Protect Your Water Softener with Preventive Maintenance
Installing a water softener in your home will immediately take care of hard water issues like water stains on dishes, minimized effectiveness of soaps, and scaling in your shower. Fixing these issues gives your family better quality water and can even save you money. But what can you do to ensure that your water remains problem-free over time?
With any mechanical equipment, from HVAC to automobiles, regular maintenance helps ensure that equipment is working properly. For example, you might get a regularly scheduled oil change to take care of your car’s motor and have a general checkup done. Or, you might have annual service on your home’s furnace and central air systems to change filters and make sure everything is heating and cooling efficiently. Not surprisingly, the same concept should be applied to your water softener and other water treatment equipment.
Preventive Maintenance for Your Water Softener
Most water treatment professionals offer preventive maintenance plans to help protect the investment you have made in your home’s water quality.
Even if your water softener or water filtration system is relatively new, regular maintenance is highly beneficial. For instance, power outages and daylight savings time can alter the regeneration process on your unit which can affect how it functions. Or, an issue with other water-related equipment in your home, such as well pumps or water heaters, can impact how well your water softener works.
For homeowners with a private well, the performance of a water softener relies on a healthy well system. For example, a water softener can have issues if it can not receive the amount of water it needs because a well system’s pressure tank isn’t working properly. If left undetected, both the softener and the pressure tank might need repair or replacement. Regular checkups and maintenance on water treatment equipment is crucial especially for well owners. If neglected, it could mean unexpected expenses and the return of problematic water.
Water softeners are often out of sight, out of mind, and don’t get much attention until there is an issue. However, the cost of repairs is often significantly more if you wait for your water softener to have an issue than the cost of a preventive maintenance plan. Plus, there’s never a good time to receive a large, unexpected bill for major repairs or total equipment replacement.
What’s Included with a Preventive Maintenance Plan?
That will depend on the services offered by your local water treatment professional, but there are a few key components of a water softener or filter that see the most wear and tear that should be checked on a regular basis. Many common maintenance plans include services like:
- Test raw and treated water to confirm your water softener is working
- Verify that your water conditions have not changed since the previous review
- Deliver the proper salt for your water softener
- Check and change common wear parts like pistons, injectors, screens, and seals
- Clean the equipment
- Change all filters and pre-filters
- Clean the brine tank
- Check your water’s flow rate to ensure enough water is being delivered to the system
- Check for salt bridging or other issues in the brine tank
- Validate the equipment’s regeneration schedule
- Make sure all of the meters are working
- Replenish the media inside an acid neutralizing filter if it is low (this naturally dissolves as part of the water treatment process and must be refilled regularly whether part of a complete maintenance package or as a single service)
While these are common services in preventive maintenance plans, your dealer will customize the checklist based on the water treatment equipment you have in your home, including water filters, reverse osmosis systems, and more.
Peace of Mind and Healthy Water
The greatest benefit of a preventive maintenance plan is having a water treatment professional regularly review and validate that your water softener is programmed and working correctly. Through both remote technology and on-site visits, water softeners and other equipment are monitored and maintained so that they remain in peak working order.
Perhaps your water pressure seems to have slowed down, or your water softener has started regenerating at different times throughout the day. You might not consider making a service call as long as your water seems ok. Yet, these could be signs of issues that need to be addressed.
After investing in water treatment equipment to provide your family with high quality water, the peace of mind you’ll have in knowing that everything is working properly is priceless.
Protect Your Investment Today
Preventive maintenance is the best way to protect the investment you’ve made in providing the best water for your family and your home.
Ask your local water treatment dealer about what’s included in their preventive maintenance plan. Or, fill out the form below to get connected to one of our professionals in your area to learn more