A water softener serves a valuable purpose for your home. It prevents mineral build-up inside your plumbing fixtures, extends the lifespan of your appliances, and helps your hair, skin, and clothing feel softer.
To keep your water softener running smoothly, you need to keep up with some routine maintenance tasks. Most importantly, you should refill your water softener with salt whenever the levels get low.
However, knowing when to do this can be difficult. Some homeowners need to add salt to their water softener every two weeks, and others can go two months before adding salt. To know when to refill your water softener, you need to get familiar with your specific system and its needs.
Factors Affecting Salt Usage in Your Water Softener
Water Usage
Household water needs vary widely. If you have a big family, take long showers, or water your lawn regularly, you may use twice as much water as the average household. On the other hand, if you live alone, do your laundry at the laundromat, and never water your lawn, your water usage will be much lower.
For an average household, 40 pounds of salt in a water softener lasts about a month. However, larger households or families that use a lot of water may go through salt much faster.
Hardness of Water
The hardness levels of your home’s water can make a difference, too. Homes with extremely hard water will go through salt faster than homes with less hard water. If you haven’t already, consider testing your water to determine its hardness level.
Regeneration Frequency
One way to predict how long a bag of salt will last in your system is to consider how often your water softener regenerates. If your system regenerates daily, one 40-pound bag of salt will probably last you around two weeks. If the system regenerates every two or three days, the bag may last around a month.
Age of the System
The age of your water softener system may also impact how often you need to add salt. Many newer systems use a demand-initiated cycle, which means they only regenerate when needed instead of regenerating on a regular schedule. This helps to conserve salt, so the average household may only need to add salt every six to eight weeks. Older systems aren’t as efficient with salt use and typically need to be refilled more frequently. Regardless of the age of your system, though, you should still check the salt levels every couple of weeks.
Signs It’s Time to Add Salt to Your Water Softener
Regularly checking the salt level in the water softening system is the easiest way to know when it’s time to add salt. With most systems, you can check the salt levels simply by lifting the lid of the brine tank and visually inspecting the contents. There should always be dry salt above the water level. If the salt level has dipped below the water level, you should top it off.
Reasons for Excessive Salt Usage in Your Water Softener
If you think your water softener is using up more salt than it should, you may have a leak in your plumbing system. Even a small leak can waste a lot of water. There could also be a problem with the water softener itself. It may be regenerating more frequently than necessary due to a programming issue or a control valve failure. Diagnosing and fixing the problem as soon as possible will prevent wasted salt and water and help to ensure your water softener is running properly.
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing offers water softener installation and repair services to homeowners in the Pensacola, FL area. If you’re interested in installing a water softener or are worried that your system isn’t working properly, reach out to us today for help.