whitish water spotting - can water be oversoftened?

I am getting whitish water spotting around my sinks and fixtures, anywhere where splattered water dries. I have a 13 year old water softener, which I *think* is working. I took water samples to the people who installed the softener - they pronounced the hot water to be "0 grains." (The only soft cold water I have is at the laundry hookup and in the tub/shower.) I also obtained test strips from a local plumber and checked -- the hot water does appear to be soft.

Is it possible these could be SALT stains - and I have salt leaching into my system? I do have a very slight drip from the tub faucet - could this be causing it (the toilets don't seem to be running, but they're on hard water anyway). Do I need to have the water softener people adjust the settings? Is 0 grains TOO soft? Help would be welcomed - this stuff is taking a toll on the fixtures and my stainless steel sink. The water softener people don't seem to be taking my concerns seriously - but I chatted with someone at my local water utility who seems to think oversoftening could be the problem. Thanks for any suggestions.

softening

In most softeners the level of softening is not adjustable. Many, many years ago I had a situation where the soft water would "delaminate" the chrome plating from brass fixture supplys and cause a leak, but it was an aberation and only seemed to happen with one make and model of softener. Softening the water replaces "hard" calcium ions with "water soluble" sodium ones, so if the spots wash away, then it is probably not a malfunction.

wampus said:

I am getting whitish water spotting around my sinks and fixtures, anywhere where splattered water dries. I have a 13 year old water softener, which I *think* is working. I took water samples to the people who installed the softener - they pronounced the hot water to be "0 grains." (The only soft cold water I have is at the laundry hookup and in the tub/shower.) I also obtained test strips from a local plumber and checked -- the hot water does appear to be soft.

Is it possible these could be SALT stains - and I have salt leaching into my system? I do have a very slight drip from the tub faucet - could this be causing it (the toilets don't seem to be running, but they're on hard water anyway). Do I need to have the water softener people adjust the settings? Is 0 grains TOO soft? Help would be welcomed - this stuff is taking a toll on the fixtures and my stainless steel sink. The water softener people don't seem to be taking my concerns seriously - but I chatted with someone at my local water utility who seems to think oversoftening could be the problem. Thanks for any suggestions.

Click to expand...

There are many things in water that can cause water marks; high TDS, sulfates and chlorides etc.. The water leaks at faucets etc. can cause channeling in the resin bed and that causes hard water to get through the bed, especially at peak demand flow rates. Leaks also reduce the capacity and screw up the regeneration schedule. In other words the regeneration should happen sooner than it is scheduled to and you get progressively harder water through the bed before the next regeneration. So fix all water leaks regardless of how little they are.

Too soft... water companies will tell you that water is soft as long as it doesn't have more than 150 mg/l of hardness in it. That's 150/17.1= 8.77 gpg. In residential softening we talk grains per gallon (gpg), 17.1 ppm or mg/l per grain. So when we tell you "0" grains, there may still be Xx.x mg/l or ppm of hardness in the water. Now for say medical research or other specific use water, we speak in mg/l and sometimes have to keep the hardness to as little as say 3 mg/l. Also, technically we can't ever get the water to 0 hardness with a water softener. So too soft in a residence, not really, it's either got 0 gpg or more which is either soft or hard water.

Another thing, your raw water hardness could have increased since the softener was set up, or you're using more water now than then.

Do you ever taste "salt" in the softened water?

Gary
Quality Water Associates

could this be an a.o. smith water heater going bad and giving off sediment?

Thanks to everyone responding....No, I don't taste salt in the water (at least not that I notice). The hot water feels quite slippery like it should, but it dries looking just like hard water - very chalky. It sort of rubs clean, but still leaves a ring where the drop was. Vinegar or Lime-a-Way are the only things that really eradicate the spots. Stainless steel sink is showing kind of an "iridescent" appearance too, where the tub has been filled up to wash things.

I have a 2-1/2 year old Ruud "Everclean" self-rinsing hot water heater (the previous A.O. Smith heater began leaking and died at the 10-year-mark). Is it possible that stirs up more sediment in the water?

I questioned the water utility - they were not aware of any problems with the well serving this area (we're in Madison WI - water comes from the underground limestone aquifers).

Will see about getting the tub drip fixed.

Is there anything that would be causing some brine to bleed into the water lines?

The short answer to brine bleed is no.

The explanation why is: Brine can't be sucked up and out of the brine tank unless there is some water flow to drain, about a half gallon per minute, and the control valve has to have the brine valve open, however your control controls its brine valving.

The self cleaning water heater could be adding hardness back into the hot water due to scale being dissolved by the softened water IF there was a time that the water was hard and allowed to enter the heater. That's a stretch and not very likely. More likely is that the water company adds something to their water and it is causing the problem. In many instances the water company won't admit to anything if it is their 'treatment'. Check with neighbors to see if they have the problem. Sometimes polyphosphates water companies use to control corrosive waters or iron in their come out of solution when the water is heated. The heater could be keeping them in suspension rather than allow sediment to form. Did this start happening not too long after the new heater?

You can have a lab analyze the water looking for high TDS, chlorides and phosphates. I suspect the hot water is responsible but test it and the cold.

You can by-pass the softener and see if the cold water causes the spotting. I wouldn't run hot water and get hard cold water into the heater.

Gary
Quality Water Associates