Spring Water Treatment Tips & Information
Spring has sprung and the fluctuations in temperature and additional water use that comes in the summer months could have an impact on your water treatment system. Here are five things to think about with the changing season.
Condensation – That dripping off your equipment may not be a leak!
Don’t be alarmed if you see condensation on the plumbing lines and water treatment tanks as you use water in the summer. The cool well water running through the pipes and tanks chills the humid basement air. This condensed humidity can be enough to drip down or pool on the floor. To determine if it is condensation or a leak, wipe down the pipe or tank and see if the tiny beads reappear across the surface. You can lessen this by firing up a dehumidifier near the equipment.
Salt Bridging – What does salt bridging mean?
The additional humidity in the summer can cause the salt in your brine tank to bridge, especially if you have some periods of low water use. When bridging occurs the salt hardens and doesn’t drop into the water. To prevent this, let the salt run down until you can see some water, and add just one bag at a time. Here are some brine tank maintenance tips: a video demonstrating how to check and change your salt, and a brief post with some maintenance tips.
Odors Caused by Bacteria Woken Up By Warm Weather
The arrival of warmer weather can bring more of a tendency for odors to develop from your water. These are often caused by little harmless organisms that grow in a bio film along the inside of your well and your plumbing.
To prevent this, change your cartridges! When you do this, be sure to add a splash of bleach into the sump and let the water sit for a few minutes after you’ve repressurized. To go a little further, you can perform an internal plumbing disinfection (as long as you do have a cartridge filter as part of your system). Check out our FAQ’s and scroll down to ‘How do I disinfect my house plumbing?‘ This procedure cleans out the bio film that may be developing within the house. If it’s already too late and you are experiencing some intermittent rotten egg odor, you can disinfect the whole well (instructions in our FAQs), just be sure to bypass your water treatment and be prepared for a few days of inconvenience.
Stirring Up Sediment
Remember that the additional water use common in the summer months can mean that more sediment is stirred up. This can cause your cartridges to fill up sooner than normal, leading to a pressure drop in the home, or reducing water flow to your aeration system. If you water your lawn or garden and your hose bibs are not bypassed from your treatment, you may also be wasting capacity of your system. We can add some raw water hose bib plumbing to prevent this.
Spring Into Health – Safe Drinking Water
If spring gets you thinking about health, it may be time to test your water for health issues. This is more on people’s minds because of the current scare over PFAS in water. If you’re wondering what to test, contact us, we’d be happy to answer your questions.
Enjoy the season and call us at 603-641-5767 or email if you have any concerns about your water quality or system!
It’s interesting that the odors in the water aren’t usually harmful. I was afraid to drink my water, as I thought it was contaminated with something. Although it’s most likely harmless, I think investing in a water purification system could serve as a good reassurance for me. Thanks for the post!
My husband and I are trying to figure out our water treatment system. Thanks for the advice about making sure the water on your tank is condensation and not a leak. Hopefully, we can get a service to come out and help teach us how to maintain our water treatment system.
My water has had some interesting attributes to it lately. It almost seems like the water softener isn’t working like it should! I think salt bridging could be a very likely reason for this so I’ll have to have a tech come out to take a look and fix it if possible.