Momadoo
New Member
Yesterday I had someone come and install a water softener for me. I had had one before so this was a reinstall. They took out the old one and put the new one in and ran new pipe from the main to the system and out from the system, they also installed a Big Blue water filter between the main and the softener system. Right after the system was installed, the water was cloudy and smelled like the stuff they used to solder it with. He told me to run in for a while and it would eventually clear up. I ran the water for about a half hour, had three teens take their hour long showers and my husband took his shower this morning. It never did completely stop smelling, but it did get slightly less cloudy. This morning I turned the water on and it smelled so bad even my husband complained. He had tried to make coffee with the water and he said it tasted horrible. The water was also still cloudy. My husband said it looked like the installers had used too much flux and that was what the smell was. I called the company who had done the install and they told me they'd never heard of too much flux causing problems and that maybe the water softener had changed the pH of my water and that was what I was smelling. They suggested running the water for five minutes and it should be a-okay. So I went back to running my water to try to get rid of whatever might have been left behind. I finally went back to the softener system and bypassed it to see if that was the problem, but the water was still cloudy and smelled like flux. Then I shut the water off at the main and opened up the Big Blue filter, and there was actual flux floating in the water in the filter and filter itself was covered with it. So apparently my husband was right, too much flux. I've since taken out the filter, I'm running the water through an empty Big Blue because I can't seem to find replacement filters anywhere. My water is smelling better, but you can still smell the burnt flux smell (now over 24 hours later) and it's still slightly cloudy. Not to mention, I'm afraid to shower in it since my hands are all chapped from washing my hands in this water (kind of defeats the whole purpose of getting a water softener doesn't it?). My question is, should we have our plumber come in and flush the lines or will this eventually resolve and if so about how long does it take? Also, will my hot water heater need to be cleaned?