Salty taste in fresh water lines

[AKres88]

My apologies if I'm re-posting something that has been asked 50x over, read through a lot of older posts hoping to find something close to problem I am having but all seem to have been occurring as mine just randomly popped up yesterday but was fine beforehand. So onto the problem at hand.

My wife called me from our house in Alaska today and apparently out of the blue the water tasted like salt, not a small hint of salt, but take a gulp of ocean water salt. I'm currently deployed so only get what she is saying however she says the water pressure has dropped since I left 3 months ago, "go figure, now she tells me." She has changed all water filters with exact ones we used since always. She hasn't changed the water softener settings or anything like that. Which has me wondering is this something that is water softener related because it uses salt? I am not a plumber by any means, but didn't think there was a way the softener line could back feed into the well.

As I am deployed I will most likely have to call a plumber, however would like to know a few ideas before I get bent over because I'm overseas for another 9 months. Just don't wanna buy a new boiler, well, and pump if I can change a filter.

Thank you in advance for all of your help and guidance.

 

[Reach4]

I would order her a TDS meter. They are cheap. Softening should not increase the TDS a lot, because you are replacing some ions with another. If the TDS changes a lot between the input and output of a softener, that would seem to indicate a problem with the softener.

What is your hardness? The harder the water you are softening, the saltier the softened water will be. But you did not have that symptom before. So something changed.

Unsoftened water is normally available at the outside spigots. That could be used for the test water, but it could also be used for drinking water if the saltiness is a a problem for drinking.

You could also ask her to compare the saltiness the day after a regeneration with the saltiness a few days later.

No filter that I know of, short of a reverse osmosis filter or deionization filter, is going to remove salt.

I am not a pro.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Smooky]

Sounds like a softener malfunction:
https://www.softenerparts.com/kb_results.asp?ID=74

Is the drain hose open where it can flow freely?

 

[Bannerman]

The symptoms you describe appear as defective resin in the softener which is usually caused by or at least hastened by chlorine in the water. Resin can swell or become mushy which causes a flow restriction and problems in rinsing away the salt brine during regeneration. Does your well system use chlorine for disinfection or removal of iron, manganese or sulfur?

To determine if the softener is the source of the problem, your wife will need to simply open the bypass valve on the rear of the softener. If the softener is the cause, I expect the water pressure will then increase to normal and the salty taste will no longer be present as the water will no longer be flowing through the softener.