There are reasons why water softeners are made and marketed. Once in a great while you come across someone who learns this the hard way. Here in Washington County Wisconsin, in the village of Colgate this is exactly what happened.

A man bought a property that has no municipal water service, the water came from a well in the back yard. The home had new faucets and a new boiler that the previous owner just installed to boost the value of the home for the next owner. After buying the home, the man was pleased with how warm it was in the winter and had no complaints about his running water at first because everything was operating as if it were brand new.

After six years of living in the home he noticed his faucets always had a crusty chalky residue on them, and his home didn’t warm up the way it did when he bought the place. It got warm, but not like it used to. His bill for natural gas was slowly starting to climb, … not out of control but he noticed the bill was rising slow and sure. He then noticed his water pressure in his kitchen sink, shower, and the flush of his toilet were noticeably weaker than ever before. He ignored this for a few months until he started noticing the way he smelled after taking a shower. His skin now smelled funky after taking a shower. It wasn’t a stand out smell that others could smell, but he could smell it if his nose was placed within inches of one of his arms.

Again, putting off a home owners investigation as to why this was happening, he ignored these occurrences he was experiencing. The current owner went on a vacation for eight weeks, and when he returned he was introduced to a rude awakening in his home.

He went to his kitchen sink to make a pot of coffee noticing he couldn’t swing the faucet head back and forth from one basin to the other like he used to do. The faucet head (or spout) was ceased in place over the left basin. He tried forcing it, but didn’t want to get too rough as to break it.

When he went to take a shower, the water valves worked with a gritty feel to them. When it came time to shut the shower off, he noticed he now had a drip in his shower that wouldn’t stop. He finally determined it was time to call in a plumber. He had no clue he was going to get the information that was coming with the visit from the plumber.

The plumber initially showed up at the owners request to service a couple of faucet concerns. After looking at the faucets, the plumber asked to see the water softener. After opening the brine barrel, … the plumber clearly stated the question “you’re not using your water softener, I’m guessing for years”. The home owner stated he hasn’t touched it since he bought the place more than six years ago. The plumber simply looked at him silently in aw, then asked “are there any other problems you need to speak of?”. The home owner then stated that the heater doesn’t work like it did when he bought the place, but that’s not a plumbers concern. The plumber said “some heaters are a plumbers territory, … you have boiler heat, that is a plumbers concern”. The plumber explained that not keeping the water softener full of salt is a slow road to condemning a building because it causes water lines and fixtures to go bad, … which is what is happening here. The plumber further stated that there are County and State agencies that can tell people they can’t live in structures that fail plumbing inspections or have no running water at all. Maintaining the water softener in a rural area is not a option. Some rural areas have much worse well water than other rural area’s.

After looking at the plumbing in the rest of the home the plumber got permission to look inside the boiler. After the plumber was done inspecting the home, the news blew away the home owner. He was told the faucets in the home all had to be replaced, the shower control needed to be replaced and the guts inside the toilet tank had to be replaced. This may sound like a lot, but it’s actually chicken feed compared to what else is needed. He was further told the water softener has to be replaced because of neglect, and the boiler needs to be dismantled and thoroughly cleaned and serviced, then reassembled and inspected. The radiators and steam valves in the home had to be checked and serviced as needed. All because the home owner was to lazy to add salt or was to cheap to add salt to the water softener. If it was because of the money involved in doing so, … he can clearly see now, he would have saved a lot of money just maintaining the water softener by keeping salt in the water softener. Being that he didn’t, he now has six years of damage to repair that comes with a very hefty price. The plumber told him if he would have waited any longer, he may have had to replace the brand new boiler rather than the extensive cleaning and service.

This home owner didn’t save any money by not keeping salt in his water softener; He did lose a lot of money that could have been avoided in these repairs if he did. This is a shame too, he almost destroyed a very nice old single family home. Looking at this house from the outside kind of reminds me of the television show called ‘All In The Family’. You don’t see to many homes like this with matching garages.

Reporter Joseph Toth

Washington Micro Bank BBS



By: Joseph Toth

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