Mortons Clean and Protect Softener Salt

[2Biz]

Looks like this may have started late in 2021...Found this online...

Morton softener salt quality getting worse? | Terry Love Plumbing Advice & Remodel DIY & Professional Forum

 

[mjwalsh]

2Biz & others,

We just picked up 2 pallets of the Clean & Protect. Since we just did some serious brine tank clean up & parts replacements on our 15+ year old Fleck's ... we will be on the alert for a possible batch problem with our two pallets.

 

[water guy]

I have actually been using salt sometimes from tsc It's always clean .but we usually get it by the pallet from lowes and have not had any problems.

 

[2Biz]

I submitted an online case ticket here:

FAQ / Contact Us - Morton Salt

I'll wait a few days to see if I get a response, if not I'll give them a call.

I checked my brine tank today, and there is now this dirty scum floating on top of the water. I sifted it out using a very fine fish net...Its clearly dirty scum! Better picture taken today.

 

[slash007]

I called them two months ago when I noticed it was brown. They knew about it, said it shouldn't be an issue and just a different color coming out of production.

 

[Kimberly Berg]

I submitted an online case ticket here:

FAQ / Contact Us - Morton Salt

I'll wait a few days to see if I get a response, if not I'll give them a call.

I checked my brine tank today, and there is now this dirty scum floating on top of the water. I sifted it out using a very fine fish net...Its clearly dirty scum! Better picture taken today.

Culligan services my water softener. Yesterday they were out replacing the resin in my tank. I asked the technician about the discolored salt I've been reading about here. He was aware of the issues and believes that companies are cutting corners on the salt processing to save money. All salt is mined from the ground and needs to be processed to remove dirt clods and rocks. They have their own proprietary brand, and have stricter quality controls, but admitted they do occasionally find dirt clods and rocks. I know their salt is MORE expensive. $15 for a 50# bag of solar course ground. But their salt is bright white & my brine tank has NO brownish sediment. My water comes from the city's water wells.

 

[slash007]

That's pretty expensive. I'm ok with a little color and paying around $6/bag. Adds up quickly.

 

[Kimberly Berg]

That's pretty expensive. I'm ok with a little color and paying around $6/bag. Adds up quickly.

With Culligan, I'm still coming out ahead by $150... My old WS required 6 50# bags every month. $36 month ($6 from Walmart). $432 / year. My 6 year old WS now uses an aqua sensor and uses less salt. Culligan delivers and adds 4 50# bags 3x year. ($15 from Culligan). $180 / year. Delivery charge is extra $34 per visit ($102 / year.) Total Culligan $282. Since Culligan delivers, I'm no longer having to drive to Home Depot or Walmart to buy salt, wait to have it loaded into my car, and unload it myself. It's a business write-off. Lord knows I can't work any harder - only smarter!

 

[Greg Pack]

I know some diamond crystal salt used to be manufactured out of sea salt. Many years ago I went on a diving trip to Bonaire (cool place) and one day we drove around the island. On one end there were these huge mountains of salt that they mined by allowing ocean water to evaporate in these ponds. . Perhaps that has changed. Anyway, If you bag of salt says manufactured in the netherland antilles it came out of the ocean.

Salt at the local hardwre stores is getting expensive, approaching $10/bag

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

With Culligan, I'm still coming out ahead by $150... My old WS required 6 50# bags every month. $36 month ($6 from Walmart). $432 / year. My 6 year old WS now uses an aqua sensor and uses less salt. Culligan delivers and adds 4 50# bags 3x year. ($15 from Culligan). $180 / year. Delivery charge is extra $34 per visit ($102 / year.) Total Culligan $282. Since Culligan delivers, I'm no longer having to drive to Home Depot or Walmart to buy salt, wait to have it loaded into my car, and unload it myself. It's a business write-off. Lord knows I can't work any harder - only smarter!

Sounds like the salting settings on your two softeners were different. If so... that's and apples to oranges comparison.

Your salting levels are adjustable in your valve programming.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

I know some diamond crystal salt used to be manufactured out of sea salt. Many years ago I went on a diving trip to Bonaire (cool place) and one day we drove around the island. On one end there were these huge mountains of salt that they mined by allowing ocean water to evaporate in these ponds. . Perhaps that has changed. Anyway, If you bag of salt says manufactured in the netherland antilles it came out of the ocean.

Salt at the local hardwre stores is getting expensive, approaching $10/bag

Nope - they still do that on Bonaire. Much has changed on the island, but those salt basins near the south end are still the same.

 

[water guy]

I get this problem sometimes but it's our water municipal we have 2 fire hydrants in front and back of the carwash and when the volunteer fire department every Wednesday during fire drill would turn them off fast and shock the cast iron main line causing the same problem .

 

[Kimberly Berg]

Sounds like the salting settings on your two softeners were different. If so... that's and apples to oranges comparison.

Your salting levels are adjustable in your valve programming.

You're right Buckeye! You cannot compare a 17 year old Culligan water softener with a newer one that senses water quality every day. Like comparing Apples to Oranges! I manually set my old WS to regenerate every 2-3 days, based on water gallons used. It was very inefficient, and I was losing resin beads with every regeneration. We discussed doing a re-bed again, but decided to upgrade to a newer model and happy I did.

 

[HeyVern]

Not all salt is mined. Morton's, and others, have huge evaporation ponds and pump water from the Great Salt Lake, some do the same with sea water, after the water evaporates, they scrape it up and process it.

 

[water guy]

I'm so blessed to be in Texas

 

[2Biz]

Mortons responded...They wanted photos. But could not find the Lot # printed on the bags. This was my response:

Thanks for the response. See attached photos. I took pictures of the bottom of the bag (front and back) and there is no Lot Number printed that I can see or on any part of the bag. I checked several bags and didn’t see a lot #. Can you send me an example? The only number is the one above the freight-shipping box that is molded in the bag, so probably not the number you are looking for. Also enclosed are 2 pictures of the salt in my brine tank. I’ve only put in 1 bag of the years supply I purchased about 3 months ago. The pictures show the color of the salt, dirty brown/tan color. After only a week in the tank and its forming this dirty scum floating on top of the water. I can sift it using a very fine (small) fish net and it is clearly dirty scum. I have always used this brand salt and it has always been bright white. Never an issue until now. This softener is in a carwash I own, so it’s extremely important that this dirty colored salt (and scum) doesn’t give me issues. They are quite expensive to get repaired along with downtime and issues this creates with water quality…I also enclosed (2) pictures of an open bag, one with flash and one without. Clearly not the bright white pellets I’m used to seeing.

I went back to the same Sam’s club on Monday and the Morton Clean and Protect salt was the same dirty color. (3 months later, so I know it was a new pallet or many pallets have been sold) Even the kind for “Rust Defense” in the green bag was the same dirty color.

Also I stopped at our local Rural King, they had Diamond Crystal Bright and Soft Pellets….The salt in those bags were bright white like they should be.

I need to know if this dirty colored salt is going to harm my softener or whether this is the new norm for your company. Especially since both the Clean and Protect AND Rust Defense were the same dirty color. I may be scrapping the year’s supply of Mortons and going with Diamond Crystal???

I will add, I am on a Carwash Forum with operators all over the US…There are many who have responded that they are having the same issues with your salt…So I am thinking this is not an isolated case. They all have the same concerns as I do. A quick search on line (other forums) confirms this.

 

[OurTown]

We switched to Diamond Crystal several years ago for cost savings and seems very clean. It is however inconsistent in pellet size and we seem to go through more than we did with Morton. I don't have accurate data to prove it though and we are much busier than we were when using Morton so there's that.

 

[MEP001]

FWIW when I managed a chain of 12 SS washes years ago and we had Culligan coming through for us filling the tanks with the nasty crystals that turned the water brown, I never saw any harm done to the systems. A couple times I had to remove and clean the screen that keeps trash out of the injectors, but I never saw damage to the heads or a failure of the media. The scum on the surface of the water was so thick that you couldn't see past it at all, and it was thick, looked like the algae that grows in the corners of the bays.

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

We switched to Diamond Crystal several years ago for cost savings and seems very clean. It is however inconsistent in pellet size and we seem to go through more than we did with Morton.

40 lbs of big pellets = 40 lbs of small pellets for that matter. Your softener valve is programmed to inject x gallons of water into the brine tank, and that water will dissolve salt at the rate (roughly) of 1 gallon water to 3 lbs of salt. Doesn't matter what form that salt is in.

So that's why its good practice to keep the top of the salt pile in the brine tank above the surface of the water. As long as there's a bit more salt in the tank than can be dissolved you know the water is saturated - it can't dissolve any more salt. This maxed-out saturated brine solution is what the regeneration calculations are based on.

 

[MEP001]

So that's why its good practice to keep the top of the salt pile in the brine tank above the surface of the water.

It's not just good practice, it's how the softener is intended to operate. A lot of people have told me they've had salt bridging issues and they were told to keep the salt below the water to prevent it, but I've only seen it twice, once with crystals and once with really cheap pellets.