Experiencing a salty taste in your softened water in the morning is not uncommon when you have certain types of water softeners and under certain conditions. Salty water in the morning is not likely a serious problem, it is most likely just your water softener not working as it should.
Tasting salty water first thing in the morning is a common symptom of your water softener failing to rinse away brine after its regeneration process. Clogged water pre-filters, malfunctioning valves, and build-up on internal parts can cause salt to be left behind in your water softener tank.
If your water tastes salty first thing in the morning, there are a few things that you can check for to help remedy the problem and stop it from coming back. Running your cold water for a few minutes should clear the salty water for now, and here is what to look for to stop salty water from re-occurring in future mornings.
How your water softener can leave salt in your water after regeneration.
Tasting salt water first thing in the morning is often caused by a high amount of sodium chloride ions that have been left behind in your water softener after it has completed its regeneration process. If you experience a saline taste in your water throughout the day it may be a concentrate of sulfates coming in from your water supply.
Under ideal conditions, most water softeners should not leave a salty taste in the water after they have gone through the regeneration process but there are times when this will not be the case.
First, let us make sure we understand where the salt taste is coming from. If you have a water softener you know that you have to add salt to the salt container from time to time.
This salt is dissolved in water that is in the bottom of the salt container (BRINE TANK) to turn it into a very salty liquid that is called brine.
Brine is water that is saturated with as much salt as possible at room temperature.
This brine is what the water softener uses to remove hardness and iron from the resin material that is inside the softener’s tank.
During normal operation of the softener, this very salty brine solution flows through the resin beads to clean them and then the softener uses clean water to rinse the brine away and you will not experience any salty taste in the water.
If the brine is not thoroughly rinsed away or some of it seeps into the water lines going into the house during its regeneration process you will experience a salty taste in the water during or after its regeneration process.
How does a water softener use salt, and why salt can be left behind after regeneration?
During the regeneration process, the brine solution is introduced into the system during what is commonly known as the brine draw cycle.
This is the cycle where the hardness ions that are clinging to the water softener resin beads are exchanged with the sodium ions from the brine solution and then rinsed away along with the majority of the brine solution.
In most cases, the amount of salt leftover after the regeneration process is extremely small and will not be at all noticeable. The brine draw cycle on most water softeners involves a period of about twenty minutes when the system will draw the brine solution through the resin beads.
Usually, about three to four gallons of brine solution is used during this twenty-minute cycle, and then it is followed by a period of approximately thirty minutes of rinsing without the brine solution to remove the leftover brine.
What causes the salty water to be left behind?
Different brand softeners all work in slightly different ways to accomplish the regeneration or cleaning process and even though the basic use of salty brine is the solution that removes the hardness from the softening resin, some systems have slight flaws that can leave some brine solution behind or allow some to get into the lines during the regeneration process.
What causes a salty taste from an Autotroll valve water softener?
An Autotroll control valve is a very common water softener control valve that otherwise is a highly reliable and long-lasting valve but it does have a slight flaw when it comes to containing the brine solution during regeneration.
The Autotroll valve works with a series of spring-loaded “flappers” that open and close to control the flow of water through it which controls whether it is backwashing with clean water or using the brine solution.
During the brine rinse cycle, the flapper valves that prevent the brine solution from mixing in with the clean water can bleed some of the brine solutions into the clean water.
This usually only occurs if the valve is several years old and or there is a drop in pressure in the clean water inside the valve, usually caused by water being used inside the house while the softener is in the brine rinse cycle of its regeneration process.
This problem can often be remedied by a service person replacing the flapper level of the valve. But be sure to get a price quote for this repair before it is done because it may be more expensive than it is worth.
A reputable service company may repair it for a few hundred dollars but some less trustworthy service companies may try to charge as much as $900- $1200 and in many cases, you can get a brand new system for about the same price as the repair.
The next softener brand with a small design flaw that can produce salty water is also one of its biggest design benefits.
What causes a salty taste from a Kinetico valve water softener?
NOTE: The Kinetico water treatment control valve is an intricate array of pistons, gears, and turbines that are totally controlled by water flowing through it. Without sufficient water pressure, a Kinetico water softener may not rinse all of the saltwater (BRINE) that it used during its regeneration process.
The valve meters how much water is being used and when a preset volume of water has been reached it uses water flow to open and close valves and guide water to create a vacuum to draw the brine solution out of the brine tank.
During the Kinetico brine draw cycle, the brine is supposed to be drawn out at a fast rate, flushed through the softening resin tanks in just a few minutes using up the entire amount of available brine solution, and then rinsing the softening resin for several minutes after the brine solution is depleted to rinse away the brine solution.
Now the whole Kinetico regeneration process generally takes less than thirty minutes, in some systems even less than twenty-five minutes so proper timing is critical to assure that each cycle has performed its function and the regeneration of the softening resin is complete.
In almost all installations of any Kinetico system, an in-line sediment pre-filter is required due to the delicate operation of the valve. Even a small piece of sediment getting into the valve can get caught in gear or valve and cause a variety of problems.
How a clogged water Pre-filter can cause salty water from a Kinetico water softener.
If there is sediment in the water coming into the system, this pre-filter can gradually clog causing a drop in pressure during the regeneration process.
This can cause the brine solution to be drawn out of the brine tank at a much slower rate than it should so the brine will be flowing through the resin tanks far longer than it should be therefore cutting short the amount of rinse time that is required during the final cycle to remove the brine solution from the tank.
This can mean that the brine solution is left inside the resin tank and will be drawn into the house the next time that water flows through the tank hence salty water coming out of your faucet.
The simple solution to this problem is to change the filter cartridge in the in-line housing. This should provide better water flow which will allow the system to use the brine solution in the correct dosage then get rinsed away as it should be leaving you with no salty water taste.
Not that I want to be picking on Autotroll and Kinetico which are both fine systems. Basically, any water treatment system that uses salt can result in salty water in the morning.
Other factors that can cause a water softener to leave salty water behind.
Often it is the result of a clogged injector or sometimes referred to as a venturi. This injector is what creates the draw that pulls the brine solution from the brine barrel so it can be used to clean the softening resin.
If this injector gets a little clogged then it will draw the brine solution out slowly leaving some behind after the regeneration process is over and then it will end up in the pipes and out of your faucet.
The amount of flow of the injector is indicated by the color in most cases. A white (small) injector is most commonly used in smaller to mid-sized tanks, seven to nine inches in diameter.
A blue (medium) injector is advised for tanks ranging from ten to thirteen inches in diameter, and a yellow (Larger) is often used for thirteen-inch diameter tanks or sometimes for smaller tanks if a faster draw is desired for a special application.
You may have a bad seal around your water softener’s main piston.
On water softener valves that have a main piston that moves back and forth to control the water flow and cycles, salty water may occur from the brine solution bleeding through the seals on the seal pack.
The seal pack is basically the tube of rings that the main piston passes through as it goes back and forth. If the seals on these rings chip or get worn down then the brine can seep through during regeneration and mix with the clean water which will go to your faucet.
On most systems, this “seal” pack can be replaced for a few hundred dollars by a trained technician.
But if the system is more than fifteen years old or so and you have some sediment coming in from your water source, the chamber in which the seal pack goes may have worn down and a new seal pack may not last very long before the salty water returns to a new system may be the best route to go.
What should you do when you experience salty water in the morning?
Run your cold water for just a few minutes and the majority of the salty water should rinse away.
If you have a hot water storage tank that has gotten salty water in it you will have to use the hot water up that is in the tank, take a little longer shower for a day or two and it should be mostly gone.
As stated before, for Kinetico systems you should change the filter cartridge to allow better water flow and then run the cold water for a bit. If the salty water happens again a few days later, just run the cold water until the salty water is gone.
You may get salty water twice with a dual tank Kinetico water softener because most of their model’s alternate tanks provide soft water without interruption during the regeneration process.
They switch tanks so that one is in use as the other one is being regenerated so both tanks may have to be flushed out a few days apart if the salty water got into both tanks.
For most other systems, once the cause of the salty water problem is remedied the salty water should be gone after just a few minutes of rinsing and should not re-occur any time soon.
Related Questions:
What if the salty taste doesn’t go away? If you are experiencing a salty taste in your water that doesn’t go away, it is more than likely not a problem with your water softener at all.
A water softener does not continuously add salt to your water. The only time that salt is introduced to your water softener is during its regeneration process.
If your water tastes salty all the time, it is most likely caused by a high level of sodium in your water source. A well that is supplied with water that is high in sodium will taste just as salty after it goes through a water softener.
If your water source contains a high sodium content, the best solution is getting a reverse osmosis drinking water system to make the water healthier for drinking.
What if the salty taste keeps coming back? If you have a reoccurring taste of salty water that doesn’t seem to want to stay away, you should contact a water treatment professional.
Look for a local company that specializes in water treatment, not just someone that is a plumber. This may be a tricky problem that only a water treatment specialist will be able to solve, so seek out someone with the proper experience.
