When you have "hard" water this means that your home's water contains dissolved minerals, such as calcium, magnesium carbonate and manganese. While these minerals don’t harm your body, over time their residue does accumulate in pipes and appliances in your home. The scale from this buildup can cause pipes to clog and can shorten the life of appliances, such as hot water heaters. A water softener helps dissolve the minerals and cuts back on the effects of scale buildup.
Measuring Water Hardness
Before you purchase a water softener, you need to know how hard your water is. You can contact a water testing company to perform the test or you can purchase a home test kit. Most home test kits have you dampen the test strip in the kit. The strip will turn a particular color based on the amount of minerals in the water. Other test kits have you drop a tablet from the kit into water. The water changes color to indicate its hardness. A color-coded bar included in the kit indicates where your water ranks in degree of hardness. Typically, the harness measure is grains per gallon, or GPG.
Size and Capacity
Your new water softener needs to be large enough to handle the needs of your family, yet not so large that you are paying for unnecessary capacity. A water softener exchanges salt, in the form of dissolved tablets, for the calcium and other minerals in the water. A water softener needs to recharge itself periodically to remove the minerals it collects. Ideally, the recharge cycle should occur every three days. The water softener should be large enough to provide softened water to your family during that time. To calculate your needs, multiply the number of people in your household by 75, the average number of gallons of water a person uses each day. Multiply the total gallons by the GPG of water hardness to determine the size and capacity of the water softener.
Dual Tank Systems
Standard water softeners typically have a tank that contains the materials that remove the minerals from the water as the water enters the tank. Hard water flows into the tank and soft water flows out after the softening process is complete. A second tank holds salt water used during the recharging phase to flush minerals from the water softening material. During this recharging phase, the water softener system is off line for softening water. The installation of a dual tank system keeps softened water available at all times. If you have a large family or need a large capacity of softened water, a smaller dual-tank softener may be a more economical option than installing one over-sized unit.
Saltless Water Softeners
Although the amount of salt added to the water supply during the softening process is minimal, if you are watching your salt intake you might prefer to purchase a different type of water softener. A water softener that uses potassium chloride as the ion exchange is an option. Reverse-osmosis filters on the water taps can eliminate salt from the water. Another option is to set up the water softener so it only softens the hot water supply in the house, leaving drinking water untreated. Some manufacturers sell magnetic or electronic water softeners that change the magnetic properties of the minerals in the water supply so they pass through the pipes without leaving scale buildup. The Water Quality Association disputes their effectiveness, citing little or no change in water hardness when cycled through this type of system.