How To Clean Water Tank With Bleach Culligan Water Iron Tanks

Disinfect / Sanitize a Water Softener Resin Tank
Steps to disinfect, amount of bleach, cleaning procedures

• Mail a QUESTION or COMMENT about Cleaning & Sanitizing H2o Softeners & Most using a sanitizer in h2o softeners and the outcome of sanitizers on septic systems

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Guide to Water Softener Cleaning & Sanitizing:

This article provides an owner's guide to h2o softener cleaning, and sanitizing - 2 steps in keeping a water conditioner working properly.

Nosotros discuss the use of diverse chemicals & cleaners to sanitize or make clean out water softeners and their brine tanks, and we comment on the effect of such chemicals on septic systems.

Nosotros talk over the germination of table salt crust in the alkali tank, the accumulation of clay & debris in the brine tank, & how to remove these problems & contaminants in a h2o conditioner

. We also hash out using iron removing products or other chemicals to clean & sanitize a water softener.

We too provide an ARTICLE Alphabetize for this topic, or you can try the folio top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to observe information yous need.

How to Sanitize a Water Softener or Water Conditioner

This procedure gives stride-by-step details of how to disinfect or "sanitize" the resin tank and also the bottom of an in-utilize brine tank without removing the salt.

Our focus here is on resin tank disinfection or sanitizing. The resin tank is where the actual water softening takes place.

Sanitizing is necessary because the simple table salt or brine backwash cycle does not remove microorganisms like bacteria or algae that like to grow in the resin bed or sometimes in the brine tank.

Our sketch illustrates the brine tank (at left) and the h2o softener resin tank (at right) in the drawing.

The brine tank or common salt tank is the split container (into which yous add salt) used to produce alkali that is in plow used to recharge the salt, i.due east. to regenerate the resin tank.

The resin tank is where the bodily h2o softening takes place.

How Often / When Should a Water Softener exist Sanitized?

1. If your water softener has been close downward for a week or more, if you are restoring to service a building that has been winterized

   For aid winterizing

   see WINTERIZE Water SOFTENER



2. If yous suspect bacterial contagion: if your building water supply both hot and cold h2o have a stinky sulphur smell or "rotten egg" smell (caused past harmless just nasty smelling sulfate-reducing leaner)

   Or if you meet a color change in water subsequently it has run through the water softener

   Or if the water tastes foul after information technology has run through the water softener

   Or if a h2o bacteria examination indicates that your water supply is contaminated.

   Besides encounter BACTERIA LEVEL INTERPRETATION
   
   If simply the hot water supply in the building smells like rotten eggs,

   run into ANODES & DIP TUBES on WATER HEATERS.

3. If work on the water softener exposed the control valve body internal parts to air
4. If new resin has just been installed inorth the water softener resin tank
5. According to your h2o softener's maintenance schedule. Manufacturers recommend cleaning and sanitation intervals ranging from every bit oftentimes every bit every three months to annually.

   Frankly I have never encountered a homeowner who sanitizes their softener every three months but peradventure some practise.

All salt used in h2o softeners, whether it is "rock salt", "salt pellets", "solar salt" or "evaporated salt" is a natural mineral that volition comprise impurities and perchance soil particles. These materials accumulate in the bottom of the salt tank during normal utilize and eventually tin interfere with h2o softener performance or water quality.

For a consummate h2o softener cleanout, every year or two we let the h2o softener use upwards its common salt and then that we tin can inspect and remove any dirt or sludge that may take accumulated at the lesser of the table salt tank.

The following procedures are given in both basic and detailed forms and are adjusted from maintenance recommendations from Culligan™ and other h2o conditioner companies.

If y'all demand to make clean a dirty salt tank or alkali tank, come across this separate

topic:SOFTENER Brine TANK Make clean & DISNIFECT

7 Like shooting fish in a barrel Steps To Disinfect or Sanitize a Water Softener Resin Tank

What follows is a detailed description of a typical procedure. But details for your softener may vary. So be sure to read the instructions for cleaning your specific water softener brand and model - described in the owner's manual or service manual for your water softener.

1. Turn off whatsoever other water treatment equipment that uses Sodium hydrosulfite, Sodium bisulfite, or whatever other reducing agent and disconnect that device temporarily.

   If you're not sure what your other h2o treatment equipment is, ask your plumber or water treatment company who installed it.

   If you are not the original possessor of the edifice and don't know who installed your equipment, look on the equipment for its name, model number, and for a sticker that may place the local installer.

2. Run a normal "extra" or manual regeneration cycle to flush out the equipment;
3. If the table salt tank is completely empty put iii gallons of water into the salt tank.

   If y'all are sanitizing an "in-use" water softener there will be both salt in the alkali tank and at some water in the bottom of the tank.

   In this instance Skip step 3 and go directly to stride iv.

   In a more-extensive alkali-tank cleanout you volition accept removed all salt from the alkali tank and take cleaned it of whatever visible mud, crud, or debris (also using dish soap and a dilute bleach solution that is dumped out of the brine tank and the tank is then flushed with clean water), and you've checked that the alkali tank bladder tube is besides clean and that the float moves freely.

   This is the most thorough cleaning arroyo. All the same some h2o softener manuals (such every bit the Sears Kenmore 100 / 150 UltraSoft) note that you can perform this sanitizing cycle with or without salt in the brine tank.

4. Add bleach to the alkali tank:

   Bleach dosage to sanitize a water softener

   Apply 1.2 fluid ounces (a bit over 2 tablespoons) of bleach

   per cubic foot of resin in the resin tank.

   Note that the book of resin in the tank is ever less than the total concrete volume of the tank itself.

   2 Tbsp = 1 ounce of liquid (ane US Tbsp = 0.5 US Fluid ounces)

   1/4 cup = 2 ounces of liquid

   Minor water softeners: ane-2 ounces of bleach

   A typical home water softener is two-three cubic feet and gets ane-2 ounces or most 1/iv cup of bleach.

   For a Sears Kenmore 100-150 serial water softener (others are similar) the company suggests adding

   3/4 ounce or i-two tablespoons of 5.25% unscented household bleach to the water in the alkali tank.

   Larger h2o softeners: 4-5 ounces of bleach For a larger resin tank of effectually 4 cubic feet of volume use 4 to v fluid ounces of liquid bleach - that's

   ane/2 a cup or about 8 tablespoons of household bleach (5% bleach) or just ii ounces if you are using industrial force (10-15% concentration) bleach.

   Notation 1 below shows how to summate the volume of your h2o softener resin tank.

   Examples of "Household bleach" brands include BoPeep bleach, Clorox bleach, Eagle bleach, Linco bleach and White Sail bleach.

   Add the bleach solution direct to the brine well (topmost cherry arrow in our photo above) in the salt tank.

   (The bleach quantity needed to sanitize the water softener is discussed immediately below).

Scout out: do non pour bleach right onto the table salt in the salt tank as it may not dissolve uniformly into the brine.

Be sure to pour the bleach into the brine well where you lot'll run across liquid brine not onto the salt. Y'all will demand to remove the small cap over the brine float tube. Try to pour the bleach down the centre of the tube.

Later on inserting the bleach use a loving cup or two of make clean water to wash bleach off of plastic parts that are not submerged in water at the lesser of the alkali well.

Watch out: do non overdose with bleach or you lot may damage the resin in the resin tank. Using a quantity or concentration of bleach higher than recommended past your water softener manufacturer OR leaving the resin exposed to a strong bleach solution for more than than an hour risks impairment to the resin.

Notation 1: How to calculate the volume of the resin tank & the quantity of bleach needed

For a larger water softener such as the Vertex 5800MEDS (using a Fleck 5800 LXT control caput) whose resin tank measures thirteen" bore x 54" high nosotros calculate the amount of bleach needed as follows:

Volume 5 = 1/2r (radius)² ten pi (3.1416) x h (height)

where all units are in the same measurement such as inches.

(1/two x thirteen")² x 3.1416 x 54" = 7170 (rounded upwards from 7167) cubic inches or most iv.1 cubic feet.

(1.two oz. bleach / cubic ft.) x 4 cubic feet = iv.8 ounces of bleach or about viii tablespoons (TBSP) of bleach.

More nigh calculating volume of a cylinder is

at Book of H2o IN a CYLINDER - CALCULATION

Note ii: bleach concentration recommendations for h2o softener resin tank sanitation

Idue north sanitizing a water softener resin tank using bleach (five% sodium hypochlorite or household bleach, united nations-scented liquid) the objective is to go a bleach concentration (5% household bleach or sodium hypochlorite) of 50 to 100 ppm.

In cases of serious contagion of the resin tank y'all can use higher concentrations of bleach upwardly to 500 ppm, only

Watch out: Other web articles we take seen requite directions use much more than bleach, suggesting that you pour a ane loving cup of household bleach (if your h2o softener is a 9" diameter unit) or two cups of bleach (if your water softener is a 12-inch diameter unit) correct into the salt tank.

Don't do that unless your alkali tank salt level is very low. If the level of common salt in the brine tank is depression enough that you see a liquid / salt crystal or tablet slurry that you can stir with a paddle, and then you tin dump the bleach right into the slurry and mix it upward.

But if the salt level in the tank is loftier, nosotros warn that if you soak a salt tank full of common salt with bleach you will never be able to flush out all of that bleach unless yous remove all of the bleach-contaminated salt.

A consequence is that you may overdose the resin in the resin tank, and yous may have a devil of a fourth dimension flushing the bleach out too. Your water will go along to scent like bleach later future regen cycles.

Notation three: Alternatives to Bleach for sanitizing a water softener

For sanitizing water softeners other chemicals sometimes used include special sanitizing packs provided by your softener manufacturer, potassium permanganate ("greenish sand" used in some exchange-type water softeners), iodine, and other oxidizers, but as we will comment below, some of these are dangerous.

Some water softener manufacturers such as Culligan provide their ain sanitation treatment chemicals.

Culligan provides a 0.5 oz. Sani-System pack. To use a Culligan Sani-Organisation pack you simply dump the contents of 1 parcel into the brine tank periodically, or you have the sanitation package installed by your water softener table salt commitment service.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used to sanitize a water softener resin tank if you keep the concentration low - around 1% - provided your h2o supply and pipage are not atomic number 26 contaminated -

Lookout man out: when using hydrogen peroxide: you run a risk a dangerous, even fatal hydrogen explosion.

Frankly unless you're an practiced we recommend staying abroad from hydrogen peroxide for water softener sanitation.

More details are

at WATER SOFTENER RESINS & CLEANING COMPOUNDS

5. Run the water softener through a normal or manual regeneration cycle.

   This will cycle the bleach-solution out of the brine tank and through the resin tank.

   An hour of contact time - a typical regen cycle time on many softeners - is enough for the bleach solution to exist effective if you used the recommended bleach force and quantity for your softener.

If your softener's regen cycle time is much shorter than an hour of aftermath y'all can alternatively end the backwash / regen cycle while the resin tank is saturated with bleach solution and permit it sit down long plenty that the total exposure fourth dimension is about an hour.

Watch out: exposing the water softener resin to high concentrations of bleach (more 500 ppm) or to any bleach for longer periods (more than an hour) may damage the resin and crave resin replacement.

Don't exercise that.

Sentry out: also, using more bleach is a more than aggressive sanitizing process that may require actress regen cycles to flush all of the bleach out of the system

6. Run an extra transmission h2o softener recharge bicycle: set up the water softener to perform an extra (manual) recharge bike.

   The control to run an extra regen cycle varies by h2o softener brand or model.

   On the Sears Kenmore 100 / 150 serial water softeners that use an electronic control caput yous'll have to press and hold the ON/OFF-HOLD push button for iii or more seconds to start a recharge / regen bicycle.

   The regeneration cycle may accept nigh ii hours.

   This will flush salty chlorine disinfectant through the equipment. (No, using the recommended quantity of bleach will not harm the septic system.)

7. Add common salt? If you lot performed sanitizing of the h2o softener with no common salt (or potassium chloride KCl) in the brine tank remember to now re-fill the common salt tank with your salt supply.
   

Reader Comments & Q&A

Ok thanks again!

Probably not, just NOONE can say based on then little data. Chemicals. Drilling oil. Groundwater leaks, leaner, etc. Y'all should contact a locsl water test lab to set up a testing program,
And
Use the on page search box to observe and read the warnings at our article

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

Cheers for the input.Sorry if this is a indistinguishable message, not sure if my last one went through. Would it exist expected that the shards of metal, such as the ones that probable had fallen into the well, would leach harmful metals into the drinking water to the point of any significance?

Gee: similar the Poughkeepsie Police told Anna Bannana when she called to ask them to tell Metro North to stop blowing their train horns at night, "Well that's one I've never heard earlier"

Just "never heard before" doesn't mean the plumber's wrong- I only don't know exactly what he's doing. If the well head is water tight it may be fine.

Yeah dropping droppings into the well is not the best, but information technology happens; falls to the lesser, and if the pump is sufficiently off the bottom (and screened) and then equally not to pick up metallic shavings and so the drill shards shouldn't damage the pump;

Oh boy, got another well water question. Just got off the phone with a plumber at the vacation firm who said that he instead of installing a water tight well cap on the well casing as I had asked. He had retrofitted the existing well casing to exist weathertight.

To practice this, he said that he drills all the style into the well casing and put screws connecting the welcome to the well casing. I don't know too much most Wells, but my offset idea was whether or non the drilling into the well casing like that puts niggling bits of ometals correct into the well water supply.

With this be expected to cause any problems with well water or would the impact likely be so minimal every bit to be forgettable? I apologize if my question reflects limited understanding of Wells and how they piece of work, but I wanted to ask. Thank you

Yes I think if y'all don't need to sanitize the water softener it's better to put information technology in featherbed. You may likewise observe that if you use as well much bleach in your well you'll have a difficult time getting information technology out of other equipment like force per unit area tanks and h2o heaters

Use the article index to find out article on

well shock procedure

to see proper procedure details

I am doing the transmission regeneration of the water softener system now. Going forward, is information technology best that I put the h2o softener system in featherbed if I have to bleach shock my well again? Final time I shocked well, I did non put information technology in bypass mode and ran the water through business firm garden hose spigot until I could smell bleach and so ran briefly in indoor faucets and so that the bleach water could sit down in plumbing for 24 hours. Thank y'all

Thanks very much once more!

Anon: please notice your question about using bleach to sanitize a h2o softener (information technology's ok at proper concentration) and our detailed reply now at

Water SOFTENER RESINS & CLEANING COMPOUNDS https://inspectapedia.com/plumbing/Water-Softener-Cleaners.php

RE-Posting:

Anonymous said:

no sir, proud to say I'chiliad not drinking bleach here.
Where I saw the info about bleach mixing with water softener chaplet making a resin that is carcinogenic was a website called water tech online. I have no idea how accurate or inaccurate accurate that information is, only I wanted to ask. I'm going to try to add the link hither if y'all wanted to take a look. watertechonline [dot] com/home/article/15530067/protect-the-resin
What I did was shock my well with chlorine bleach. I did not do anything with the h2o softener at all. I used more bleach than needed equally it turned out and information technology took a proficient hr of running the water for the bleach smell to leave. I will do the manual regeneration of the water softener tank to be safe that all is flushed out of there likewise.

(mod) said:

I will await at that like and do some research and report back hither simply I am not sure that nosotros actually take an effect hither. Information technology'south certainly mutual for water softener manufacturers to describe procedures for sanitizing the system using bleach

Anonymous said:

Thank you again for your time and expertise. I'll check back to see if you find anything.

Anon: please find your question and our detailed reply now at

WATER SOFTENER RESINS & CLEANING COMPOUNDS

I have recently shocked my well using bleach. As it turned out, I ended upward using probably about 4X amount of bleach and then was actually required for the size of my well.

I practical the bleach using buckets of water to dilute the bleach.

I read afterwards that allowing whatsoever bleach to sit down in water softener can damage information technology. I'm not sure how all of this works, but tin you tell me if there's reason to call up I may have damaged the softener?

water softener resin chaplet are not toxic

Janet, thanks for asking a helpful question:

Are water softener resin chaplet harmful or toxic?

These are tiny beads of resin - pretty inert; Equally our drinking water passes over them we'd not expect a toxicity issue.

See this Purolite H2o SOFTENER RESIN Prophylactic DATA Sail [PDF] https://inspectapedia.com/plumbing/H2o-Softener-Resin-MSDS-Purolite.pdf

that states "The mixture does not see the criteria for nomenclature." [as a chance]

Watch out: that does not mean it'southward ok to eat resin beads nor to get them into your lungs nor in your centre. Any small particles can be harmful fifty-fifty if the particle is inert.

can the resin in the software damage you if you lot get it inside your body alibi me that is softener

Thank y'all Lehi we'll edit the article for clarity. I capeesh that you lot took time to write.

In detail four of the vii steps to sanitize a softener resin tank, you state to u.s.a. ane.2 oz of household bleach per cubic ft of resin...or "1+ tablespoons per oz". That disagrees with further down using 2 tbsp for 4 lbs of resin. The second example is right...2tbsp per oz of bleach to treat 4 cubic ft of resin.

@lehiatt@cox.internet,
meant 8tbsp per 4cuft of resin.

...

Go along reading at WATER SOFTENER RESINS & CLEANING COMPOUNDS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete Commodity Alphabetize.

Or see these

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• WATER SOFTENER CLEANING & SANITIZING
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  • SOFTENER BRINE TANK Clean & DISNIFECT
  • SOFTENER RESIN TANK SANITIZE / DISINFECT
  • SANITIZE NEW H2o SOFTENER
  • WATER SOFTENER Atomic number 26 & SEDIMENT REMOVAL
  • WATER SOFTENER RESINS & CLEANING COMPOUNDS
  • Water SOFTENER SANITIZER IMPACT on SEPTICS
• WATER SOFTENER OPERATING CYCLES
• Water SOFTENER MANUAL REGENERATION
• WATER SOFTENER / Handling TURN-ON - returning a water softener to service
• H2o STAINING CONTAMINANTS
• WATER TREATMENT EQUIPMENT DISINFECTION

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