The Benefits of Installing a Water Softener
Hard water can make it difficult to fully clean yourself, rack up a plumbing repairs bill and ruin your dishes and clothes.
Over time, it can stop up your plumbing, build up scale and scum in your shower and create a layer of mineral deposits in your hot water heater.
If you’re noticing a lack-luster lather or waning water pressure – it could be due to hard water.
Many homeowners get fed up with the impacts of hard water and search for a solution to save their plumbing. Water softeners offer you the chance to have water that’s gentle on your plumbing, and perfect for bathing and cleaning.
What Causes Hard Water?
Calcium and magnesium building up in your water turns it hard and unpleasant to use.
This is most likely to occur if your water system uses groundwater. The water picks up the minerals as it flows past soil and rocks.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), water acts as an effective solvent for calcium and magnesium. This allows the minerals to be easily transported from the ground and into your plumbing.
It’s a Hard Life with the Wrong Water
Your plumbing equipment often isn’t cheap and if your water wears away at it, you might be put in a tough spot.
As the hard water deposits build up in your pipes, you could start seeing less water pressure in your home. This is due to the decreased quantities of water being able to move past the blockage and travel through your pipes.
On top of plumbing issues, hard water causes problems after it comes out of your pipes.
Many people dislike bathing with hard water because you feel like you’re covered in film after washing your hands or taking a shower. Together the calcium and your soap create soap scum that sticks to you, your sink and your shower.
The calcium in hard water leaves spots on your dishes and stains on your clothes. It also wears out your fabrics faster.
Luckily, these minerals are part of your regular diet and aren’t harmful to your health. It might even help you get some of your daily vitamins and minerals.
What are the Benefits of Having Softened Water?
If you have soft water your soap lathers better, your dishes and clothes come out cleaner and your water flows faster.
Many households decide to install a water softener to counteract the minerals building up in their supply. These filtration systems cycle in your hard water and use sodium to create an ion exchange. This leaves behind the hard water ions while the sodium ions and water molecules move forward.
Your water softener will likely be cylinder shaped and take up a 2-foot-by-3-foot space in your home.
Water softeners remove the harsh minerals from your water supply, which helps your plumbing and clothes last longer.
With the decreased scum and scale buildup, you should have an easier time cleaning your kitchen and bathroom as well.
Advice with a Grain of Salt
The majority of water softeners use sodium to displace the calcium and magnesium from your water supply. This isn’t a health issue for most people but could be problematic if you are trying to consume less sodium.
If you’ve been advised to avoid excess amounts of salt, you may need to seek out a salt-free water softener, use a reverse osmosis filter or set your softener up for hot water only.
Installing a Water Softener in Your Home
If you’re experiencing issues with hard water it might be time to start using a water softener.
There are a few things to check before you start:
- How hard is the water in your area
- What is your water usage
- Where does your water enter your home
Once you have those pieces of information you can contact a plumber or begin shopping for the water softener of your choice. Your system choice will be dependent on how many grains your softener can handle. This measurement indicates how many grains of water hardness it can remove before your softener needs to regenerate the supply.
After you select a softener, you need to determine who is going to do the installation.
Water softeners are much simpler to install if you are replacing a previous machine with a new one. But, if you’re starting from scratch it could take multiple tutorials and hours of labor for the possibility of the installation to still go wrong.
Don’t jump to conclusions about your water hardness or waste your time trying to take on a DIY plumbing project. Mike Wilson Plumbing can help install your water softener in Chesterfield, Midlothian and Richmond, VA today.