What is this?

While performing a walkthrough a few days ago, I noticed a reduced water flow at the bath tub.

​This is frequent and can be caused by sediments collecting at the faucet strainer. So I took the aerator out to find it almost completely clogged with small light brown particles. I knew exactly where these are from and it can be a disaster.

These particles are media beads from the water softener. The beads are not supposed to be found in the plumbing but when the media strainer fails, the beads are free to travel through the entire plumbing system and clog up aerators and in some cases plug water lines completely.

I immediately switched the water softener to by-pass mode to prevent this from getting worse and to stop the flow of beads in the system. Then I removed and cleaned aerators and ran every faucet, shower head, bath tubs, toilets, etc.  I am sure we will see beads coming out of the lines for months.

The photo shows what came out of the bath faucet when I flushed the line without the aerator.  If you look carefully, you will see thousands of small brown media beads.

Water softener service has been scheduled.

The joy of hard water.

JP
Home Watcher LV