RESIDUE IN WATER

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

I live in Mesa Arizoa in a house that is only 5 years old. The problem has existed since I moved in 3 1/2 years ago. I have a whole house Kinetico Water softner that has beeninstalled for 3 years. My PROBLEM: I constantly get a white residue that can best be described as a hard white crystal. It often looks like it is blue green on one side (I assume from the copper pipe in the house). The residue varies in size from sand to small pebbles a little larger than a BB. It seems to come mostly from the hot water side of the system and is of sufficent quantity at times to completely plug the screens of the shower and cut off the water supply. I have tried everything t ofigure out where this residue comes from. Got any suggestions?

[daveroconnParticipant]

I live in Phoenix and have worked on Mesa water. You have pretty high TDS (total dissolved solids) around 900 to 1200 PPM in your town. Remember the softener is ion exchange and is only going to remove the calcium and magnesium from this soup your city calls water. Sodium will replace the hardness in your tap water. As the water passes through your heater the hot water may change and these dissolved solids will form as solids on anything they may attach themselves to inside your hot water plumbing. As time goes on these particles will grow and break off then flow through your plumbing being caught by aerators and showerheads washing machine screens etc. Try a hot water filter and check it regulary this will filter out this stuff. Please have your water softener checked also operating in high TDS water the softener may need a good cleaning agent run through it.

Respectfully David F. Walling
[Edited by daveroconn on 05 December 2000]

[GuestParticipant]

could this be caused by a fault in the dip tube material. it is disolving into the hot water tank and comes out as a white salt like residue and sometimes in small chunks

[Author]

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