How To Effectively Clean The Brine Tank In Your Water Softener

Posted on: 29 June 2018

The brine tank is where the salt is located that helps filter the minerals out of water. The brine tank is essential to the overall function of your water softener. Impurities can build up in the brine tank from the water and from the type of salt pellets that you use in your water softener. Here is a brief guide for how to do this. 

Put the System in Bypass Mode

Before you start cleaning the brine tank, you need to put the system into bypass mode. The manner in which you put a system in bypass mode can vary greatly from one system to the next, so you are going to want to look up the manufacturer instructions for putting the system on bypass.

Remove the Water from the Brine Tank

Now you need to remove the brine water from the tank. In order to do that, you are going to need to disconnect the hoses that flow between the water softener and brine tank.

Then you are going to need to siphon the water out of the brine tank. There should be a release valve that will allow you to remove the water from the tank. Make sure that you have a bucket for the water to flow into. Dump the water down the drain. Don't pour it outside, as all the salt in the water could kill the grass.

Get Rid of Any Salt

Scoop out and remove any salt inside of the brine tank. If there is a salt bridge, which is where the salt forms into one big massive solid block, pour boiling hot water over the salt bridge to break it up and make it easier to remove.

Some, but not all, water softeners have  a screen at the bottom of the brine tank that you can pull out and clean the salt and minerals off of. Keep in mind that not all water softeners have this screen.

Scrub the Tank

Now that you have drained the water and removed as much salt as possible, it is time to scrub the tank clean. Start by adding fresh water to the tank, as well as dish soap. Use a nice scrub brush, preferably with a long handle, so you don't have to put your entire arm in the tank, to scrub the tank.

After you scrub the tank down, add in additional water and bleach to the tank, and allow the bleach solution to sit for a while. Then scrub the tank again after allowing the bleach to sit, then release all the cleaning water from the tank. Once again, pour this water down the drain and not in your yard. You may want to flush and rinse the tank off with some clean water.

Set Everything Back Up

Turn off the spigot that allows water to drain from the brine tank. Fill the brine tank up with clean water again. Then, connect the hoses back to the main tank and turn off the bypass system.

Cut down on how often you have to clean your brine tank by investing in salt pellets that have a high level of purity. The higher the level of purity, the less impurities that will be released, which means that you can clean your brine tank less frequently.

To learn more, contact a company like Hague  Quality Water of Kansas City Inc.   

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