I’ve avoided getting a water softener in our 5 year old southern wisconsin house. I may get one, but I need some convincing with real data. I’m suspicious of the actual value of water softeners, simply because all I hear is hype. I know softened water is supposed to clean clothes better (any data?). I know one would use less soap and detergent. I know you won’t get that build up of lime or soap scum deposits in the tub or on the faucets.
But I can clean that off. I’m just not convinced the $700 cost of a water softener plus the upkeep and salt will ofset the savings in soap use. Or offset the pain it is to clean the shower and faucets every once in a while.
Does anyone have solid data or opinions that are not hype from water softener companies, that can convince me to get one?
Apparently you get used to this nasty thing I’m going to describe: when I was visiting my old man in Nevada over Christmas, I couldn’t rinse off in the shower and I couldn’t rinse off my hands in the sink. I just felt soapy in the slimy, yucky sense. Upon drying, that horrid sensation went away. That was city water with a water softener in the house. As I said, though, one becomes used to it, I’m told.
I have a solid opinion. My water is extremely hard. If you look at most hardness scales, my water is about 4 times as hard as the highest level. Our softener has been a godsend. My plumbing fixtures wouldn’t last more than a year or two before I had to replace them. Then we had to replumb the entire house.
We do use less shampoo but I don’t think that alone offsets the cost of the salt. The decreased laundry detergent probably does but we have 2 kids and do a lot of laundry.
Water softener user here, with three and a half years of experience. We are on a county water system with the water drawn from deep wells (several hundred feet) and basically just filtered. The water is not too hard, maybe 12 grains IIRC, with no iron or sulpher.
We installed a softener during home construction and it was working fine. #40 of salt about every five-six weeks. Two weeks ago the unit failed during recharge and I unknowingly took a shower with unsoftened water. As soon as I started to rinse off I could tell that something wasn’t right. Went downstairs and discovered the problem.
We’ve been “without” for two weeks now and I can tell the difference. Deposits in my electric kettle after 15 or so uses. Not much, but it wasn’t there two weeks ago! Washed clothes are a little different too.
You can clean your shower and tub as well as your bathroom fixtures, but you can’t really clean the insides of your pipes or water heater.
Should have a replacement unit installed by the weekend and I can hardly wait. As always YMMV.
Please think long and hard before getting a water softener. We recently went through the house-buying process and several of the houses we looked at had water softeners, so I did some research. Google and ye shall find.
You’ve been asked about having a water test, but water softeners do nothing to change the healthiness of your water. In fact, you are warned by most manufacturers to not use the softened water on plants and to not drink it. So do you really want to pay extra for water that isn’t even good enough for plants?
A lot of people think hard water is a problem. Except in cases of water that is totally caked with minerals in a well water situation, hard water is fine. A lof people talk about how wonderful it is to shower in soft water, but on the few occasions i’ve done so - usually in a motel - I’ve felt slimed and like I couldnt’ get the soap off me.
Water softeners use salt, and they use plenty of it. Where does all that salt go when you change it? Into a landfill somewhere.
There are a lot of things in our water that are unhealthy and even toxic. Municipal water contains chemicals and weird combinations of byproducts that keep building up and are never removed. Our tap water contains significant levels of all major antiibiotics, hormones, and all illegal drugs. Anything we piss into the toilet ends up back in our faucets sooner or later. In addition there is the problem of agricultural run off. . . .
We recently installed a Pur faucet water filter on our main kitchen faucet and we’re going to be installing them everywhere. We looked into a whole-house water filter, but they waste so much water while they do their thing that I can’t get one in good conscience.
Back to the water softener. As you can probably tell, after all my research, I am very very much against them. I think they are a racket sold by water softener companies. And when you figure up the cost don’t forget the annual service fees, etc.
But do your own research and make the best decision for you.
We’re on well water and decided to put in a softener. We have it set to use the least amount of salt possible. I think you have to decide based on just how hard your water is and what your tolerance is for plumbing problems.
At my parent’s house, we had water so hard it tasted metallic and it destroyed the dishwasher within a year, but my Mom hated softened water so they only softened the water for the washing machine (so they could keep it alive).
I’d heard that the slimy feel happens because you don’t have soap scum sticking to your skin. Don’t know if that’s true, but you do get used to it.
You know, Sprockets , I’d feel better about the rest of your research if this particular piece of it weren’t such arrant nonsense. You don’t change the salt in your water softener, you add salt. The salt is used to recharge an ion-exchange medium in which calcium, magnesium, and iron cations are replaced with those of sodium or potassium. The salt serves as the source of those cations.
The softener makes a brine solution and backflushes it through the medium periodically or as required to maintain the ion-exchange medium. Used brine solution can be discharged to the sewer or septic system. The volume is typically low, 50 gallons or so, and the total salinity low as well. Most of the discharged water is fresh, with only a small amount of saline, and that’s around 5,000 ppm. It’s probably no more saline than the pot of water you boil spaghetti in.
We soften our water not to save on soap, but to save the plumbing and appliances. Even with it, there is a noticable deposit on the dishwasher heating element; we replace the mechanical parts in our toilets every 4 years or so; our faucets and showerheads all have mineral layers on them.
I can’t imagine how bad it would be without the softener.
Softener user here, with a well. We have ridiculously hard water, and without the softener, our appliances and plumbing fixtures would have a much shorter lifespan. (We learned this by experience in our previous home when the water softener keeled over and we tried to go without.) It does make a difference in the amount of soap and shampoo needed, but that’s not a significant cost savings for our household of two. However, without softened water, my skin would dry up and blow away in the winter.
We do have a separate spigot in the kitchen for unsoftened water for drinking and giving to the pets. This usually has an attractive ruff of white calcium on it until I get all OCD and hang a bag of vinegar on it.
Can’t say that I ever shipped any salt off to the landfill, either, and I’m as skeptical of the whole water filter industry as Sprockets is of water softeners.
Our water is so hard that when you turn on a faucet you hear >THUNK!< If I hold a magnet next to the water flow it flows sideways.
We filter our drinking and cooking water. If I had significant appliances to worry about I’d get a water softener. As it is, the plumbing fixtures are a bright orange.
So, I can possibly see how it might prolong a dishwasher, or water heater. How does hard water affect the pipes? I’m having a hard time coming up with a way hard water will deposit material inside pipes where water doesn’t evaporate.
Also if I go with it. Does the fact that my house and appliances being 5 yrs old weigh in any. Are they essentially already ruined, and it wouldn make a difference to soften the water?
Central or eastern? Water from the glacial till aquifers in the south central part of the state is fairly soft, but the dolomite in the eastern aquifers contributes a lot of calcium and magnesium ions to tapwater.
If you run the later water, unsoftened, through a dishwasher, you’ll eventually notice a buildup of insoluble detergent salts.
You can fix that problem by using a detergent containing chelators like borax or EDTA.
Borax will also do the trick for laundry.
In the long run, adding a chelator when needed is probably cheaper and less hassle than getting a softener and keeping it stocked with salt.
Calcium has a reverse solubility curve, so as the temperature increases the solubility goes down. Even in the cold water pipes the temperature changes as the water warms up from ground temperature to ambient.
When my parents installed a water softener on their well, the most noticeable difference was in a shower. I’ve always lived in an arid, high desert climate. Those that describe soft water as slimy are spot on. However, depending on the relative humidity, that can be a good thing. While most that talk about it being slimy don’t like it, I don’t like the opposite problem, sticky. It really helps keep your skin from drying out. If it doesn’t actually keep it from drying out, it sure feels better. YMMV.
I’d venture to say that soft water isn’t “slimey” but that hard water is “sticky” or doesn’t rinse cleanly. It feels slimey to some because they are used to hard water.
Maybe soft water is how distilled water would act. Has anyone ever tried a bath or shower with distilled water? How would it act or feel in relation to soft water?
