Water Softeners

A water softener is a device that will remove minerals that cause hard water through an ion-exchange process. You can install a single water softener filter to a showerhead or a water softener system near your water heater, where it’ll affect your whole home water system. Please note that a multi-tank water softener design will last up to five times longer than a cabinet system.

A water softener can help eliminate daily body irritations like dry skin and hair, make clothes and linens come out of the laundry fresher, and help extend the life of your appliances.

As mentioned before, a water softener works by removing bad minerals from your water through ion exchange. This ion exchange eliminates replaces problematic mineral ions with salt/sodium, which then softens the water.

A water softener system has a mineral tank with resin beds and a brine tank with salt to facilitate this process. The resin beds will then fill up with the hardness particles being removed and then go through a regeneration cycle to clear it out again. This cycle mixes salt in the tank with flowing water to clean out the buildup and keep soft water flowing.

The regeneration process shouldn’t affect your pipes or septic system. Some water softeners let you set the time of day for the regeneration cycle, while dual-tank water softeners have a reserve tank to keep the soft-water supply continuous.

Hard water contains high quantities of minerals like calcium carbonate, magnesium, copper, iron, aluminum, and zinc. This hardness causes body irritations and limescale buildup wherever hot water flows, since these minerals crystallize in hot water.

So, if you see limescale buildup occurring or notice a bad smell, spotting on clean dishes, water stains, or scum buildup, you have hard water.

But, the only way to know for sure is to test your water, so be sure to call your municipality or get a test kit.

After you’ve tested your hard water level, you can then asses the grain capacity you need for your water softener system.

The capacity you need for your home water softener depends on the number of people in your household and how much water each person uses per day. On average, a person will use about 80 gallons of water per day, which includes cooking and the use of cleaning appliances.