Salty Water - But only the HOT water ???

[BigMorty]

I have had a Culligan water softner for 2-3 years with no issues. About 3-4 weeks ago I noticed a salty smell/taste in our water. I have not realized that only the hot water has this smell/taste. BTW, we have a tankless hot water heater.

Why would only my hot water have a salty smell/taste?

Thanks

[ditttohead]

The lack of responses to this question does not surprise me.

I am having a difficult time coming up with any answers for you as well.

Tank water heaters can indicate problems of the very recent past. Tankless are a flow through design with no storage, so problem water that occurs there should also occur on the cold water.

I can only assume your tankless water heater is having a problem of some sort, and the flavor is coming from it and not your incoming water. Unless the rapid rise in temperature is causing the problem. Turn off the tankless and run hot water to see if it is the same bad taste regardless of if heating is on or not. Then turn on the heat and see if the problem returns.

[BigMorty]

Thanks dittohead for your input. One thing I should have added was that I actually have 2 on demand hot water units that work together to feed the house when demand is high. The other thing is that they both have small (half gallon or so) tanks that are used to provide hot water recirc so wait time is minimal to get hot water to any place in the house. Very much overkill, yes, wish I did not have this set up to be honest. Does that change anything?

As far as running hot water with the tanks off, should I just unplug them? Will hot water still flow through them?

Thanks again!

[ditttohead]

I am not sure about your model. Many have ways of throttling the water flow so as to keep the temperature at the desired flow temperature, and they will simply throttle the flow to maintain temperature. My system has a simple keypad that I can turn the heating off with and still leave the system plugged in.

The tanks can be an area of bacteria growth, while not common, it is possible. Can you isloate those temporarily and retest? What is the maximum temperature you can set your units too? Mine max out at 120 degrees, but can be "safety bypassed". If you are maintaining a temperature below 140, bacterial growth can definetly occur in the plumbing system. Since most tankless designs are set at 120 or less, this can be more of a problem. You could see if your system temperature can be increased to 140, run it through all of the hot water plumbing at that elevated temperature for a couple hours to kill off any bacteria, and see if that helps. Tankless heaters and bacterial control issues is still young in its research. The addition of small tanks for recirc make this an eare of concern. Please keep us updated.


Use extreme caution above 120 degrees, extreme scalding potential! Do not let kids or the elderly near water that has that high of a temperature. Immediately reset the water temperature to a safe temperature when you are done.