What is this powder? Please help

[Neufeld Sandy]

Hi all,
I stumbled upon your forum and it looks great. So I come to you with this problem.
New house, new culligan water softener (and iron remover), many water tests and culligan visits and still no answer from anyone as to what this white powder could be.
It is corrosive to our taps as you can see, but not to anything else. It wipes away with soapy water, but any standing water left to air dry leaves this powder white mess.
Any ideas as to what it could be??
Thank you!

[Michael Larson]

It looks like lime deposits which should not be there if your softener is working.

[Rick Strand]

The remnants of dissolved solids within the water that was left behind when the water evaporated.

[Chad Norlen, CPI]

Water softeners replace the calcium with sodium (or potassium), not remove it. The sodium stays in suspension better than the calcium, and so water acts like its soft. When completely evaporated, however, the sodium will still stay behind and leave white marks.

That's why RO water has to be used in steam generating equipment or commercial ice making machines.

The softener may or may not be working properly. Still worth having the vendor check out - could also be a symptom of the hardness setting being too high.

[Christopher Currins]

It's calcium, lime, or other mineral. Agree with Michael, apparently the softener is not working as intended.

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

First questions I have: Is this municipal or private well water? Where are you located?

When I first moved into a home with a private well 20+ years ago, I had Culligan, Sears and a number of testing companies come out and test the well. Biggest mistake I ever made. They are in the business to sell water treatment equipment, nothing more. The results? High turbidity, extremely hard water, all sorts of issues. Recommendation? Thousands of dollars in water softener equipment, sand filters, etc.

I asked my new neighbor. It seems he was in charge of the municipal wells for the City of Tacoma. His first comment? B U L L ****. He gave me the name of an independent testing lab. I called and had them come out. Other than a higher coliform count, the results showed a naturally soft water with no other issues. Since the home had been vacant for a while, we treated it and afterwards, had the best tasting SOFT water around. In fact I have friends that come out and fill jugs of water from this deep well.

The reason for the story is: Do you really need the water softener and the issues it seems to be causing? Find a local home inspector that does water testing. Have them take a proper sample in front of any treatment equipment and see if you really need it. You might just be surprised.

[Charley L. Bottger]

Originally Posted by ccurrins

It's calcium, lime, or other mineral. Agree with Michael, apparently the softener is not working as intended.

Sure glad ya agreed with Mikie or this could have been another 5 page thread

[Stephen W. Stanczyk]

Originally Posted by cbottger

Sure glad ya agreed with Mikie or this could have been another 5 page thread

You got that right Charlie. In this instance it is the corporations and 1% uber-wealthy that get the water, the substance shown is what the remaining citizens get..... ooops....

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by sstanczyk

In this instance it is the corporations and 1% uber-wealthy that get the water, the substance shown is what the remaining citizens get..... ooops....

Good one.

Originally Posted by cbottger
Sure glad ya agreed with Mikie or this could have been another 5 page thread

Charley I wanted to get that out of the way early this year.