Nothing is as disturbing as a leaking plumbing system, pipes, and water softener.
Because here, not only the system in itself is prone to more damage, but it can damage other properties as well.
If one of your pipes was leaked in the plumbing system, within a few months you will start to get cracks in your walls, roofs, and your roof sealing will start to fall.
I loved to read about water softeners and how they work, it is interesting. My least favorite thing in a water softening system is pipes.
They are intimidating, but understanding them, about their leaks, and diagnosing the leaks is very crucial, it saves your time, as well as your budget.
The same goes for the water softeners. The more you know the science behind their functionality, the better off you would be.
If your water softener is leaking, and you are getting panic attacks, don’t worry we are here to help you.
In this post, we are going to dig deep and try to learn the most common causes and step one can take to stop those leaking.
How to Know if Water Softener is Leaking?
Water softener leaks, anything that involves plumbing can leak and lead to serious problems.
It can be a connection point, with not enough amount of tape, cracked pipe, overflow, brine tank, and many other parts leaking, lead to water softener system less efficient, and in some cases stop functioning.
But the question here is how can you tell or learn if the water system is leaking?
The most obvious signs are water puddles around the system where it is installed. If the water system has stop functioning, it would not produce softened water.
If it is leaking, it will be producing softened water but leaking as well. So, you can’t say the puddle around the installed water softener is because the system has stopped functioning.
read also: Water Softener Lifespan
Water Softener Leaks During Regeneration
Another sign of relatively lighter leaks is, the regeneration cycles will be taking longer time than they should.
Like, if it is leaking the pipes, the cycle will take a longer time because it would be getting enough water for regeneration.
Diagnose from where the water is leaking?
Diagnosing wherefrom the water is leaking, or what part is involved in leaking is the first step towards getting it fixed.
I can get it, you would like to jumpstart towards finding the reason, and fixing it, but first, you should be careful, and follow all safety guidelines, to prevent yourself from any potential damages.
First, disconnect the water softener from the power, maybe the leak is big enough or dangerous enough to put your life in danger due to electricity.
The second step is bypassing the water supply. If you have installed a direct tap water valve that bypasses the water softener, use it so that your home gets the water, it is better to have hard water rather left with no water.
If your system does not have a direct valve, fret not, you still can bypass the water softener. You can use the control head, to set it in the bypass mode.
Water Softener Leaking From Top
Let’s learn how to know if a water softener is leaking from the top and if it is, how to get it fixed.
Rotor Valve
Leaking a water softener from the top, the first part that comes to our mind is the rotor valve.
The rotor valve is actually the part that provides water to the water softener.
It is the first part that comes in contact with the water before the water softener, and after several years of continuously doing its job, it can crack or degrade, which leads to leaking.
If you see the water valve is not cracked, physically it is intact and there are no signs of it cracking or physically breaking.
You can check the seal of that rotor valve. Because sometimes it is the seal which can be cracked or damaged, leading to leaking.
You can install the rotor valve yourself. If you are not interested in doing that, you can hire professionals.
This valve with seal can cost around $50, buy it, and in my view do it yourself.
In the manual guide, everything will be explained, you just follow the steps, and get a new one installed.
related: Water Softener Size
Worn out O-rings
In water softener’s bypass valve, which allows the water to either flow to the softeners, or bypass it, contains O-rings. These O-rings help seal the connection and prevent water from leaking.
Worn-out O-rings can be one of the reasons why your water softener top is leaking.
In regular maintenance of the water softeners, it is mentioned that you should lubricate the O-rings.
If you fail to lubricate them, or they reached their lifetime, they would not be working fine, and a leak is inevitable.
If it is worn-out O-rings, you can easily replace those O-rings with new ones, and get things working all over again.
Overflowing
Overflowing is major because of the float valve. A float valve prevents water from overflowing, a cracked, misaligned valve can lead to overflowing the brine tank.
You should check this flow valve and see if it is not blocked or cracked, if it is you can replace it with a new one. A blocked float valve can cause the water level to rise in the brine tank.
Water Softener Leaking From Bottom
If it is not the top of your water softener leading to leaking, then it’s the bottom of the water softener that makes the water softener leak.
Brine Tank Leaking
Brine tank leaking is the most common. Actually, the brine tank is very delicate, and when we clean it, we try to use all our strength, which leads us to puncture it.
If the brine tank during topping up the salt or during cleaning is cracked or punctured, there can be a few hacks to get it temporarily fixed, but it would not be a permanent solution, you will have to be removed it at some point.
One more thing, I have seen many consumers getting faulty products. If you are just installing it and witness it’s leaking, it is because you received a faulty product.
So, what I do is, check the brine tank thoroughly and assure that it is not punctured or leaked.
If you had received a faulty product, you can check the warranty, and gets a replacement in most cases.
Resin tank leaking
If it is not the brine tank, the reason for your water softener leaking, or bottom leaking.
Probably it is the resin tank, you can check it and view it because the resin tank will dip itself from the crack if it is punctured and leaking.
It can either be the line or the side of the tank leaking, to help you learn what is actually getting leaked.
First, if you see it is the resin tank leaking, you should check the manufacturer’s warranty. If your warranty expired, you can still get it fixed, no issue.
Examine the resin tank, drain it and thoroughly examine it where it is cracked. Trace the damage, and see if you can repair it yourself, or you will have to hire expertise.
If you find that it was the connection pipe leaking leading to the resin tank leaking, you can re-tight it. If it is already good tight, check the O-rings installed here, and check if they are not cracked or loosen up.
If it is the resin tank, not the connection pipe, the leak or crack can be fixed by applying a proxy on the crack to seal it.
Proxy is a great waterproof substance, that holds the water as well as salt from leaking or dripping out.
If you don’t find any proxy around you can use some tapes, adhesive taps which are waterproof are in trend these days, you can get their help too.
Also check: How to choose a water softener
Water Softener Hose Leaking
If it is the hose leaking, check the connection from the system to the hose. In my view, it is the easiest and leaking what you can fix.
Here you just require t tight connection between the hose and water softener system.
If you have installed the hose ages ago, it would not be easy to fix this connection. Because here, it just would not be the hose connection, it can be a cracked hose itself.
If it was only the connection, tightening the connection can lead to fixing, but if it is the hose cracked, you will have to install a new hose or get a professional plumber hired to get it fixed.
Well, if you are a DIY enthusiast, you can install a new hose by yourself.
Buy a new hose, and get it installed by following the user manual guide, or you can watch how to do it from YouTube videos, it is pretty straightforward, does not require you to be a microbiologist.
Water Softener Leaking From The Drain Line
Your drain line can be the reason for leaking your water softener. The most obvious reason for drain line leaking is poor installation, or not tightening the connection right.
If you find that it is a poor installation, or you did it by yourself, and it did not go well, you can hire a professional to get it fixed.
Anyway, it would not require expertise, it is just the proper amount of air gap.
But if it is the crack or blockage, you can spot that too. But to spot the blockage you should drain the line, or you will make the water reach the places where you don’t like it to be reached.
How to get the water softener Leaking Fixed
If your water softener is leaking, you should fix it as quickly as possible.
It is because, the permanent or continuous leaking can lead to permanent damage to your unit, as well as damage to your property or home.
For time being, if you have some plans of fixing the leaking, you have called for your DIY friend, or have hired experts, and they are not available for that time, set water to bypass your softener and shut off the power supply.
This will prevent the leaking of the water and other damages.
I am sure to this point you must have learned what is causing your system to be damaged. And you might already have decided to do it yourself, or hire a professional.
Do it Yourself
If it is the task, you think you can do, or you are well aware of the plumbing systems, pipes, you can do it yourself.
If you know the plumbing system, pipes, or other things, to the point you know what parts it requires to get it fixed.
You should buy those parts, if the parts are not available online as well as offline, you can call the manufacturer, and ask them to make available of the parts for you.
If you are not aware of the plumbing systems, and you are on a low budget, as plumbing is expensive expertise, you can watch the videos on YouTube, and follow any expert.
Hire expertise
If it is not what you can fix yourself, or watch how to fix on YouTube, you have to hire expertise.
Because, DIYers can fix a thing if it is simple to do, if things are complicated, it is hard to carry on. In that scenario, you should hire a professional.
If you know that it is not what you or your DIY friend could do, don’t wait too much now, and call for the plumber.
Because leaking things are bad, they besides the system itself can put your property on the damage.
How much does it cost to repair water leaking?
No one can tell you the cost needed to repair a water softener. The first thing to determine is the reason for leaking, or the part leaking, and how difficult it is to fix that leak.
If it is O-ring fixing or a thing that can be fixed with a proxy tap, it would not cost much, around $5-10.
But if it is something complicated, what you can’t fix or understand can cost more than $50-$100.
Sometimes you hire a professional, and he/she fix a thing within five minutes, because it was a simple issue, there too you have to pay an hourly rate or the fixed price you set.
Conclusion
In my personal experience, most of the problems related to water softener leaking can easily be fixed if you pay a little attention to it, without hiring a professional.
If you are a little lazy like me and don’t want to do it yourself, you can hire the expertise. But expertise comes at a price, and you have to pay for that.
A professional costs a nice chunk of money, plumbers are considered expensive, if it is something you can’t fix, don’t wait too long, and hire a professional plumber.
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