Water softeners are a lot of help, especially if you have hard water coming from every single tap and you need to make the water somewhat usable again and avoid hard water problems. Below are the most asked questions about water softener systems with their answers.
What Is A Water Softener?
A water softener is an assembly that can exchange the ions of hard water and turn the water soft. It is used by people who have water with excessive calcium and magnesium, which makes the water to be pretty much useless and that is why this kind of water is called hard water.
A water softener has a salt tank, a resin bed and an inlet and outlet valve for the water to come in and out of.
Do I Need A Water Softener?
This is a very important question to ask before you buy a water softening system for your house. You don’t always need a water softener, even if you have hard water coming in through your taps and faucets.
You need to check the hardness of water. It is measured in Grains Per Gallon of calcium carbonate. Water with a hardness level of 1 GPG is considered soft. Anything between 1 to 7 GPG is moderately hard, but if your water has more than 7 GPG of calcium carbonate, your water hard and you must use a water softener to remove these excess minerals from water.
You can also detect it without any tools. Usually, when water stops producing lather or it starts to stain anything it comes in contact with, then it’s probable that your water has exceeded in hardness concentration and you need to invest in a water softener,
How Does Water Get Softened?
Water softeners work on the mechanism of the ion exchange process. The resin bed inside the water softener is the name of the game. Water with calcium and magnesium will go into the water and stay in the resin bed for a bit. Here, the ion exchange process occurs. The salt ions will be replaced with either neutral ions or sodium ions and this will make the water soft and get rid of the heavy calcium and magnesium salts.
How To Use A Water Softener Correctly?
Let’s say you have a water softener installed, but you have no idea how to use it. But there is nothing to using a water softener because it works automatically after being installed by a professional. You only need to set the water softener depending on your usage and that’s it. You do need to maintain it though.
Do You Need To Maintain A Water Softener?
Maintaining a water softener is super important, especially if you don’t want it to break down on you and get damaged too soon.
The first thing to maintain is the salt tank of the water softener. If you’re using a salt water softener, then you must replenish the salt as you go because this is what’s being used when the water is softened.
Secondly, you also need to maintain and replace the resin bed from time to time because it degenerates after every softening cycle and you want the softener to be in pristine condition.
Are There Side Effects Of Using A Water Softener?
Yes, there can be certain health issues that can come with using water softeners and the most major one is hypertension. If you didn’t know this already, water treated with a water softener will be salty. It’s not so bad to the point where you don’t want to drink it, but it will have a lingering taste.
So, if you’re already prone to hypertension, then it’s not the brightest idea to consume water with salt, because that’s going to lead to a handful of issues. So, to proper precautions before using soft water for drinking.
Regardless, you can still use hard water for everything else other than drinking. Using a water filter for drinking water is a better choice.
Which Size Of A Water Softener Is Right For Me?
The size of the water softener you need depends on your consumption and how much water needs to be softened in one cycle. If you don’t need a lot of soft water, then you can get a smaller water softener and it will do the trick.
However, if you need a lot of water that’s to be softened, it’s better to get a larger capacity water softener because that’s going to work better. Make sure that you know what size you need to buy beforehand so you don’t need to replace it afterward only due to capacity issues.
What Type Of Salt Is Used In A Water Softener?
If you didn’t know this already, salt water softeners don’t use the same type of salt. Some salts are in the form of granules, while some are in the form of bullets or blocks. You need to check which type of salt is used in your specific water softener because that’s going to affect the performance of the softener accordingly.
Don’t just opt for a bag of salt that’s easily available or cheap because it can ruin your water softener and the quality of water. So, whenever you go and buy salt for your water softener, make sure that you’re getting the right one.
What Are The Different Types Of Water Softeners?
Water softeners are primarily of two different types based on the ion exchange process they employ to soften the water. You can choose any water softener from the following two types, depending on your preference and what degree of hardness is present in the water that needs to be treated. Both of the water softeners will give you promising results. Here are the two types of water softeners.
Salt Water Softeners
Salt water softeners use salt for the ion exchange process. So, the calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged with salt. There’s usually a salt tank present in this softener that needs to be regenerated from time to time. This is what’s going to accelerate the process of softening and you will get scale-free water in no time.
The only downside of this water softener is the fact that it uses salt and it also leaves the water tasting salty, so if that’s something that will bother you, then you probably don’t want to go for this water softener.
Salt-Free Water Softeners
As the name suggests, this water doesn’t use salt for the ion exchange process. Instead, electrolysis is employed to turn the dissolved salt into crystals that can fall to the bottom of the tank and then can be scraped off.
This is a great method of water softening if you don’t want to go for a softener with salt in it due to health issues or if you don’t want to drink water that has salt in it.
Even though this is a great alternative, but be warned because this water softener uses a lot more electricity than a salt water softener, so you better brace yourself for a hike in your electricity bill.
Conclusion
A water softener is a lifesaver for a lot of people, but since it’s an investment, people are naturally going to have some questions before they go ahead with a water softener installation Warren. So, you might as well get those out of the way too.