Water softener salt blocks dissolving wonky

tallac

I have a Harvey water softener that takes 6x salt block. The blocks low down flat in pairs, and there's a stack of 3.

I'm finding that the salt blocks dissolve in a wonky way so what starts off as a level platform, soon becomes a slope. This means that I can only add the next pair of blocks when the top of the slope is lower enough from the lid.

I'm fairly sure it makes no functional difference whether the blocks dissolve level or wonky but it does make it a little more annoying when adding new blocks. Maybe it was me just being fussy but it got to me a little so I delayed adding new blocks and let the blocks dissolve all the way down until it was flat again, I then added 6 new blocks that were all nice and level. A couple of months later, it's back to being wonky.

1. Is it normal that blocks dissolve in a wonky way like this?
2. Is there any functional issue with them doing this?
3. Any easy to way to prevent them from dissolving wonky (other than what I did before by letting it all completely dissolve)?

macman

Yes, it's quite normal for them to dissolve unevenly. As long as there is sufficient salt to flush during the recharging cycle, if doesn't matter if one is completely used up before the other.

Slinky

Our water softener takes two blocks at a time standing upright. One always dissolves quicker than the other. If we get to them in time, we swap one stump over into the other channel.

Belenus

Slinky said:

Our water softener takes two blocks at a time standing upright. One always dissolves quicker than the other. If we get to them in time, we swap one stump over into the other channel.

Ours is the same. The front of the tank has spaces for two vertically placed blocks side by side. The right hand side block usually dissolves faster than the left hand side block.

It makes no difference as I ensure that there is always at least some of one of the blocks above the water level.

I usually add two blocks at a time as they come in packs of two. Sometimes the left hand block has not shrunk very much so a second block on top of it means that the cover lid will not fit properly. I just let the cover rest on the new top block and it finds its own way down as the bottom block slowly dissolves and shrinks vertically.

PS: I have never given this uneven dissolving much thought but it now occurs to me that perhaps there is more agitation of the water on the right hand side of the tank when the system is regenerating.

Belenus

I have just googled and found the answer.

One salt block can go down more quickly because of where the brine valve is located in the water softener. The salt is always drawn from the block that is closest to the brine valve. So one block may completely dissolve away, while part of the other one remains.

tallac

I've got a Harvey HVX which is a slightly larger system. The salt blocks for this lay horizontal rather than being vertical but none-the-less, seems like it's a non-issue. Thanks for the replies :-)