Rainsoft softener with Pottasium leaving a powdery residue

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My water is already semi soft from the well. We had the Rain Soft company come in and set the system up and now I have a white powdery residue in my sink and dishwasher. It is not hard water as if you wet it and then rub it dissolves and drains easily without any CLR or other harsh chemicals. But it will etch some of the brushed nickel component clear coats which is not good.

What can I do to prevent? Should I switch to salt rather than potassium? Can I reduce the amount of potassium entering the system?

One other issue we are having is that when you turn a faucet on the first slug of water that comes out has a soapy appearance to it where it foams quickly and then dissipates.

Thanks,

Raymond

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Can you define "semi-soft"? Can that be like a glass is semi-empty? Everything is relative until comparable details are included. I have one guy who claims 14 grains per gallon is "SOFT" because they moved from a house that had 106.

It helps when posting to list as many details as possible concerning water test results. pH, TDS, iron, hardness, etc.

I am not aware that sodium or potassium residue will cause corrosion on nickel or other finished surfaces for plumbing fixtures. I suppose in very high concentration and over long extended periods of time, there might be some damage, but under normal conditions, I haven't seen that.

It could be that the softener is not backwashing properly (low flow or volume) or the brine dosage is too high.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

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Re: Rainsoft softener with Pottasium leaving a powdery resid

doopie wrote:

My water is already semi soft from the well. We had the Rain Soft company come in and set the system up and now I have a white powdery residue in my sink and dishwasher. It is not hard water as if you wet it and then rub it dissolves and drains easily without any CLR or other harsh chemicals. But it will etch some of the brushed nickel component clear coats which is not good.

What can I do to prevent? Should I switch to salt rather than potassium? Can I reduce the amount of potassium entering the system?

One other issue we are having is that when you turn a faucet on the first slug of water that comes out has a soapy appearance to it where it foams quickly and then dissipates.

Thanks, Raymond

Water is either soft or hard with a varying degree of hardness. A softener should give you a 0 gpg (soft) test result, if there is any hardness (measured as grains per gallon [gpg]) in the softened water, the water is hard and the softener is not working correctly.

So test your softened water for hardness, and the untreated water too. Then you can see if the softener is working.

You can not tell what the residue is by how easy it comes off or what it looks like. It can be caused by something other than hardness, or 'salt', like high TDS, sulfates, chlorides etc.. Or the softener is not backwashing and/or rinsing properly. Too much 'salt' can not cause this if the unit backwashes and rinses correctly; all excess 'salt' is flushed out of the resin tank during those cycle positions of a regeneration. That's if you have proper water pressure and flow to/through the softener.

The "foams" part may be air and if from the softener, it is sucking air somewhere it shouldn't.

Is the foam constant or only after a regeneration? If constant it probably is not caused by the softener; if only after a regeneration it is.

What do the Rainsoft guys say about this?

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Rainsoft softener with Pottasium leaving a powdery residue

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