What is it about water softeners that make your skin slippery?

[lazybratsche]

@Jinx

Bingo! This IS the correct answer! Many posters above have forgotten some basic chemistry! All alkalines (high pH over 7) have a slippery feel to them. Surfactants (liquid soaps) are one example. Simply put, when water feels “slimey”, the water is over-loaded with the molecules from the softener. Hence, you are no longer feeling pure water, but the solution itself.

Ah, I hadn’t even considered pH. As a point of clarification, high pH feels slippery because there’s a reaction that turns skin oils into soap. It’s the same process (saponification) used to make soap from lye and some sort of fat. Soap does not necessarily have a high pH on its own, though it usually does.

[GaryM]

@danceswithcats

From reading the setup instructions furnished with water softening equipment, they direct the user to set the softener based upon a previously completed water analysis, paying attention to the grains of hardness, IIRC.

When people have complained about the slimy feeling, I’ve advised them to either get a water analysis done and adjust their softener accordingly, or reduce the setting a little bit every few days until the feeling if alleviated.

You need to know the “hardness” of the incoming water so that you can recharge the resin bed at the proper intervals. If for example your hardness is 18 grains and you tell the softener that it’s 9, the unit will not recharge the resin beads often enough and the output will not be “soft” after some interval. On the other hand, if it is 18 and you tell the unit that it’s 30, the unit will recharge too soon and you’ll use more salt and recharge water than you should.

It is true that the hardness of the incoming water can change over time, so an occasional check is a good idea. That way you operate with the least waste of water and salt.

Is Jinx saying that the softener changes the PH? Mine doesn’t because I’ve checked.

[Ski_alias_waterbug]

I live on heavily wooded land in central Wisconsin. An area known for it’s sandy soil. 30 years ago when we built or house we drove a well about 18 feet for our water source. We had our water tested and it was very pure. It was rain water filtered through the forest floor and sand. It was also very soft. They told us it was too soft and would probably leech away any copper pipes because minerals would dissolve in it so easily. It was void of mineral content. It was wonderful. No shower scum yet soft water.

We have had to have a well driller put in a deeper well because we began to run out of our pure surface spring water. We now have a lot of calcium in our water but it is still very good tasting. Our neighbors installed a water softener to remove the calcium. Their water is slimy feeling. My point is, water without ionized minerals in it isn’t slimy. Replace ions with other ions you get unnatural “soft” water. True soft water is pure water. Pure water is a solvent. It is looking for ions to take on. Softened water is not pure, it is just different from your calcium or iron water. **The process is called ion exchange **and it’s the way water softeners work.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

FYI: The OP died five years ago (as well as least one other person).

[Isilder]

Acid does also cause slippery feeling , this may be because the acid causes the skin to be protectively dehydrated internally, and thus the outside is pulled tight and the oil in the epidermis is expelled ? Or is it because the acid acts as a detergent and helps the oil flow ?

But anyway its all about the oil in the skin I believe… acid or alkali, its affecting the oil …