Salt pellets vs crystals


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Old 04-20-18, 08:58 AM
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Salt pellets vs crystals

I've been using various brands of "solar salt" natural air-dried salt crystals since I moved into this house 25 years ago. Back then I had my system checked by a pro & that's what he recommended & I've had no reason to try anything else.

I'm on my 2nd softener (little less than 10 yrs) and it might be failing. Water frequently feels hard & has iron smell & staining. To see if I could nurse another year out of it I tried a bag of iron-removing pellets. No change to settings.
I consistently got a month from a 40# bag of crystals but after only a week the pellets are already beneath the brine water.

Is this typical?
 
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Old 04-20-18, 11:51 AM
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My experience is salt is salt and after it dissolves into brine solution how would it be different?

Just dont use rock salt, that has a lot of crud in it and can plug up the ventures!
 
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Old 04-20-18, 12:17 PM
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I've always found them to be about the same. Maybe the system is regenerating too much -- programming problem, stuck regen valve or water leak somewhere?

Michigan water can also just be pretty tough on softeners, especially since you're in an area with iron. A standard softener can really only deal with a few PPM of iron else the resin bed gets fouled up. If you get the well water tested and have too high iron you might need a dedicated iron pre-treatment system. You can also try a heavy cleaning cycle with Iron Out (this is same chemical in rust remover pellets). I don't know the exact dosage, but you dump a bunch of Iron Out powder in the brine tank, run the system through a manual regeneration cycle, then flush it out good and that can remove some of the iron residue from the resin bed. It works just like the rust remover pellets, but a much higher dose.
 
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Old 04-20-18, 05:38 PM
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Some thing has changed, raw water could have changed, the usage could have changed in an increase.

Not all wells stay the same.

How is the pressure tank? proper air charge?

Low turn over of the well?
 
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Old 04-21-18, 02:41 PM
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Seems unlikely anything would change that affects salt usage. Looks to me like the pellets break down faster than crystals. McPellets?
 
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Old 04-21-18, 03:37 PM
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And what do you think is doing this?
 
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Old 04-21-18, 06:53 PM
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What I asked is if these pressed pellets dissolve in 1/4 the time as crystals.
 
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Old 04-22-18, 02:19 PM
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Salt goes into solution at the same rate, be it extra course or pellet. It will take the pellet longer because of mass.
 
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Old 04-22-18, 06:52 PM
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I'm not understanding what you're telling me.
40 pounds of crystal salt lasts 30 days. 40 pounds of pellets lasted 7 days.
 
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Old 04-23-18, 09:32 AM
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One thing that comes to mind is that the pellets are not salt but some salt and binder of some thing else.
 
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Old 04-24-18, 06:33 AM
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That's why I asked about the difference--hoping to get an experienced answer. Are you the only one on this forum that's used pellets?
 
 

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