Hard water is an issue that affects almost all areas in Michigan. Water hardness is a measure of the concentration of dissolved calcium and magnesium minerals in a water supply. The water in most of the state is classified as moderately hard to very hard, meaning it has a much higher than normal concentration of minerals.
Hard water is entirely safe to drink even if it often has a strong taste and smell of minerals. The main concern is that hard water can damage a plumbing system over time. The minerals in hard water can also dry out your skin and hair and make it more difficult to get your clothes and dishes fully clean. These issues are why it can be well worth investing in a water softener. Here, we’ll explain how water softeners work and look at the benefits installing one can provide to your home.
Protecting Pipes, Plumbing Fixtures and Appliances
The biggest issue with hard water is all of the mineral deposits that it leaves behind. Over time, these deposits form a hard layer commonly known as limescale that continually builds up inside things like your faucets, showerheads, and especially your pipes. You’ve surely noticed how limescale can cause a faucet or showerhead to clog up. It can essentially do the same thing to your pipes, reducing the volume of water that can flow through the pipe and causing the water pressure to decrease. At some point, the problem can get so bad that you’re left with no other option but to replace some or all of your home’s pipes.
The limescale buildup you get from hard water is also an issue for washing machines, dishwashers, coffee machines, and refrigerator icemakers. As with your plumbing, the limescale eventually starts to clog the internal pipes and components in these appliances. This is the main reason why these appliances usually don’t last as long in homes with hard water and can be more prone to developing leaks.
Other Benefits of Having a Water Softener
Installing a water softener can also save you the headache of having to deal with mineral deposits and hard water spots on your dishes, glass shower doors, etc. You’ll also usually find that your clothes look cleaner and may even last longer. One issue with hard water is that the minerals it contains interfere with the ability of soaps and detergents to lather. That means you’ll usually need to use more laundry detergent to get your clothes fully clean. Even then, clothes will often come out of the wash looking dingy and feeling stiff or itchy due to the mineral deposits that get left behind in the fabric.
How Traditional Water Softeners Work
There are two different options for preventing hard water problems in a home. The first is a traditional water softener. The second is a type of unit known as a water conditioner or salt-free water softener, which we’ll discuss in the next section.
A traditional water softening system has two separate tanks. One is the actual softener tank where all of the minerals get removed from the water. The other is the brine tank, which needs to be frequently refilled with pellets of sodium or potassium salt.
The easiest way to understand the process of water softening is that it involves removing calcium and magnesium from the water and replacing them with the sodium or potassium found in the brine. The first step of the process is to flush the softener tank with brine. This tank contains thousands of tiny beads made from a special resin. These beads are negatively charged, and the sodium or potassium ions in the brine are positively charged. The fact that the two are oppositely charged means the beads attract and hold onto all of the sodium or potassium ions, meaning the ions get left behind in the tank.
Once the flushing process is complete, water can again start flowing into the softener tank when you use your plumbing. As the water filters down through the resin beads, the calcium and magnesium in the water displace the sodium or potassium. That means the beads cling to the calcium and magnesium and the sodium or potassium gets released into the water. The result of this process is that almost all of the calcium and magnesium get removed by the time the water exits the tank, resulting in the water now being almost entirely soft.
The only thing is that this process can only work for so long before the softener tank is so full of minerals that the resin beads can’t hold onto anymore. This is why the system regularly flushes the softener tank to get rid of all of the minerals so that the process can continue working. The first step is just flushing the tank with a large volume of water, resulting in all of the minerals getting washed out into the home’s drain system. Finally, the tank then gets flushed with brine again.
How Salt-Free Water Softeners Work
The term salt-free water softener is actually a misnomer. That’s because this type of unit doesn’t remove any minerals from the water, which is what water softening involves. Instead, it uses a chemical process that causes the minerals to crystallize and clump together on a special filter media. Once the clumps of crystal reach a certain size, they naturally break off and flow out into the water.
Nonetheless, the fact that the minerals are now crystallized instead of being dissolved in the water means they remain suspended and no deposits get left behind. The process isn’t 100% effective, meaning you will usually still end up with a small amount of mineral deposits and limescale forming. However, the amount of limescale that may form will be nowhere near the extent of what you’d normally end up with.
While not as effective as an actual water softener, a water conditioner does have a few advantages. One is that it doesn’t add sodium or potassium to the water. The added salt you get with a water softener is a concern since it ends up in rivers and lakes and can cause environmental damage. Another advantage is that you don’t need to constantly buy salt pellets and remember to regularly refill the brine tank with pellets. Sodium water softener pellets aren’t all that expensive, but having to constantly buy potassium chloride pellets can be quite costly.
The last advantage is that a water conditioner won’t increase your water bills. A water softener, on the other hand, definitely will cause an increase due to all of the water it uses to flush and regenerate the tank. Depending on the size and model of the unit, it will normally go through the flush cycle every few days. It will use anywhere from 20 to 65 gallons of water during each of these cycles.
Contact Us Today
When you need an experienced plumbing or HVAC service in the Commerce, MI area, Matheson Heating, Air & Plumbing has you covered. We’re a third-generation, family-owned company with decades of experience. We install water softeners as well as water filtration systems and can also handle all of your other plumbing needs. For more information or to set up a consultation and get help choosing the right water softener for your home, call us today.