Water Softeners: What Are They?
If you’ve been a victim of soap scum, stiff clothing and clogged pipes, you’re not alone. Worse, no matter how and what you try, it’s just too hard to get your surfaces clean. Scale builds up and dishes come out of the dishwasher with spots on them. All of these problems occur because of hard water, a frustrating but very fixable problem.
“Hard water,” basically refers to water that has a high mineral content. The most common minerals that are found to cause water hardness are calcium and magnesium. As soon as water is absorbed into the ground, the minerals are pulled from the earth and eventually end up in a household’s water supply. Hard water can clog household plumbing and can cause quite a number of other problems as well.
Water hardness is measured in Grains Per Gallon (GPG), Parts Per Million (PPM), or Milligrams Per Liter (MG/L). Water with 1 GPG or less is considered soft water and from 1 up to 3.5 GPG, it is considered moderate. Hard water has 3.5 to 7 GPG. If you would like to test the hardness of your water, you may purchase a kit from pool suppliers and from a local water softener dealer.
Many water softeners are pretty much plug and play. They just plug right into the household water supply and are good to go.
Ionic exchange water softeners consist of negatively charged plastic beads, a brine tank and a regenerating system that includes a timer or some other type of monitoring device. Sodium or potassium chloride is added into the brine tank when regeneration is necessary. Home water softeners may range in price from $400 to $1,200 and the salt can range from $5 to $7 per bag. Price depends on factors such as type, size, and type of softening agent. Alternatively, magnetic water softeners consist of only 2 magnets attached to the outside or inside of water pipes which is very simple and easy to use.
Water softeners work by replacing the ions of the minerals that cause hardness with “softer” ions. Water is filtered through charged plastic beads and the magnesium or calcium ions are replaced with sodium or potassium ions. In the case of the magnetic water softeners, magnetic energy causes chemical changes in the minerals.
Using water softeners basically pose no health risks except for those who are on sodium-restricted diets so make sure before using. Keep bottled water on hand for cooking and consumption, or use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride to soften. Potassium chloride is more expensive than sodium chloride. You should know that there are no health risks associated with choosing not to soften water so everything you do will be up to you.
Softening water really boils down to wanting to have a cleaner looking home as well as softer clothes and the like. If you’re avoiding the extra expenses because of the economy, you might as well stay away from water softeners since health-wise, it doesn’t really make a difference.