There are also salt clogs that can form inside small valves or other components. If you find a salt mushing, the brine tank will have to be cleaned out, and then it can be refilled with water and salt. To check for salt mushing, take out some of the salt and look for a thick sludge layer that may be coating the bottom of the brine tank. The salt bridge can be gently broken up with a broom handle. If you can reach the bottom, you don’t have a salt bridge, and if you can’t, you do have one. You can check for a salt bridge by pressing down on the salt layer with a long object to try and reach the bottom of the brine tank. Both of these issues will prevent the sodium ions from recharging the resin beads and eventually the beads will not be able to soften your water. Salt mushing is when the salt recrystallizes to form a thick salt sludge in the bottom of your brine tank. It’s worth checking your owner’s manual because some water softener brands have specific control settings.Ī salt bridge is when the salt in your brine tank hardens to form a dome, this creates an air pocket separating the salt from the water. Most plumbers set the recharge time at 2.00am because this is a quiet time and the recharge can run uninterrupted. The time of day for the recharge should be displayed on the softener head and if it’s not correct the time will need to be adjusted. If these settings are incorrect, the system may not recharge the resin beads. Now that we understand the basic principle let’s take a closer look at two reasons why the water softener may stop softening the water.Įach water softener has a control valve that will determine when the system recharges. The resin beads get filled with calcium and magnesium over time, and the recharge is needed to rinse those hard minerals away.

Periodically the brine tank is used to flush out and recharge the resin tank so that it can continue to work effectively. The resin tank is where an ion exchange takes place, the hardness causing minerals are attracted to the resin beads and replaced with softer sodium (salt) ions.

The system will usually have two tanks they are the resin tank (water softener) and the brine tank (salt tank). Let’s take a closer look at how your water softener works and two ways that you may be able to troubleshoot the problem.Ī water softener strips away the calcium and magnesium minerals that make the water hard. There are a few reasons why this might happen, and each issue has a different troubleshooting method. Many people have experienced a water softener that appears to be running, but the water is not being softened.

Ecowater water softener troubleshooting