What to Look for When Buying Water Softeners

A water softening system helps clean your drinking water system supply and avoid hard water problems.  However, just how important is it to eliminate hard water? And what should you look for when buying water softeners?

This article will answer those questions and more. But first, what is hard water? Read on!

What is Hard Water?

Hard water is water with a high amount of calcium and magnesium, as well as other trace minerals. It’s quite difficult to know if your water is hard just by looking at it.

You can, however, look for the following things to know if you have hard water at home:

• Filmy feeling after washing dishes – soap reacts with calcium and forms soap scum. You have to wash your hands longer if the water is hard.
• Spottings – you can see spots on glasses and silverware. These are made of calcium carbonate.
• Less water pressure – mineral deposits and form in the pipes of your house. They shrink the interior diameter of pipes, reducing water flow.
• Mineral stains – you can find these on clothes after they come out of the washing machine. As a result, your clothes can wear out faster and color can fade quickly because of the harsh, hard water.
• The water tastes or smells unpleasant – a strange odor or taste in the water is a dead giveaway that you have hard water problems. The smell is like rotten eggs, and that’s because of the naturally occurring hydrogen sulfide or bacteria reacting with magnesium.

Are There Any Health Risks?

Fortunately, hard water is not directly associated with serious health problems. However, hard water can still cause unpleasant health experiences.

For instance, hard water can cause dry skin and hair. Your scalp will feel itchy if you wash with hard water frequently.

The minerals in hard water can also change the pH balance of your skin. As a result, your skin becomes weak and vulnerable to bacteria and infections. If you have eczema, this is a serious problem.

How Water Softeners Can Help

Water softening systems can help you get rid of hard water.

Water softeners work by running hard water through resins, which are sticky insoluble substances that come from trees and plants. They are electrically charged, and they react with magnesium and calcium. The chemical reaction gets rid of these minerals and replaces them with calcium.

And you must invest in the best water softeners because soft water has the following benefits:

• It produces a healthy lather when you wash your skin, hair, body, clothes, and dishes with it.
• Clothes are cleaner since there are no mineral stains on them. As a result, you’ll have less wear-and-tear and color-fading problems.
• Your water pressure will be strong and consistent.

There would be a slight salty taste in the water, but the taste is almost imperceptible in most cases.

Buying good water softening products, like those at Filtersmart, is a good investment. But what should you be looking for when buying water softeners?

What to Consider When Buying Water Softeners

You must consider several things before you buy a water softening system. Here are some of them:

Type of Water Softener

Different kinds of water softeners exist, and your choice of type will depend on what problem you have. It’s best to have a water treatment professional check your water to know the type of softening system you need.

Generally, however, your choice will be one or two of the following:

1.    Salt-based Water Softeners

Salt-based systems, or ion-exchange systems, are the traditional type of water softeners. They supply soft water to your whole house. They completely remove hard water and have a long lifespan.

However, they also require daily maintenance. You also need to continually buy bags of salt and resin beads that you’ll put into the system for it to work. Also, if there are other bacteria or chemicals in your water, the salt-based system won’t remove them.

2.    Salt-free Water Softeners

Salt-free water softeners, as the name suggests, don’t use salt. They also don’t remove minerals from the water. Instead, the system neutralizes them and keep them from building up.

You can, however, opt for a multi-stage filtration system that also removes unwanted impurities like bacteria and chemicals.

On the flipside, they can be more expensive to buy. In the longer run, though, you save more money, thanks to the minimal maintenance they require; they don’t need regular upkeep and you won’t need to buy bags of salt often.

3.    Reverse Osmosis Water Softeners

Reverse osmosis systems are not generally considered water softeners, but they do the same job. They remove all substances from the water, including minerals like calcium and magnesium.

They are often installed as under-sink units that provide their faucets where you can get purified soft water.

But just like salt-free water softeners, they can cost a fortune, on top of only providing one faucet from which you may get soft water. Check out different reverse osmosis facts before making a choice to purchase it.

Size of Water Softener

Another thing you should consider when buying water softeners is the size. The size you must get depends on the flow rate and hardness of the water in your house.

If the system is too small, the life span of components will be shorter. Thus, you’ll spend more money maintaining, repairing, and replacing parts. A system that’s too large can also cause the same problems since you’ll have to maintain them more.

But if the system size fits your home, the softener will run efficiently and you won’t spend a lot of money on maintenance.

Testing the Waters

As we’ve mentioned, it’s best to find an expert who can tell you what your water needs. You may need more than just water softeners to ensure the safety of your water supply. You may even have a serious particulate problem that needs an overhaul of your home infrastructure.

You can search online or go to your local water district to request a copy of the water analysis for your city supply.

Pricing and Quality

Before buying water softeners, find the right balance between what you’re willing to spend and how long you want it to last.

Cheap systems look okay, but they usually don’t last long. You may also end up spending more than what’s necessary.

Find a system that has a reasonable price for good quality. Most of the time, you get what you pay for. Investing in a high-quality system is still the best decision you can make.