I had a tech come today to check ours as we have only used one bag of salt in the past 8 months. Our neighbor uses way more salt than that so we thought that there might be a problem.

The tech came and said the the softener is working properly as far as she could tell, she said the problem is that there was too much dirt in our reservoir and that we need to clean it out. The dirt comes from the salt and she recommended a better salt.

My question, what do I do with the dirt and the salt? I have no idea how to dispose of it.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, August 23, 2007 - 10:55 pm:

I've never heard of this, sorry! We have water softener, a MUST where we live. We go through between 2-4 40lb. bags/month. Usually 3 or 4 though. I don't know what the reservoir is??? Are you having any other water issues...smell, back-ups, etc? Sorry, I'm not much help!

By Chai~latte on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 07:30 am:

The reservoir is the holding tank for the salt. Ours might be different from yours. I think ours is original to the house which is 20 years old. There is a wand/hose that puts water into the tank with the salt and then draws it through the system.

We are not having any problems with the water other than that it is hard.

DH emptied the tank last night, I don't think I want to know what he did with all the salt. I guess I should call the city and ask them how to dispose of it.

Thanks.

By Reds9298 on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 07:51 am:

I didn't realize the salt holding part was called a "reservoir!, LOL! Ours is only about 8 years old since we bought a new one when we moved in. I can't imagine getting that thing cleaned out...what a pain! I would have thought the water softener company could have told you how to dispose of it, or offered to do it for you.

We do use the good salt, nearly the most expensive, but we just have such hard rusty water here that we don't have much choice.

By Kaye on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 09:27 am:

We had a contract on ours, the culligan man delivered the salt and filled it up. I don't think he ever cleaned it though. I would guess you could use the salt and dirt as a "fill" somewhere, like under the deck.

By Chai~latte on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 09:47 am:

I asked the tech if she would clean it out and she said they didn't offer that service as they would have no where to dispose of it. I didn't even think to ask her what I should do with it!

I am hesitant to use the salt as fill as it might be considered an environmental issue. I'll call our water softener company and see what they say.

By Chai~latte on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 09:58 am:

Well the water softener company had no idea, the city said to just throw it in the garbage. So now we know!