Too much salt blocking lines?

[yfs1]

Hello,

I recently had an issue where I was no longer getting pressure from the gravity tank:
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=134051

It happened again so this time after clearing the blockage I quickly went up to the gravity tank to see if I dislodged a blockage (The tank is well covered so no possibility of animals etc).

What I saw was a small pile (quite small) of salt. When I look in the toilet sisterns, there is a slight salt collection there too. Nothing major but is it possible a buildup of extremely fine salt could cause a blockage?

We have had the water softener for 2-3 years (It was a new build) and construction elsewhere is just wrapping up. Does my theory that the water isn't as hard as it used to be and the fact we are "over salting" could be causing blockages "hold any water"?

I am going to have the salt usage adjusted since there is no point in wasting salt but am curious if another side effect of the extra salt could be what we are experiencing.

Cheers

 

[JohnD]

If it REALLY IS salt (have you tasted it?) then your water softener is faulty.

It should never allow salt into any pipe (except the waste flushing pipe that goes into the drain during recycling.

It would be interesting to see a photo of your softener to see what sort it is.

 

[Onetap]

What I saw was a small pile (quite small) of salt. When I look in the toilet sisterns, there is a slight salt collection there too. Nothing major but is it possible a buildup of extremely fine salt could cause a blockage?

It is not salt (sodium chloride); this is very soluble in water and would have dissolved and been flushed out of the tank. As JohnD says, it is unlikely to have been discharged from the softener in the first place.

It is most likely limescale, probably dissolved limestone (calcium carbonates and bicarbonates) given your location. This is much less soluble and you will get deposits of powdered limescale accumulating in the bottom of water storage tanks over a period of some years. The limescale precipitates out as water evaporates. It is unlikely to cause blockages. It suggests only that the softener is occasionally discharging hard water; maybe it's a timed regeneration type and you use more water between regens than the softener can deal with.

Softened water should contain sodium carbonates and bicarbonates; it is unlikely to be this because it is very soluble and wouldn't precipitate out of solution.

Apologies if the chemistry isn't quite precise; I'm an Engineer, not a Chemist.

 

[yfs1]

As noted, I thought it was salt but could just as easily be as described ("probably dissolved limestone").

I have the softner here, a Kinetico 2020c (which has no timed regeneration)
http://www.special-t-water.com/images/mach2020c.jpg

Im thinking after the response that the softener isn't related to whatever the blockage is.

Cheers

 

[JohnD]

an interesting problem

You mean yours has metered regeneration?

My house ran on Hard water for a while before i bought the softener, and the softened water then gradually dissolved away the limescale buildup, I found it tended to fall off the insides of cisterns, ball valve etc and lie in flakes on the bottom of the tank, before eventually dissolving away. A similar thing happens if the softener is out of order for a while, if it goes wrong or is out of salt, and limescale starts to build up. It is usually most noticeable round hot taps and inside the kettle (which are scale-free if the softener is working correctly).

Try collecting some of your sediment, and dip vinegar on it, see if it fizzes.