Power Went Out on Daniel Island? Check Your Water Softener Clock Before It Regenerates at the Wrong Time
Every time a storm knocks the power out on Daniel Island, I get the same call a few days later. The water feels slick one morning and hard the next, or the shower goes lukewarm and gritty at a strange hour. Nine times out of ten nothing is broken. The softener just lost track of time.
I'm Christian with Avery & Sons Plumbing + Tankless. Here's what an outage does to a water softener, how to check yours in a couple of minutes, and when it's worth a call.
Why an outage matters to a softener
Most softeners recharge themselves on a schedule, usually in the middle of the night when nobody is using water. During that cycle, which can run an hour or more, the valve sends untreated water to the house and flushes the resin with brine. That's fine at 2 a.m. It's not fine at 7 a.m. when everyone is showering.
Plenty of softener valves, especially older ones, keep time with a simple clock. When the power drops, that clock can reset or drift. Newer valves often have a backup battery or remember the time on their own, but not all of them do, and a dead backup battery is common. Either way, a softener with the wrong time will happily regenerate in the middle of your morning.
A two-minute check after the lights come back
Look at the display. A blinking time, a 12:00, or a time that's plainly wrong means the clock needs setting. Most valves have a set-time button and arrows. The manual, or the model number on the valve, will tell you which.
Confirm the regeneration time. While you're there, make sure the recharge is still set for overnight. Some valves forget custom settings after a long outage and fall back to factory defaults.
Check the hardness setting. If the valve reset completely, the hardness number may have gone back to a default too. If you don't know what it should be, our post on what a water test actually tells you explains where that number comes from.
Make sure it isn't on bypass. After storm cleanup, folks sometimes flip the bypass while dealing with a leak and forget it. If the handle or knobs are set to bypass, you're getting hard water to the whole house.
Peek in the brine tank. You want salt above the water line. Humidity after a storm can make salt clump, so break up any crust you find.
What else in the house to look at
Tankless water heaters. Your tankless unit needs power to fire, so it's out during an outage too. Most come right back. If yours shows a code after the power returns, try turning it off and on at the switch first, and give us a call if it keeps coming back.
Reverse osmosis faucets. A basic under-sink RO doesn't need power. If yours has a booster pump, check that it's plugged in and running. If the outage came with a boil-water notice, follow our checklist for after a boil-water notice before you drink from it.
Whole-house filters. A cartridge filter doesn't care about the power, but a pressure surge when the water utility brings things back up can stir up sediment. If pressure drops afterward, the cartridge may be loaded up.
A cheap fix that saves the headache
If your softener loses its time every storm, ask us about the valve. Some take a small backup battery you can replace yourself. On others, the fix is plugging the softener into a surge protector, which also guards the electronics from the spikes we get during summer thunderstorms. And if the valve is old, worn out, or the resin is tired, it may be time to look at the whole unit. Our post on how long a softener lasts walks through the signs.
Easy next step
If the clock is set, the salt is full, and the water still isn't right a few days after an outage, Avery & Sons Plumbing + Tankless services softeners, filters, and tankless water heaters across Daniel Island, Mount Pleasant, and the rest of East Cooper. Call (843) 305-5555 or visit averysplumbing.com.
Most of the time, though, it's two minutes with the buttons on the valve. Set the clock, check the salt, and your soft water is back by tomorrow morning.
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