Three Issues Water Softener Owners Should Always Be Aware Of

Many homes in the Phoenix area are equipped with water softening systems that provide an important and welcome service. Softer water makes life easier and more pleasant in a variety of ways. As a result of this fact and the prices that such systems command, the average homeowner will want to do everything possible to keep their own water softener working well. Fortunately, phoenix water softener experts have some advice that anyone can easily put to use.

A Few Simple Ways to Protect and Maintain a Water Softener

Water softeners are designed to provide plenty of reliable service as long as they are cared for appropriately. There are a few basic issues that homeowners can see take care of to ensure their systems will remain working well. Some of the factors that it pays to attend to most carefully include:

Wasted salt. Most water softeners can be configured to use up a certain amount of salt with each recharging cycle. In just about every case, a bit of experimentation will be in order. Adding more salt than can be accommodated by the resin bed in a particular system will mean wasting a supply that must be purchased and replaced regularly. Over time, even a little bit of excess can contribute to significantly higher costs of operation. Adding too much salt to the system with each cycle can also degrade water quality even if softening is happening as wanted.

Overly frequent recharging. Some homeowners try to keep their costs down by lowering the amount of salt added with each backwash well below recommended limits. In that case, a system will sometimes end up only producing softened water for part of each cycle. When adjusted to account for the lower amount of available salt, another system could end up recharging itself too frequently. While that might not seem like a major issue, it will mean imposing excessive, avoidable wear on valves and other expensive parts.

Chlorine, iron, and other contaminants. Finally, water softeners are also vulnerable to damage from substances they are not designed to remove. The chlorine present in many municipal water supplies can easily damage gaskets and seals over time, and iron can cause problems as well. Because of this, installing a whole-home water filtration system upstream from a water softener often pays off.

More Reliable and Long-Lasting Water Softening Service

Simply keeping potential issues like these in mind will make owning a water softener more rewarding in just about every case. Fortunately, local specialists are always ready to help with any problems that might arise along the way.