Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - winterizing a softener

I want to winterize my GE water softener this next winter in my summer home and shut off the heat for the winter, is there a good easy way?

The best thing to do is to remove it and place it in a warm location. This is very difficult in some cases but oftern there is no choice and cheaper than letting it crack and havig to replace it.

I don't know of any 'anti-freeze' that is recommended for softeners.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

The biggest thing to remember is that even if you shut the water off to the house there will still be water in the resin tank. when it freezes it will cause the fiberglass tank to split and then be useless. Its never a good idea to leave the softener in freezing conditions, but if you must. take the valve body off the resin tank and siphon all of the water out of the resin tank. this will be your best bet other than putting the tank in a warm place like andy said.

It is true, draining the water will prevent the tank from splitting but the resins are full of moisture and they will crack and break up into very small fines. These are backwashed out during regeneration causing the volume to decrease and lessening the capacity of the softener.

Andy