People who live in areas with hard water often choose to have a water softener installed in their home in order to drastically improve the quality of the water that flows from their faucets. Installing a water softener can protect a home's plumbing from a build up of minerals in the pipes, improve the feeling of skin and hair after bathing, and ensure that dishes come out without spots after being washed. If you have recently had a water softener installed in your home, use the following tips to maintain it and keep it in good condition:

1. Choose the Right Salt

Salt plays a major role in allowing the water softener to remove minerals and other impurities from the water, so it is essential to use the right type of salt for your water softener. Most water softeners can use rock salt, solar salt, or evaporated salt. Rock salt tends to be the least expensive, but extended use can lead to a build up of impurities in your tank since rock salt has the highest level of insoluble minerals. Your best option is to use evaporated salt from a company like Water-Pro, which is the pureset salt available for use in water softeners.

2. Don't Overfill the Brine Tank

While salt is essential for a water softener to operate properly, adding too much salt can lead to salt domes and other issues within the tank. Make sure that you fill the brine tank according to manufacturer instructions, and avoid adding extra salt until most of the salt has been used. Not overfilling the brine tank will ensure that water will be able to flow through easily without issues.

3. Keep the Brine Tank Clean

Even if you use evaporated salt, which is the purest form of salt available for water softeners, there can still be build up when a water softener is continually used. Thus, it is important to have the brine tank cleaned regularly to keep it in good condition. It is usually recommended to have the brine tank cleaned annually by a water softener specialist. 

4. Replace Resin

Water softeners have resin tanks as well as brine tanks; the water from the brine tank is pushed through the resin, where ion exchange occurs. This involves removing the resin tank from the water softener, dumping out the old resin, and replacing it with new resin beads. Make sure that you use the brand of resin recommended by the water softener's manufacturer.