With more than 30 years’ experience in the residential and commercial water treatment space, Mark Nelson is a Class 1 Drinking-Water Operator and a CBWA (Canadian Bottled Water Association) Certified Plant Operator. As founder and president of Nelson Water in Ottawa, Mark focuses on dealing with challenging water treatment system designs for problem water. He also heads the largest water bottling plant in the city of Ottawa with a delivery network throughout the Valley.
When it’s time to clean your water softener system, the first question most people ask is how do I go about it? The answer to this and many other questions surrounding your water softener are detailed in the owner’s manual for your specific equipment. There you can find tips on many aspects of water softener maintenance, and if you’re not sure, you can always contact a local water treatment specialist for expert help. If you cannot locate your owner’s manual, check the manufacturer’s website for a pdf replacement before you attempt any cleaning yourself. In this article, we will offer some general advice on cleaning and sanitizing your water softener, but this in no way supersedes the specific information for your model.
How Do I Know if My Water Softener Needs Cleaning?
When your water softener is in need of thorough cleaning, you will notice the problem. The unit will smell bad, and you may see stains on the surface of the softener that are hard to remove. Certain water softeners have a “bleach cycle” that you can run to clean the system, and others don’t because it will ruin the unit. The addition of bleach could interfere with the resin bed, and this would prevent the ion-exchange process that softens the water. So, bleach may sound like a great way to sanitize the system, but it can be harsh, and it should only be used if the manufacturer recommends its use. Most manufacturers recommend specific cleaning products to be used with their water softeners.
I Added Bleach. What Should I Do?
Even if you added bleach to a water softener and the manufacturer has specified that you shouldn’t, it may be possible to fix the problem. Start by filling up the resin tank with fresh salt and complete a few regeneration cycles. In many cases, this may be enough to clean the water softener and remove any bleach that remains. Replacing resin is expensive and time consuming and best left to your local water treatment specialist. Again, if you have accidentally added bleach to your system, consult the owner’s manual first because it may have useful advice on how to resolve the situation for your specific model.
How Do I Sanitize My Water Softener with Bleach?
If your owner’s manual specifies that you can use bleach to sanitize your water softener, you need to carry out a brine tank procedure. This is necessary because the backwash cycle will not remove microorganisms such as algae and bacteria that may grow in the brine tank or resin bed. The brine tank is where you add your water softener salt, and the resin bed is where the ion-exchange process takes place. There are two different methods that you can use to clean your water softener with bleach; they are:
Method 1: Manual Cleaning
As the name suggests, this involved cleaning the brine tank with diluted bleach solution using the following seven steps:
- Locate your brine tank, take off the lid, remove the salt tank, and the brine well cover.
- Drain the water, remove the remaining salt.
- Scrub the interior of the brine tank and the components with warm soapy water to remove any remaining salt residue.
- Rinse the tank with a solution of medium unscented bleach and clean water.
- Rinse the tank thoroughly.
- Add fresh dishwasher salt to your brine tank.
- Add 3 gallons of clean water to the brine tank and mix in 3 teaspoons of unscented bleach to create a chlorinated solution.
Throughout this process, only use unscented household bleach. Avoid using bleach with additives and don’t mix bleach with other products, such as salt with additives, red-out salt, and resin bed cleaners.
Method 2: Run a Bleach Cycle
If the manufacturer recommends a bleach cleaning cycle for your water softener, it will typically follow these seven steps in order.
- Locate your brine tank, remove the lid, measure the top to see if you have a 9″ or 12″ tank.
- If you have a 9″ tank, pour in 1 cup of unscented household bleach.
- If you have a 12″ tank, pour in 2 cups of unscented household bleach.
- Find the cycle panel on your water softener and configure it to run a manual recharge cycle.
- The recharge cycle is controlled via the control module but check your owner’s manual for more details if this is not immediately apparent.
- Avoid using any water in the home for drinking until the manual regeneration cycle has finished.
- After the regeneration cycle has finished, run the water for 5-10 minutes to remove any bleach remnants.
Can I Clean My Water Softener with Vinegar?
Yes, you can. Follow the same instructions detailed above but use vinegar instead of bleach. Mixing vinegar with water is fine when you want to scrub out a brine tank and avoid running a full regeneration cycle. Vinegar contains far fewer chemicals than bleach, and you may want to increase the ratio a little.
What Happens if I Don’t Clean My Water Softener?
A water softener that is kept clean and has regular maintenance will work more efficiently. This is important because the reason we install a water softener in the first place is to deal with hard water issues. If the water softener isn’t working well, those hard water problems will return to wreak havoc on your home. Many homeowners ignore the need for regular cleaning and maintenance because they want to save money. This is a shortsighted view. When the water softener is working efficiently, it will last far longer, which equals a greater return on your initial investment.
In Conclusion
Only run a bleach cycle on your water softener if the owner’s manual specifically recommends this procedure. If the cleaning advice differs in any way from this article, use the specific cleaning instructions of the manufacturer instead. Schedule some annual cleaning and maintenance for your water softer with a local water treatment specialist. This will improve the efficiency of your water softener and the useful lifespan of your equipment.