News Flash! Water Softeners Need to Be Cleaned Twice A Year!

Here's a recent water softener and iron filter we installed!

I can’t tell you how many times we get calls on water softeners because they just stop working, or they’re using salt but people still have hard water, etc. If you get a water softener system installed in your home, you need to clean it every six months. You can either hire a technician to do it, or do it yourself—it’s not very complicated— but failure to do so will guarantee the failure of your water softener.

Water softeners utilize tiny grains of resin to remove impurities in your water. The resin looks like little plastic beads kind of. These grains of resin have a certain charge or ionization, that help them stick to the water impurities when the water passes over the resin. The water softener then uses that salt you fill it up with, the wash this resin, allowing the ionized salt to scrub the impurities off the resin because the salt is also kind of ionized (attracted to the impurities)…. I’m sure the science part of that description is not exactly correct, but you get the jest of it.

Anyways, while the salt does do a good job of cleaning the resin, it is not perfect and requires a stronger cleaner every 6 months. If they are not cleaned every six months, the resin continues to accumulate this residual stuff on it, and it eventually renders the resin useless.

I see systems all the time where a new homeowner who is unfamiliar with how their water softener works, just assumes that you can fill it with salt and it should work. And, to be fair, it does for a while. Sometimes it can take 5-7 years for the functionality to noticeably decline. But it will eventually and this results in a problem that can only properly be resolved with replacement.

The good news is, it’s not that hard to clean! Many times we get hired to do the cleaning, and after showing the homeowner how to do it, they’re able to do it themselves from then on. Out of all the home maintenance things out there, this is one of the easier ones!

We also find that we do water softener cleanings during a routine furnace/AC cleaning. If we’re already there doing something else, its a great time to do it and save on a future trip charge, etc.

If you need help with your water softener, or are looking at perhaps getting one installed, give us a call! We can tell you the ins and outs of your current unit; or assess your water demands and water quality to identify what type of system would work best for you!