At Home: Soften up that hard water

Have you ever visited a hotel and noticed your soap and shampoo made more bubbles than at home? Or the water felt slick on your skin? Perhaps you always use the spot-free rinse at the car wash to give your vehicle a blemish-free finish. In each of these cases, you have experienced softened water, and the installation of a water softener can bring those experiences to your home.

How it Works

Hard water is caused by calcium and magnesium in the water. A water softener works through a process known as an ion exchange. The hard water passes through a tank filled with small, polystyrene beads charged with sodium. The calcium and magnesium ions have a positive charge, and beads have a negative charge. As the water goes through the tank, the calcium and magnesium attaches to the beads, and are exchanged with sodium ions, to soften the water. (The amount of sodium added to the water is minimal and not considered a health hazard for most people. If sodium is a concern, choose a water softener that uses potassium chloride instead. However, this will cost more than the more common sodium softeners.)

Once the water softeners beads are loaded with calcium and magnesium, the softener goes through a regeneration process. A high-sodium brine solution is flushed thought the bead tank, where the sodium replaces the calcium-magnesium build-up, which is flushed down the drain. Then the beads are ready to work again.

Some clues that you have hard water include spots on clean dishes, soaps that dont bubble-up or rinse away completely, and a soapy film that builds up in the shower. Nick McCart, plumbing supervisor for Blue Dot, pointed out, The white build up on a shower head and inside coffee makers is calcium from the water.

What a Softener Can and Cant Do

That same white build-up can happen inside a homes water pipes, facets, and water heater, which causes damage and lessens efficiency. Softened water prevents these build-ups and increases the longevity of your plumbing fixtures. Jason Pisocki, water treatment division manager for McEloys, noted softened water will also save money. He said, The cost of your cleaning supplies will drop dramatically with conditioned water because youll use less soap and fewer harsh chemicals and detergents to get the job done. Less energy is required to heat water in tanks without a scale build-up, 17- to 21-percent less.

However, if your main water complaints are the odor or taste, a water softener wont help. McCart said, To deal with odor, taste, or sediment problems, you need to install a whole-house water filter system. The whole-house system can be installed before the water softener, so after the water is filtered it goes through the softener. This will also help prolong the life of the softener.

Pisocki said, A water softener is made to remove the calcium and magnesium in your domestic water supply. A good water softener can remove a low amount of iron in the water but if there are high amounts of iron in the water it will not be removed by the water softener. A water softener will not remove any kind of bacteria, or change the ph of the water either. If there is a water pressure problem in the home the water softener will not correct any of the issues. In a lot of cases, the pressure issues will need to be handled along with installing the water softener.

Before Installation

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At Home: Soften up that hard water