Air from faucets after softener install

All,

Have a well system, just installed a new softener. I don't believe there were any errors in my install.

Since the water softener was installed, I've been noticing some short burts of "air" from my faucets, primarily from the hot water. Nothing significant, just different from what I was used to before the softener was installed.

The water heater is making a little noise as well (5 year, electric), the turning rocks/marbles sound, so I'm planning to drain it out thinking the softener has been releasing some of the build-up inside the heater.

Any thoughts about the air from the faucets?

Have you run the softener through a cleaning cycle to remove the air that would be in the media tank?

How much of a drain down did you do when putting the softener in? Could be that the install de-pressured the water heater and the air in the softener moved there at the restart.

Akpsdvan said:

Have you run the softener through a cleaning cycle to remove the air that would be in the media tank?

How much of a drain down did you do when putting the softener in? Could be that the install de-pressured the water heater and the air in the softener moved there at the restart.

Click to expand...

I've done one regeneration since the install, no real change to the "air" from the piping.

I did drain down much of my system and might have moved some air to the WH, but I would have imagined it would have moved out by now...

I would go through the house and work each faucet both hot and cold till there is no air coming out.

Some times working the air out is like working the air out when one has changed the anti freeze in the truck or car......

You might want to check to make sure the air check on the softener is working properly.

Or that you don't have a water leak in the drop pipe in the well or a leaking check/foot valve allowing air into the line.

For more on that;
https://terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?44943-Trickling-sound-in-resin-tank

Thanks for all the thoughts guys. I had to drain down the water heater to replace the drain valve a couple of days ago; I also took the time to try to flush it as much as possible (looking in through the drain opening, there was a lot of deposits within). The "knocking" sound from the water heater has stopped as has the air from the lines. I'm suspecting I had trapped air in the WH or the interaction of the softened water with the deposits in the WH were causing the problem. I'm going to drain and flush a few more times to try to remove as many of the deposits as possible.

Is this common to see interaction of the newly softened water with existing deposits in plumbing?

Thanks!

Softened water dissolves scale build up in a water heater but usually not to the extent to cause any problems. The popping sound is from steam formation in and under the scale and tiny explosions cracking the scale (or the glass lining) as the heater heats water. You can't get the scale off the inside by draining/flushing the heater tank. You'll get some loose parts but not all of them due to the drain being up off the bottom of the tank some.