Soft water not making it to the kitchen (sales, appliances) - San Antonio - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

steve807 · 11-19-2015, 08:58 AM

Noticed my latest coffee maker (which seems to stop up and get replaced every 6 months) is needing the vinegar treatment again.

Did a little test and found that soft water is not reaching the kitchen sink cold water or the refrigerator ice maker.

Have not tested the dishwasher cold water source yet but from the looks of the dishes its not getting soft water either. So much for the claim of water softeners saving your appliances. My house has a water softener loop in the garage and was clearly plumbed with a softener in mind.

The nerve of the water softener sales guy, tried to sell a reverse osmosis unit under the sink to take out all the nasty salt from the softener. Actually negligible salt results from a w.s.

Rustybolt · 11-19-2015, 10:28 AM

Sounds like your house was not plumbed correctly. Softener loop is supposed to capture everything indoors but keep outside hose bibs on non-softened water. Sounds like your kitchen may be plumbed outside the softener loop. Is your home new? If so, this is a defect that should be addressed by the builder under warranty.

steve807 · 11-19-2015, 10:34 AM

Agreed...Perry Homes
15yr old house

never had a w.softener until I moved in a couple years ago so pre-purchase inspection would not catch this. They will pick this up when I sell no doubt.

Rustybolt · 11-19-2015, 05:08 PM

There could still be a chance that what you are getting in your kitchen is residue from lime scale built up over those 15 years that the home didn't have a softener. Like the lime deposits leaching back into the water from the scale in the pipes. Took a while to build up and may take a while to clear. If Texas Redneck chimes in he could likely tell you more as there probably isn't much he hasn't seen or heard of in the business.

ggeorgie · 11-19-2015, 05:45 PM

Yeah, I'm in an older house with a great water softener system, but only for hot water; I found this out much later and only hot because of the sprinkler system. It would be too expensive to re do the plumbing to separate cold water line directly to the sprinkler system, but I must say, I have the best dammed hot water in town!!

TexasRedneck · 11-19-2015, 07:42 PM

OP....SOME builders run hard water to the kitchen sink and ice maker. For your coffee pot, you COULD draw off some hot water, let it cool and then use it. SOMETIMES, there's two cold water connections under the sink, one hard and one soft - might check that. As far as your dishwasher, ALL dishwashers should connect to hot water only - so if you're seeing scale there, there MIGHT be an issue with your softener that you're not aware of.
Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions......I've been doing this about 40 years, so I have a little experience to draw on.....

Randyk47 · 11-20-2015, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

OP....SOME builders run hard water to the kitchen sink and ice maker. For your coffee pot, you COULD draw off some hot water, let it cool and then use it. SOMETIMES, there's two cold water connections under the sink, one hard and one soft - might check that. As far as your dishwasher, ALL dishwashers should connect to hot water only - so if you're seeing scale there, there MIGHT be an issue with your softener that you're not aware of.
Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions......I've been doing this about 40 years, so I have a little experience to draw on.....

I agree. I don't know if it is still true but many builders do, or at least used to, run the cold water to the kitchen sink around the water softener when plumbing/pre-plumbing the house. In our house it's easy to check as I can shut off the water supply to the softener and see what faucets are still working. In our house it's just the cold side at the kitchen sink. The supposed benifit that there is one source of water inside the house for people with salt intolerance. Now if the house wasn't initially plumbed for a water softener but has one now chances are all inside water, cold and hot, goes through the water softener.

steve807 · 11-20-2015, 11:23 AM

Yes, that's what I did to check: Turn off water at the softener... Using the hot side for coffee now, it's cold due to being so far from the water heaters. Probably has some interesting metals in it now due to the sacrificial anode in the w.heater.

Randyk47 · 11-20-2015, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve807

Yes, that's what I did to check: Turn off water at the softener... Using the hot side for coffee now, it's cold due to being so far from the water heaters. Probably has some interesting metals in it now due to the sacrificial anode in the w.heater.

I also pull from the hot side when I know it hasn't been used in awhile. Takes awhile for the hot water to get to the kitchen sink. That line and water heater feed the kitchen, laundry room, and one of the upstairs bathrooms so water doesn't sit in the pipes long. I have a Brita water jug I for the coffee pot and Keurig water. Haven't had any problem with either from the calcium build up in almost three years daily use.