because the high water level will likely dissolve any potential bonding of the salt that could develop into a bridge. So let s see the most common water softener problems how to spot them and most importantly how to prevent them from happening in the first place. Instead of forming a crusty layer the salt recrystallizes on the bottom of the brine tank creating a salty sludge.
The end of a broomstick to break up the salt bridge. If your water softener appears to be running correctly but you notice that the water is hard to the touch and feel or you notice a change in how detergents and soaps perform you know that something is stopping the. Set the float valve lower to fix the problem.