Dodgy water softener messed up shower?

[fatboyjim]

Hi all

When turning on one of our taps the other day we noticed some small crystals and an orange colour. Our shower (which never did push water out very fast) was reduced to a trickle

Thinking it might be the water softener gone bad we've switched this off. The crystals and orange colour from tap water has stopped, but unfortunately the shower is still running at a trickle

Any ideas what might be going on here, or more importantly, how to fix it DIY style?

Cheers
Jim

 

[migoplumber]

dont know about the water softener, but you are describing solid particles in your pipework, which can only mean a blockage in your shower.
there are many different types of shower, which is yours, and is it electric?

 

[jstaines]

Hi Jim;

Water softeners have orange colored resin beads that look like crystals. The beads are used what actually removes the calcium and magnesium from your hard water. Normally there is no way for those resin beads to escape.

But perhaps somehow they have and have clogged up your water piping.

You could disconnect the pipe that connects the water softener to your house and inspect it to see if the resin beads are escaping.

It would also be a smart idea to attach a pressure gauge at your supply line to see if the problem is low water pressure from the line entering the house.

Beyond that, its a process of elimination, trace every step along the supply pipe and try to isolate where the blockage might be. Hopefully you wont have to break open any walls.

John Staines
OhSoft Water Inc.

 

[REDSAW]

this may or may not help,
checked out a tank this week, a galvanised cws in loft needed ballcock replacemant, inside the tank were blisters of pink/orange coulered salty like scale.
if you do have a galv tank check it out.

 

[fatboyjim]

dont know about the water softener, but you are describing solid particles in your pipework, which can only mean a blockage in your shower.
there are many different types of shower, which is yours, and is it electric?

It is electric, Gainsborough style 400s. I did remove the cover hoping to see an obvious water inlet filter but couldn't see one and didn't want to poke about in the unknown so replaced the cover.

 

[Phil]

Electric showers do have a filter in the inlet, you need to really remove the shower (easy job for plumber) and check the filter.

If it has a ballofix isolation valve on the pipework, this is a bottleneck for waterborne debris of your description.

Remove the shower and prove water comes out of the pipe, isolate mains power at fusebox before taking cover off.

 

[migoplumber]

as phil says. extra attention to isolating electrics.