Leaving Daniel Island for the Holidays? What to Do With Your Softener, RO, and Filters Before You Go

Thanksgiving and the December holidays are when a lot of Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant families lock up and head out of town for a week or two. Most folks remember the thermostat and the trash. Hardly anybody thinks about the water treatment in the garage or under the sink, and that's what greets you with a funny taste or a sulfur whiff when you get back.

I'm Christian with Avery & Sons Plumbing + Tankless. Here's a short pre-trip checklist for your softener, reverse osmosis system, and filters, plus what to do the day you walk back in.

Before you leave

• Top off the softener salt. If the brine tank is low, fill it before the trip so you don't come home to hard water. While the lid is off, push a broom handle down through the salt to make sure there's no crust hiding an empty tank underneath. Our post on salt bridging shows what that looks like.

• Leave the softener on, or use vacation mode. Most metered softeners only regenerate when water is used, so an empty house costs you almost nothing. Some valves have a vacation or holiday setting; if yours does, the manual will show it. Older timer-only valves will keep regenerating on schedule, which wastes a little salt and water but won't hurt anything.

• Think about the main shutoff. For trips longer than a few days, a lot of homeowners shut the main water valve. It's cheap insurance against a burst supply line. If you do, put the softener in bypass first so it doesn't try to regenerate with no water coming in.

• Close the RO feed valve if you're gone a while. For a long trip, turning off the small feed valve to your reverse osmosis unit keeps it from sitting under pressure while nobody's watching. Shorter trips, it's fine to leave it alone.

• Note your filter dates. If a cartridge is due in the next few weeks, plan to change it right after you get back instead of letting it go another month.

The day you get back

Water that sits still in filters and lines for a week or more can taste stale, and in our warm, humid climate it's worth a good flush. None of this takes long.

• Turn the main back on slowly. Open it partway, let the lines fill, then open it fully. That keeps a slug of air and sediment from slamming through every fixture at once.

• Take the softener off bypass. Then check the clock and settings. If the power blinked while you were gone, the time may be off and it could regenerate in the middle of your morning shower.

• Run every faucet for a couple of minutes. Cold first, then hot. Start at the tap closest to the main and work your way out. That pushes out the water that sat in the pipes.

• Dump the first RO tank. Open the drinking water faucet and let the storage tank drain completely, then let it refill. The water that sat in the tank is the one you don't want in your coffee. Our reverse osmosis guide explains how the tank works.

• Toss the first batch of ice and run a few glasses from the fridge. The ice that sat in the bin is old, and the fridge filter needs a flush too. More on that in our post on ice makers and fridge filters.

• Check the tankless. If you turned your tankless water heater off or the power dropped, make sure it fires and holds temperature. A code on the display after a trip is worth a quick call.

If something smells off

A rotten egg smell from the hot side after a long trip is common with tank water heaters that sat unused. Running the hot water for several minutes usually clears it. If it keeps coming back, or the cold side smells too, or a filter that was due before the trip is now well past due, change the cartridge first. Our post on how often to change filters has the usual timelines.

Easy next step

If you'd rather have someone look over the softener, RO, and water heater before you leave town, Avery & Sons Plumbing + Tankless covers Daniel Island, Mount Pleasant, and the rest of East Cooper. Call (843) 305-5555 or visit averysplumbing.com.

Fill the salt, shut the main if you're gone a while, and flush everything when you get home. That's the whole trick. Safe travels, neighbors.