Water softener & noise in pipes

[Anonymous]

We bought our house in June and from day one we had a noise that sounded like a jack hammer in our pipes early in the morning (whether we had used water or not). It happened every other day like clock work. We also would have basically air in the pipes for about 5 to 10 minutes first thing in the morning on those days.

We traced it to our water softener running every other day. I called a plumber and he bypassed the water softener and the noise has completely disappeared.

My problem is until we get Lake Michigan water in our are (sometime early next year) we really need the water softener. We have extremely hard water and my dishwasher is really getting bad with hard water stains, etc.

Can anyone tell me if they have heard of this problem and, if so, if there is anything I can do to fix the noisy pipe problem? The way the pipes rattle, I am afraid there is going to be damage to our pipes. I am not prepared to re-hook up our water softener until I get some idea of what is causing this problem.

I think but don’t know for sure that the previous owners may have installed the softener themselves.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Harold KestenholzParticipant]

The usual cause of noise in water lines is air. About 5% of the volume of fresh water is air. As air warms up the bubbles become larger; then they settle and collect in high places; such as the upper horizontal pipes and loops. When the air bubbles move, followed by slugs of water, the water hammers on the turns and valves, making the noise. Air eliminators in particular places can ease the problem. Spirovent and other manufacturers make good ones for this purpose.

[Author]

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