What's a Brine Tank?
By Alana Luna
June 30, 2025
The term “brine tank” sounds like something you’d put together to house some exotic fish. But in reality, your water softener’s brine tank is an important component of your home’s water treatment system.
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What Is a Water Softener Brine Tank?
A water softener brine tank is a container meant to hold a combination of water and salt. This is where you put the salt pellets or bricks used during the regeneration process to soften your water.
The water softener salt tank is an incredibly important part of your home’s water treatment system. Keeping salt at the correct levels within the tank helps ensure there's enough brine to remove minerals from incoming water.
The brine tank includes several key parts:
Brine tank shell: The outer shell of the brine tank should be made of corrosion-resistant materials to stand up to mineral exposure.
Salt grid: The salt or brine grid is a plastic lattice that sits at the bottom of the brine tank. It serves as a little platform to support various water softener salt types. Elevating the salt allows water to swirl around it freely, making it easier to create the ideal briny solution.
Brine valve: The tank’s brine valve is a tube-like safety mechanism that controls the flow of water coming into and leaving the tank. It’s important to keep this valve clean so it can open and close properly without becoming clogged or stuck.
Float valve: The brine float valve serves as a water level gauge. When water reaches a certain level, the float cuts off the flow of incoming water to prevent overfilling.
Lid: The lid keeps debris out of the tank and delays evaporation for better salt bridge prevention.
Where Is the Brine Tank Located?
Water softener brine tanks are generally located adjacent to the resin tank. You can easily identify yours by looking for the tank that’s large enough to hold salt. The resin tank is usually smaller and is sometimes located inside the brine tank for a more compact design.
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What Does a Water Softener Salt Tank Do?
The brine tank plays a major role in maintaining ideal water softener salt levels. It does this by creating the brine or salt solution to flush out minerals that would otherwise be left in your water. This mineral-rich hard water isn’t necessarily dangerous, but it can look and taste different. Hard water can also cause damage over time, with mineral deposits building up in your pipes and in and around your plumbing fixtures.
Here's how it works:
Water flows into your water softener, and the positively charged minerals like magnesium and calcium stick to the negatively charged resin beads in the resin tank.
Once the beads are saturated with ions, the water softener begins a regeneration cycle.
This cycle flushes out mineral debris by drawing in salty water created and stored in the brine tank.
Sticky sodium ions rush to the resin beads, replacing the flushed minerals.
A final backwash cycle rinses the resin beads and creates a fresh environment ready to soften the next batch of incoming water.
Regular brine tank cleanings are part of routine water softener maintenance. Scheduling these tune-ups along with professional inspections can help keep your system and water flowing just right.
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