water softener and dark discharge

[Rmack1]

I stored my On-The-Go water softener just like the instructions said; I back-flushed, regenerated, then drained the unit. Now, about three months later, I took it out because you need to regenerate again after storage. When I back-flushed, the first water out was a dark orange-ish brown for a few seconds.

Is this normal?

[hawkeye-08]

My simple screw on the end of hose water filter does that. We have iron bacteria in our well water. We have tried to eliminate it in the past, but never had complete success so just live with it now. Any time we loose pressure in house water system (power out, water used up), when we get water back, we need to flush all the lines to get rid of the orange color. It plugs up filters pretty fast, but they do help (at least for washing machine)..

You can Google it, "iron bacteria" for more information. You may also have some iron in your water causing the color... I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Rmack1]

eHoefler wrote:
You are getting some of the resin beads flowing out. Common thing with all water softeners. When the resin bed dries out from storage or when first using it, some of the beads will float on the surface of the water and flow out.

Really? I didn't see any of them, just the color. I thought there would be some way to prevent that. It's during the back flush that it happened.

I mean, what's to prevent all of them getting out if it's possible for any to?

[eHoefler]

You are getting some of the resin beads flowing out. Common thing with all water softeners. When the resin bed dries out from storage or when first using it, some of the beads will float on the surface of the water and flow out.

[Rmack1]

rav wrote:
ours does the same thing when I get it out of storage. I use the iron out and still get some "brown" water.

Thanks, that makes me feel so much better. I made no mistakes, lol.

[rav]

ours does the same thing when I get it out of storage. I use the iron out and still get some "brown" water.

[brirene]

X2 what poncho said. That would be my guess too.

[Rmack1]

poncho62 wrote:
Probably just iron that settled in it.....We are on a well with filters up the yazoo, water softener etc......I still get a bit of iron if a water pipe sits a while without running

The color kind of leads that way, huh? I do use this white powder called 'iron out' or something like that. a tsp or two along with the salt for 'extremely heavy water' which I probably qualify for here in Lake Elsinore, CA

[poncho62]

Probably just iron that settled in it.....We are on a well with filters up the yazoo, water softener etc......I still get a bit of iron if a water pipe sits a while without running