A water softener may not be necessary, but it sure will make a difference if you are one of the many Americans who live in an area with severely hard water. Hard water makes it harder to wash your laundry and to bathe, leaves spots on your glasses, and may be responsible for clogging your appliance, boiler, or plumbing pipes with a scale that accumulates over time. You can buy easy-to-use test kits if you are curious about the hardness of your water.
Water Softeners are Simple
A water softener works on a fairly simple principle of chemistry that involves positive and negative charges on molecules (ions). Anyone familiar with a magnet knows the two negative or the two positive ends will push the magnets apart. But if you turn one magnet around, the one negative pole will pull the positive pole tightly to it.
Water softeners work on that same positive / negative attraction principle. Salt-based water softener systems use carbon resin beads coated with sodium or potassium ions (from sodium or potassium salts) to attract and replace the calcium, magnesium, and iron in your water. The metals causing your hard water are then carried out of your home's water system into your water softener's conditioning tank.
After enough time, the salts are no longer present and it is time to regenerate or replace them. The amount of water you use each day will be the greatest determining factor in how often your water softener system requires maintenance.
Renewal of Your Salt Supply
Since the salt used to remove calcium and other metals from your water will be used up after a period of time, there are several options for that renewal process.
Meter-based systems replenish the salt supply as necessary, but during its initial installation you will usually have to tell the machine your water hardness and how many users in your house on an average day will be taking showers. There are some tricks to making the water conditioner renew its salt supply in the middle of the night, not just when the meter tells it to do so. Meter systems are the most cost-effective users of salt with very little waste.
Timer-based systems replace your salt at a specified time of day, or night, usually once per week. A fixed amount of salt is replaced each time this process takes place regardless of how much water was used during that period. It's still going to use more salt despite the fact you were on vacation that week. You can see how this type of replenishment system is going to use a lot of salt over time.
Manual systems obviously have no timer or meter to renew your salt supply. But if you do not have a nearby drain for your water softener, then you will be using a garden hose and a remote drain for this process. Sure it sounds like more work than the other two, so buy a big water softener and you won't have to perform this process as often.
Salt-based water softeners work so well that it is probably your best choice if you live in an area of extreme water hardness. However, if you are worried because you are on a strict low sodium diet, simply use potassium salt which does cost more and talk to your doctor about your situation. And these systems certainly are not eco-friendly.
