Hot water is salty

[Syra]

Not sure whether to post it here or in the water heater forum, and decided on here since it does seem to involve my softener system.

It's an older system. I think the hot water tank is the newest part of it but wouldn't put anything at under five years in age. If I need to get model numbers and other information, I'll go do that, but we've got well water, pump, softener, with a hot water tank inside the house. The hot water tank heats about 50 gal to 140F if I'm not mistaken.

Another member of the household noticed it late last night brushing their teeth, but our hot water has suddenly become salty. Just the hot though. I've tested it with all the faucets in the house and the cold water doesn't have a taste but the hot water definitely tastes like the softener pellets I use.

Any idea what might be going on here or how to fix it? Do I need to open up the hot water tank and clean it out or something? Or maybe choose a different type of pellet for use in my system?

 

[Reach4]

Does the softener feed the cold line you are testing, or is the softener just going to the water heater and maybe some colds you are not testing? It is somewhat common to run hard water to the kitchen cold, but normally the softener runs to the bathroom colds.

Now why would there be salty water from the softener? It could happen if the slow rinse from the softener is not long enough, or if the softener is over-filling the brine tank.

That saltiness should dissipate before the next regen, but the water heater could have retained that.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bannerman]

You haven't described your water softener system or how your home is plumbed. Is the softener feeding only the water heater but not the home's cold faucets? You would need to trace the plumbing lines to each faucet to establish how they are plumbed.

If the softener does feed the hot and cold fixtures but as the saltiness problem is not noticed from cold faucets, that is perplexing but I will speculate as to the cause.

During softener regeneration, salt brine is drawn into the softener during the Brine Draw stage of the regeneration cycle. The Brine Draw stage is intended to be long enough duration to not only draw in brine from the brine tank, but also to rinse the brine out from the softener's resin bed.

Brine is often all drawn from the brine tank within 15 minutes even as the BD setting is usually 60 minutes, thereby allowing approx 45 minutes for brine to be pushed through the resin bed and for rinsing to occur. If the BD setting is too short, then not all of the brine will be rinsed to drain and so there will be some saltiness in the initial softened water directly following each regeneration cycle.

Regeneration normally occurs during the night when everyone is sleeping. The first person rising each morning may be turning on hot water first, which would cause any initial salty water from the softener to flow directly into the water heater.

If the BD stage is too short, that could be caused by improper settings, or there may be a malfunction with the softener.

Suggest posting some photos of your water softener including close-ups of the control panel indicating the settings. We will also need to know your well water's hardness quantity and if your water contains iron and manganese. We will also need to know the size (total capacity) of the softener and the number of persons residing in your home so as to estimate water consumption. If there are any additional labels, include photos of those also.

There should be a hose fitting and valve located near the bottom of the water heater. This is for flushing the heater tank which should be performed at least every 3 months if not more often.

As a side comment, I'm not understanding why anyone would be brushing their teeth using Hot water?

 

[Syra]

My understanding (concerning how it's setup) is that the water line comes into the house from the softener. The reason I kinda know this is because we had to drill a new well more recently. So the water goes from pump to softener to house which is where it interacts with the hot water tank since that's where the hot water tank's setup at.

The softener in question is a standing system, older model whirlpool (model: WHES30, I ran out and took a look at it) In general, the line runs from the well (set a good distance from the house), into our shed where the softener is (approximately 10 feet), and then the line comes to the house, underground, around... 40 feet to get to the house? Possibly further? So it's a little hard when you start talking about taking photos for me to get photos of everything lol.

It's basically been on the same settings since we've gotten it? There's only two of us in the house now (small house in general). I believe it's set on 60 or 65 hardness, I couldn't tell you the exact composition of the water but I'm pretty sure it at least contains iron? Without the softener, the water turns everything orange (light colored clothing, dishes, etc). I know it's pretty hard water. Sorry, I don't really have a lot of knowledge concerning exact details.

Honestly, it's a crappy situation right now, as the person that was normally taking care of things took off and left. So, when issues come up, I'm starting to try and take care of everything and learn along the way, so I know it's been way longer than 3 months since it's been flushed. So I'll have to look up how to do that. I thank you kindly for the details on that and how often it needs be done. I'll have to try that first off.

Also they just like using hot water for brushing their teeth. It's not boiling hot or anything but just how they do stuff. Might come with cold sensitivity and/or partials (when cleaning them) etc etc. Easier to clean stuff off partials with hot water, I'm sure.

 

[Reach4]

Your softener, dealing with iron, may need some extra care and cleaning. Cabinet units are usually not repaired but are replaced as a unit. That is not a bad idea. I have a friend who uses those. He figures about 10 years, and replace when there is a problem. That is not too say that they cannot be worked on. It's just that most people don't do it. If you search for "iron out" with the quotes in the softener forum that might talk about some cleaning.

You don't want to water your plants with softened water. I know you did not mention it, but with the softener out in the well house, I thought I would mention that.

 

[Syra]

I didn't even consider that. Have to add that to the list then of things to do but it'll have to be a repair/cleaning as compared to replacement. Can't afford that currently.

We've got a reverse osmosis on one faucet in the house and we solely water our plants from there since we haven't really had a garden for years.

 

[Reach4]

We've got a reverse osmosis on one faucet in the house and we solely water our plants from there

Good move.