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If it’s difficult to get laundry bright and mineral scale tends to build up around faucets, drains, bathtubs and shower enclosures, your area probably has hard water. Hard water contains a high amount of dissolved minerals and metals such as calcium, iron, manganese, copper and others. Rust spots appearing on clothing or porcelain are another telltale sign of hard water.
To improve laundry results, add a powdered water softener (Calgon Water Softener Powder is one brand) to the wash water in each load. Water softener is sold in the laundry-detergent sections of stores and supermarkets. Follow label instructions to obtain the best results.
Hard water also makes it difficult to work soaps and shampoos into a good lather. For personal cleanliness as well as brighter clothes, the permanent solution is to have a water-softening system installed as part of your home’s plumbing. Water softeners often use salts, which must be replenished on a regular basis, to remove the minerals before water reaches faucets and other taps.
According to the nonprofit Water Quality Association (WQA):
What’s a Water Softener?
The Oxford Dictionary defines a water softener as “a device or substance that softens hard water by removing certain minerals”. Typical water softeners do this by exchanging sodium for other minerals or, put another way, replacing certain minerals with sodium.
In this discussion, we’ll focus on ion exchange water softeners - the most common type of water softener for your home.
How Much Capacity Will You Need?
This should be one of your first decisions. First, find out just how hard your water is, which is measured in grains per gallon (gpg). Typically, gpg will range between 3-12 gpg (3 being relatively soft, but 12 being very hard - see table). You can also get into more detail by finding the amount of specific hard minerals in your water, such as calcium and magnesium. You can purchase a kit for measuring water hardness, have a professional come and do it for you, or if it’s available, a local water report may provide information on water hardness.
Next, calculate approximately how much water your household uses. Most sources agree an average person uses about 75 gallons a day, but it can vary. Especially, if you have a newer home with water saving faucets, toilets and showerheads in which case an average water usage is typically 50 gallons per day. So, if you have a family of four using 75 gallons each, you would use about 300 gallons daily. Multiply that by the amount of hard minerals in grains, say for example 6 grains of hardness, and you get 1800 grains per day that will need removal.
Finally, multiply this number by the time between regenerations to find a capacity number. Most softener systems are larger - 30,000 grains and up - meaning they’ll require less frequent regeneration. Less frequent regenerations is a great benefit in the long run because it means less salt is used and less money spent. If we included a 30,000 grain-capacity water softener in our scenario, it would need regenerating about every two weeks (or 16 days). With this information, you can choose a water softener with the correct capacity and preferred maintenance cycle for your home.
- 75 gallons/day/person x 4 people = 300 gallons/day
- 6 grains hardness x 300 gallons/day = 1800 grains hardness to remove each day
- 30,000 grain capacity softener ÷ 1800 grains/day = 16 days of use before regeneration
Time Clock v. Metered Recharging
Your water softener will add new salt either by time or by water usage, or provide the option to switch back and forth between these two settings. Alternatively, you can have your softener serviced off site on a regular basis. Most softeners sold today meter the water usage to limit wasting of salt. However, if you use water regularly, as opposed to seasonally, a simple timer system works well, and can be less expensive up front; although, during times of vacation or low water usage, the softener will continue to use salt increasing the long-term cost.
What Kind of Salt Should Be Used?
There are three main types of salt: rock salt, evaporated salt, and solar salt. A higher percentage of sodium chloride in a salt makes it more effective in softening water. For instance, rock salt, which is the least expensive of the three, may contain various impurities from the rocks it was mined from. Evaporated salt is typically the purest, 100% sodium chloride, while solar salt, which comes from evaporated sea water, is about 85% sodium chloride.
Which should you use? It depends, but first and foremost, the recommendations from the water softener manufacturer should be taken into consideration. Some manufacturers recommend a higher quality salt to reduce the need for cleaning the softener unit. Another factor is budget - evaporated salt is going to be more expensive than solar or rock salt. In the end, your choice in salt usually does not make a huge difference if you intend to clean the unit at least a few times per year, or the unit includes self-cleaning features which minimize maintenance.
Health Aspects
In the case of a sodium restricted diet, you may want to look into using potassium chloride for the softener "salt" instead of sodium chloride. This will replace hardness minerals with potassium not sodium thereby lowering sodium intake.
Hardness can be an easy water contaminant to detect since you can see the scale build up on shower walls and faucets. However, there are many contaminants that you cannot see, taste, or feel. To cover these other contaminants, installing an additional water filtration system may be a good idea. It will often improve both the taste and healthfulness of the water. You can install a point-of-use filter, such as one that attaches to a kitchen faucet, or a whole house system/water conditioner.
Help Available
For help choosing a water softener, seek guidance from the Water Quality Association (WQA)website. The “Find a Water Professional” page will assist you in finding a professional in your area. In addition, the “Find a Certified Product” page lists 3,000 WQA Gold-certified water treatment products, both water softeners and water filtration systems, to help you find the right system for your home.
