Does A Water Softener Need To Be Cleaned?

You have had your water softener installed for a year now, and it’s been working great as far as you can tell. But the water in the water softeners salt tank looks pretty dirty. Why is that? Should you clean it out? Does the whole system need to be cleaned out? You wonder…

Does A Water Softener Need To Be Cleaned? The water softening resin in a water softener needs to be cleaned by the brine from the systems brine tank to remove the hardness that it has removed from the water. A resin cleaner may be used to clean the system’s resin, and the brine tank should be cleaned when the brine becomes significantly dirty.

Giving your water softeners resin a thorough cleaning is very simple, and cleaning your brine tank doesn’t need to be an all-day chore if you know how to do it ahead of time. Follow these simple steps, and you will be done before you know it.

Why you should clean your water softener annually.

Your water supply is so important to you and your family, and your water softener is the most crucial part of your water treatment. It not only softens your water so it can clean you and your clothes better, but it protects your water fixtures and appliances from corrosion.

It has resin inside of its tank which removes the hard minerals from your water 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It has mechanical moving parts that operate when it regenerates and a tank that you add many bags of salt to during the course of a year.

I think that it deserves to be taken care of correctly don’t you?

How to easily clean your water softeners resin.

Even though the resin in your water softener gets hardness and iron cleaned from it regularly when the system uses the brine solution from the salt tank during its regeneration process, it is a good idea to give it a thorough cleaning once a year.

You don’t have to disconnect the plumbing and open up the tank to get water softener resin cleaner into it, just follow these simple steps to give your water softener a cleaning on the inside of its tank.

It’s really quite simple, we are going to pour one dose of water softener resin cleaner into the systems salt tank and then let the system do what it does normally.

Get yourself some water softener resin cleaner, then check your water softeners salt tank. We want to wait until the salt tank is nearly empty of salt, but not completely empty.

You should never let your salt tank get completely empty even when you plan on cleaning it!

Pour the single-dose packet or bottle of resin cleaner into the salt tank.

Next, we want to start the water softeners regeneration process.

On more basic water softeners, this may be done by turning the regeneration dial clockwise a few clicks or until you see the words BRINE or BRINE DRAW.

Then simply let the water softener regenerate as normal and avoid using water until it has completed its regeneration process entirely.

Most water softeners with digital displays will have a REGEN or REGENERATE button on them. Usually, you only have to press and hold this button for a few seconds until you hear a motor start, hear water flowing, or see the display change.

If you have a non-electric water softener, you may have to use a Phillips head screwdriver to start its regeneration by inserting the screwdriver in the very center of the top of the softeners control valve.

Then press down about 1/16 of an inch and then turn clockwise until you hear or feel about 6 clicks. This will start the regeneration process.

Then let the system continue its regeneration on its own.

If you can’t regenerate your non-electric water softener, simply leave it, and it will regenerate on its own when it needs to.

If none of these apply to your water softener, check your water softener owners’ manual for how to regenerate your water softener.

Properly sanitizing the inside of the water softener.

Since a water softener tank is a sealed tank that should not be exposed to any air, sanitizing the inside of the tank is not usually necessary.

But if the water softener has not been used in a long time or you feel that there may be a need to sanitize the tank, make sure to do it correctly.

Many people think that it is ok to put chlorine bleach in your water softeners salt tank in order to sanitize their water softener resin. This can be done in the same way as using the water softener resin cleaner, but only in small doses of un-scented chlorine bleach.

Chlorine will damage the water softening resin if the resin is exposed to it in strong concentrate or for even a short amount of time. See my article Can Water Softener Resin Go Bad for more details.

In order to protect your water softeners resin from damage, use only about 1/4 cup of ordinary un-scented household bleach. Simply mix 1/4 cup of bleach with 2 gallons of water and pour the bleach mixture in the salt tank just like the resin cleaner.

Next, regenerate the water softener and after the water has completed its regeneration process, run plenty of cold water throughout your home to make sure that all of the bleach has been removed from the water softeners tank.

If you are at all uncomfortable using chlorine bleach in your water softener, I recommend using an EPA & NSF approved non-bleach sanitizer, like this Liquid Sanitizer Concentrate.

Let’s clean out the water softeners’ brine tank.

Cleaning out your water softeners brine tank every year or two is a good idea, but I don’t feel that there is any need to scrub it clean to make it look like new.

The reason I say this is because as soon as you add a bag of salt to it, you will be adding new dirt to it.

That’s right! There is dirt hitching a ride inside of the bag of water softener salt that you add to your salt tank. And that is perfectly fine.

The brine from the brine tank is used to regenerate the water softening resin, and it does not come out of your kitchen sink.

When cleaning your salt tank, you can make it as clean as you wish, but the main thing that we are trying to accomplish is to make sure the brine in the tank is relatively free of debris so it will regenerate the resin better, and not clog any of the water softeners inner parts.

Follow these steps for basic cleaning of your water softeners salt tank and do the optional cleaning if you feel it necessary. Wait until the salt level has gone low so there will be less salt wasted and less to clean.

If the salt in your water softeners brine tank is not going down, you may have a salt bridge or your softener may not be working correctly. See my articles on “How To Clear A Salt Bridge” and Why Is My Water Softener Salt Not Going Down?.

Once you have finished cleaning your salt tank and added a few bags of fresh salt, do not regenerate the water softener for at least 2 hours so that the salt has time to become brine, and any remaining debris can settle to the bottom of the tank.

Steps to cleaning your brine tank.

Step 1: Refer to your owner’s manual on how to bypass your water softener so there will be no water flowing through it while you are cleaning the salt tank.

Step 2: Scoop out the remaining salt and discard properly. Salt will hurt grass, plants, and flowers, so be sure to discard the old salt in a place where it will do no harm.

Or see my article on Other Uses For Water Softener Salt if you would like to put that old salt to good use.

If the salt has clumped together or has created a salt bridge, see my article on How To Clear A Salt Bridge to remove it properly.

Step 3: When the salt has been completely removed, clear any dirt or debris from the top of the white grid plate at the bottom of the salt tank if your water softener has one.

Optional cleaning: If you desire, you can remove the grid plate from the bottom of the tank by lifting it straight up to thoroughly clean underneath it. You can clean the grid plate and walls of the tank with a mild solution of water and a small amount of dish soap.

If you choose to clean the tank with dish soap, be sure to rinse the tank thoroughly and wipe clean. Using a mild bleach and water solution may be used if you find mold or mildew inside of the tank, rinse well after using a bleach solution.

Step 4: Replace the systems grid plate into its proper position, add 2 or more bags of salt and add 4-5 gallons of clean water. Take your system out of bypass and wait at least 2 hours before regenerating the water softener.

Now that we have the brine tank cleaned, there are a few simple things that you should keep in mind to keep it clean and functioning at its best.

1: Never let your water softener salt tank get empty. Without salt in your brine tank, your water softener can’t clean itself, and therefore it can’t soften your water.

2: Never overfill your salt tank. Putting to much salt in your salt tank can encourage bridging, which will make your tank appear full but there will not be any salt at the bottom of the tank where it is needed.

I tell my customers to never fill their salt tanks above the top of the brine well tube (that’s that white tube that goes up the side of the inside of the salt tank, you probably always wondered what that thing was called, right?).

Keeping the maximum salt level at this point will help avoid salt bridges that may originate by salt that is sitting on top of the brine well tube.

3: Clean off any salt that has collected on the sides of the salt tank whenever you add new salt. Keeping the walls of your salt tank will make it less likely for a salt bridge to begin.

Follow these simple tips and your salt tank should function properly for a very long time without the need for replacement.

The outside of the water softener should be cleaned also.

Your water softener is in an area of your home where there is a lot of cold water pipes. If there is cold water flowing through pipes where there can be humidity, there will almost certainly be condensation.

Condensation on cold water pipes and your water softener is a prime location for the growth of mold. First, you should read my articles on Why Is My Water Softener Sweating and How Can I Stop Condensation On My Water Softener.

Then you should make sure to clean the outside of your water softener and surrounding pipes with a mold and mildew cleaner at least once a year.

I recommend making cleaning the outside of your water softener a part of your spring cleaning routine. It shouldn’t take you very long at all, and once you have done it a few times, it will be very simple.

If you have any other water treatment in your home, like an acid-neutralizing system or sulfur removal system, clean them the same as would your water softener.

Be sure to change the filters for your reverse osmosis system as needed, see my article on How Often Should I Change My Reverse Osmosis Filters?.

And don’t forget my article on How To Sanitize Your Reverse Osmosis System.