Tuesday, October 27, 2015

How to Stop Water Line Corrosion in Your Home


Have you recently noticed blue stains on your sinks, tubs or fixtures in your home? Did you know that laundry and even blonde hair can be tinted blue?  Besides actual piping failure, these stains can also identify copper corrosion.  Corrosion in plumbing systems is due to physical and chemical reactions between the pipe material and water.

The main causes of pipe corrosion are:
·      Low pH (acid water) typically found on private well water
·      Improper grounding of electrical appliances to the copper piping
·      High velocity of water, relative to the size of the piping, causing hydraulic wear on the piping
·      Poor plumbing installation practices
·      Sand, sediment or other grit



What can be done to help prevent water line corrosion?  Follow these simple steps!
·      Check to see if there are unnecessary electrical appliances or wiring connected to the piping
·      Make sure piping system is properly grounded
·      Verify to see that there is electrical continuity throughout piping system
·      Check for pH and see if water is corrosive

Carter’s My Plumber is here for all your plumbing needs … call us today!  317-859-9999



Carter’s My Plumber is a local, family-owned plumbing contractor located in Greenwood, Indiana, providing plumbing service to the Indianapolis, Greenwood, Whiteland, Franklin, Bargersville, Trafalgar, Mooresville, Wanamaker, Beech Grove and Southport areas.  Carter’s My Plumber has a special menu of services designed to meet the needs of every homeowner to provide a complete solution to their home’s plumbing system.  With over 30 years of plumbing experience, their trained plumbers meet the plumbing need of every residential and light commercial need.


Why does a Water Softener Regenerate?

Water Softeners are designed to regenerate at night.


Most water softeners are set so that they regenerate at night. This typically happens between two and four in the morning in hopes that you are not using your water. Your water softener works on a pressurized system.  You do not want to be running water anywhere else in the house when your water softener is regenerating. If you do it will pull water away from going through the softener.

What does it mean for my water softener to regenerate?


Regeneration is when your water softener goes through the process of turning hard water into soft water. Most water softeners go through five cycles during regeneration.
(1) Hard water enters your water softener and then filters down through the ion exchange resin where the ion exchange occurs.
(2) The ion exchange exchanges resin for an equal amount of sodium (salt). In other words, this is where the calcium magnesium is taken off the water.  
(3) After the ion exchange is done a brine solution is dispersed where it flushes the calcium magnesium out.
(4) Then, the softener goes through one final flush to get rid of any traces of calcium magnesium that might be left.
(5) Finally, the water reaches the bottom of the tank where it is softened and ready to use. 

Water softeners make noise when regenerating:


If it sounds like water is flowing through it but isn’t in use, you may have a leak.


If your water softener sounds like it is screeching it might be the timer motor getting stuck and rubbing against itself during the regeneration cycle.

It is important to replace the resin bed every eight to ten years because the resin becomes worn out after so long to where it no longer has the ability to soften your water correctly.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

What Is That Sound Coming From My Water Softener?


Is your water softener keeping you up at night?  Does your child think there is a monster in the water closet?  Many noises can come from a water softener, including knocks and squeals.  Some noises are completely normal while others may require a licensed technician to take a look and see if something is wrong.

What is a water softener?
In order to determine why the softener is making a noise, let’s first learn what it does.  If you have hard water you know how valuable a water softener can be.  This simple appliance essentially removes mineral deposits from water bearing certain minerals, otherwise known as hard water.   It consists of a pump, a filter and a tank that contains salt or resin pellets that are designed to attract negatively charged ions out of the water.  After a while, the resin in the softener becomes saturated by calcium and other mineral particles.  For the appliance to continue to diminish water hardness, the pellets must be rinsed clean.  This requires the machine to regenerate or recharge the resin bed. 

Is that noise normal?
The water softener has several moving parts, such as a mechanical motor, that can make noises.  Many people mistake the noise during the regeneration cycle for some sort of mechanical problem when, in fact, the softener is simply doing its job.  That doesn’t mean, however, that the machine can’t make strange noises that might indicate an issue. Here are some things that could happen and create noise:
·      Build up of calcium or magnesium on the intake valves
·      Trying to use water while it’s regenerating can cause the softener to vibrate and knock loudly
·      Problem with the air check mechanism (the floating ball)
·      Timer motor can cause squealing when belts slip, grinding between gears, or knocking if something is loose
·      May not be the softener at all – could be your water heater or other appliance

Regeneration schedule
Often, the softener is set to regenerate at nighttime.  If this wakes you at night you can adjust the regeneration schedule to run during the day.  This will help from waking you up at night.  You may also want to change the timer so it doesn’t regenerate while you’re making dinner, taking a shower or using the bathroom. 

What can I do?
Sometimes there may be so much mineral build up or salt separation the softener can’t run correctly.  You can manually backwash it before manually regenerating it a few times.  For a more in depth look to what the issue may be, or to schedule a licensed technician to work on your softener, call Carter’s My Plumber today!


Carter’s My Plumber is a local, family-owned plumbing contractor located in Greenwood, Indiana, providing plumbing service to the Indianapolis, Greenwood, Whiteland, Franklin, Bargersville, Trafalgar, Mooresville, Wanamaker, Beech Grove and Southport areas.  Carter’s My Plumber has a special menu of services designed to meet the needs of every homeowner to provide a complete solution to their home’s plumbing system.  With over 30 years of plumbing experience, their trained plumbers meet the plumbing need of every residential and light commercial need.