"Salad" wrote
The water softener system I have is Kinetco.

One day I was taking a shower and my water pressure literally went dead.
I then checked the faucets throughout the house and most generated a
trickle. Even the lines to feeding water to the toilets were clogged.

I removed the screens under each faucet head and they were clogged with
some sort of grit. In the shower head, when I took it off, the grit was
yellow...maybe a tablespoon's worth. When I took off the faucet head in
the kitchen, the grit was green...it too had at least a tablespoon's
worth of the stuff.

I have filled up my bucket to mop the floors and after I tossed the
water and the water in the bucket evaporated, I noticed some of the
yellow grit at the bottom of the bucket.

Is this a problem with my water softener system? If so, is this
something I can repair myself or is it better to get someone from
Kinetco to fix?

The water coming into the house passes through a water filter. After
passing through the filter, the water goes into 2 cylindars...the look
like very large oxygen tanks. The water goes into the first cylindar
and is outflow is from the second tank sends the water to the water line
in the house. There is a large tub for the backwash. There is a valve
that connects between the input/output lines of the two cylindars. I
assume this is some sort of shutoff valve but for what...I don't know.
Should I screw it all the way in or all the way out? Will that help
until I get the problem fixed? Should my hot water system be drained?
It seems OK but I am sure some of the grit has headed it's way too.

Thanks for any input.

Yellow is not a normal color of softening resin. Most resin is a golden
brown to black but there's a good possibility it is resin from your
softener. The valve you mention is a by-pass valve if I'm correct. You
should by-pass the softener to prevent any more of the resin to get into
your plumbing. It can block things up that are expensive to clear. Like
dishwasher and clothes washer solenoid valves and toilet tank fill valves.
It won't hurt to drain the water heater but resin won't harm a heater.

The cause of this is that the distributor tube or distributor basket (one
each in each of the resin tanks) has cracked, split or otherwise broken
allowing resin into the plumbing past the softener. If this is what has
happened, you need to stop it and the only way is to take the tanks apart
and inspect the internal parts.

Resin is plastic. Try burning some of the "grit". If it melts/burns it's
resin. Put some in vinegar. If it fizzes or dissolves, it's not resin but
hardness scale. Which would explain the color.

Gary
Quality Water Associates
www.qualitywaterassociates.com
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