New Water Softener Weird Taste

[Dom Piazza]

I just installed a Fleck 5600SXT 64K water softener this past weekend. Everything appears to be working correctly, but my wife and I are noticing a weird plastic-like taste (not fruity) to the water. I am not sure what it could be. I did use PEX, but the taste goes back to normal when I bypass the softener. I also did a manual regeneration which made a small improvement. I am on city water by the way and I do not have any other filtration in my house besides a refrigerator filter.

Any ideas what this could be? I have not sanitized the system with bleach as the instructions did not call for this. I did lubricate the O-rings with silicone per the instructions. I used a generous amount, but nothing crazy. Could the silicone be causing this weird taste? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bannerman]

Add 1/4 cup unscented chlorine bleach into the brine tank then regenerate to determine if the situation has improved.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

I trust it was silicone grease/lubricant, and not silicone sealant/adhesive, which often smells like vinegar.

 

[Dom Piazza]

I trust it was silicone grease/lubricant, and not silicone sealant/adhesive, which often smells like vinegar.

Yes, Super lube to be exact. Food grade that can be used for O-rings in potable water systems. I just did notice that it has PTFE added in though.

 

[Dom Piazza]

Add 1/4 cup unscented chlorine bleach into the brine tank then regenerate to determine if the situation has improved.

Thanks, will do! Should I mix the bleach with water first? Also, is it ok that there is already salt in the brine tank?

By the way, I have read a lot of your comments when I was choosing and installing the system. Thanks for all of the advice!

 

[Bannerman]

Mixing the chlorine with a small amount of water will be OK, which should then be poured into the brine well (4" plastic tube) inside the brine tank.

Re lubricants, see post #47 here: https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/fleck-9100sxt-program-settings.86684/page-3

 

[Dom Piazza]

I finally sanitized the system last night, but it did not seem to help much. I also did another manual regeneration this morning. The water still has a weird taste to it. My wife seems to think that it could be a sodium/salt taste, but it's not overly salty. Could any of the settings affect this? Keep in mind that the water had this taste before I did a manual regeneration. Any help would be appreciated!

Edit:
Not sure if this is relevant, but there was some shipping damage. The transformer busted through the box and was split apart. It wouldn't snap back together so the seller replaced it. The rest of the meter seems to be undamaged and appears to be functioning properly.

 

[Bannerman]

Inappropriate settings can cause insufficient slow rinse for the amount of salt utilized.

Suggest posting all current settings for review and feedback. Include any data specified on labels located nearby to the brine tube connection. ie: BLFC, DLFC & Injector number.

 

[Dom Piazza]

Thank you for taking a look at this. My settings are below. I actually don't have a super accurate hardness rating. I used cheap test strips and it looks to be in the 15-20 range. I have a Hach 5B kit coming tomorrow.

Again, it is a 64k size with 10% crosslink resin. 3 people in my household, but soon to be 4 so I went with the larger size. I am on city water. Pictures of the labels are attached.

DF: gal
VT: dflb
CT: FD
NT: 1
C: 42
H: 20
RS: rc (Text is messed up on screen for some reason, but looks like RC. Is this normal?)
RC: 225
DO: 14
RT: 3am
BW: 10
BD: 60
RR: 10
BF: 8
FM: P0.7

Edit**
Just got my Hach 5B kit and got a hardness rating of 22GPG.

 

[ditttohead]

Many online companies will source the cheapest possible "everything" in order to be the low price leader. There are many resin manufacturers overseas that do not meet the standards that the more reputable companies demand. Your water should not have a plastic taste, this is not acceptable.

 

[Dom Piazza]

Many online companies will source the cheapest possible "everything" in order to be the low price leader. There are many resin manufacturers overseas that do not meet the standards that the more reputable companies demand. Your water should not have a plastic taste, this is not acceptable.

Yikes! That is not very reassuring. The price was fairly low for the system, but the vendor seemed to be pretty reputable and had good reviews. Do you think it's safe to continue to use or should I bypass? We have pretty much switched to spring water for drinking.

It's tough to describe the taste. Both my wife and I have never had soft water before so we are not sure if it's normal. I think it tastes plasticky, but she thinks it could be sodium/salt.

I spoke again with the vendor today. They want me to continue to use for another week and to keep regenerating to see if it improves. If the taste does not go away, they will reach out to the resin manufacturer. Just from searching around on the forums and online, it seems like others have had a similar problem with other brands. I'm pretty bummed out about the situation. The soft water feels great, but I'm not sure if we can live with the taste. I have considered just taking the system out all together. Any other ideas on how to proceed?Thank you again!

 

[Dom Piazza]

Update:

It seems to be the silicone lubricant that was imparting a taste on the water. Don't judge, but I tasted a little bit of the lube and it was very similar to the taste in my water. I took the apart the meter and wiped off any excess. I reassembled and sanitized. This made a noticeable improvement in the taste, but it is not 100% gone. If we had an RO system, we probably wouldn't even notice.

I may replace the O-rings and lightly lube the new ones with Danco before I install. I am also considering cleaning out some of the areas with dish soap and water to get any remaining residue out. Would this be ok?

I am also seriously considering an RO system for our drinking water. I finally got a TDS meter and it's reading about 475 PPM. Our fridge filter brings it down to about 300.

 

[Reach4]

It seems to be the silicone lubricant that was imparting a taste on the water.

Interesting. What brand and model of silicone?

 

[Dom Piazza]

Interesting. What brand and model of silicone?

Super lube. I had it from another project. It is food grade and says it is for use on O-rings. It does have PTFE in it though.

 

[Bannerman]

Surprised a food grade certified lubricant would impart any taste.

Any of the lubricant that may have sloughed off and entered the resin bed, may take considerable time to be backwashed away to where it becomes undetectable. Further regeneration cycles should help but carbon filtration is beneficial for taste and odor reduction in addition to removal of many contaminants. An RO system typically utilizes 2 or more stages of carbon in addition to an RO membrane.

 

[Dom Piazza]

Surprised a food grade certified lubricant would impart any taste.

Any of the lubricant that may have sloughed off and entered the resin bed, may take considerable time to be backwashed away.

Yeah, very bizarre. I didn't think that it would impart a taste so I wasn't super neat with applying it. There was probably some residue on my hands when I put the upper basket on. I may just replace that as well since it's only $5.

I figured as much about the resin. I really didn't use a ton of lubricant so hopefully no big chunks made it down to the resin. I plan to clean the meter and bypass as best as I can and be very careful when reassembling. Hopefully the RO should take care of the taste until it completely clears up.

 

[Dom Piazza]

Final update.....

I did install an RO system. Our drinking water tasted great, but all other faucets still tasted off for brushing teeth and cooking.

I ended up replacing the O-rings and the upper basket. I cleaned the old lubricant off with dish soap and a tooth brush. I lubed the new O-rings sparingly before I installed in the meter. I sanitized with 2.4oz bleach, but soon after the water started to taste and smell like sulfur. It got worse over the next couple weeks. I sanitized again with bleach, but that did not help. I finally tried 2 cups of ResCare and that seemed to do the trick. Very curious what would have happened if I tried this in the beginning. Just happy to have ok tasting, soft water.

 

[Skyjumper]

you're on city water and have sulfur??

others may chime in here, but using bleach on softener resin can damage the resin I think. obviously depends on how much you use. but you shouldn't need to use bleach or rescare or anything else on a brand new softener. something is seriously wrong here. at minimum I'd ask the seller to either provide new resin, or give you a partial refund so you can buy new resin somewhere else. I'm really curious who you got this from so I know to avoid them (PM me, please).

 

[Dom Piazza]

you're on city water and have sulfur??

others may chime in here, but using bleach on softener resin can damage the resin I think. obviously depends on how much you use. but you shouldn't need to use bleach or rescare or anything else on a brand new softener. something is seriously wrong here. at minimum I'd ask the seller to either provide new resin, or give you a partial refund so you can buy new resin somewhere else. I'm really curious who you got this from so I know to avoid them (PM me, please).

6+ months later and both softener and RO are working well! (Knock on wood).

It is recommended that you sanitize the system both after initial installation or any servicing. This is typically done with bleach, but there are commercial products that are available as well. If you scroll up, other members recommend this. It's true that bleach is not good for the resin, but this tiny amount is pretty insignificant compared to years of exposure to city tap water.

I did not replace the resin or request partial refund from the supplier as it seems to be working fine now. I chalk my problems up to installation error. The sulfur buildup occurred after I serviced the unit. I assume that bacteria built up and I did not use a sufficient amount of bleach to sanitize (only 2.4oz). The combination commercial cleaner + sanitizer packet did the trick and I have not had the problem since.

At the end of the day I am satisfied with my softener and resin. If I had to do it again, I would probably buy a higher end resin, but it does seem to be working fine now. When I have to replace the resin I will 100% buy some better stuff though.