Home water softeners

[ponder]

As I embarq on a full bathroom remodel, one of our vendors recommended a full home water softener. Our water is moderately hard and I am curious to know if anyone else loves there water softener. Do you notice a big difference in hard water deposits in the shower? Is your laundry better? Less dry skin? Does your water taste funny/different? Is your water slimy? I am especially interested if anyone has one that does not use salt.

Thanks.

 

[Harpertoo]

My dishwasher was greatly improved!
And my hair is so much softer! I'd get one just for the hair!
But it really did noticibly aid the dishwasher....We still need to squeegee the shower doors, but I can only imagine what the faucets etc would look like w/o a softener.

 

[vc10um]

We have well water and were not softening it when we moved in. Our glasses turned OPAQUE with build up from the water in the dishwasher, and there was a film on EVERYTHING.

Fortunately, the house already had a softener, so we just added the salt and VOILA! Instantly better dishes, hair, skin, fixtures...EVERYTHING. However, the water is noticeably salty, so we've opted to start having 5 gallon jugs of water delivered and we keep the dispenser on our kitchen island. I'll be the first to admit that it sucks to pay for water, but I think the trade-off is worth it!

 

[ponder]

We have well water and were not softening it when we moved in. Our glasses turned OPAQUE with build up from the water in the dishwasher, and there was a film on EVERYTHING.

Fortunately, the house already had a softener, so we just added the salt and VOILA! Instantly better dishes, hair, skin, fixtures...EVERYTHING. However, the water is noticeably salty, so we've opted to start having 5 gallon jugs of water delivered and we keep the dispenser on our kitchen island. I'll be the first to admit that it sucks to pay for water, but I think the trade-off is worth it!

I was wondering about the salt coming through into the water. Long term that's a very real health concern for me. I'm already highly genetically disposed to heart disease due to a clotting disorder and I don't need hypertension from too much salt. DH is researching softeners that don't use salt, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with those.

 

[kenny]

We have well water and were not softening it when we moved in. Our glasses turned OPAQUE with build up from the water in the dishwasher, and there was a film on EVERYTHING.

Fortunately, the house already had a softener, so we just added the salt and VOILA! Instantly better dishes, hair, skin, fixtures...EVERYTHING. However, the water is noticeably salty, so we've opted to start having 5 gallon jugs of water delivered and we keep the dispenser on our kitchen island. I'll be the first to admit that it sucks to pay for water, but I think the trade-off is worth it!

Slight threadjack, but since you brought up delivery of drinking water ...
We used to have drinking water delivered too.
Then a few years ago I bought this $250 GE Profile Reverse Osmosis water filter at Home Depot and installed it myself. Easy.




It's amazing.
The water is completely tasteless.
MUCH cheaper than bottled water, plus no big diesel truck belching exhaust.
No plastic containers to eventually end up in a landfill or floating in the ocean.

Even considering you have to replace the carbon filters once or twice a year and replace the RO membrane every 2 years it is still much cheaper than bottled water.
Also RO water can be added to an aquarium with no additional chemicals to remove the yuckies.

Think green ... using the water already supplied to our homes seems a zillion times more green than all the additional earth's resoures to bring bottle water to our homes.

Note:Like your dish or clothes washers, RO units use water to wash water, so you can have the waste water sent to your garden instead of down the drain. Nothing is added to the drinking water or to the waste water by the RO system. No salt. No chemicals.

 

[vc10um]

Thanks for the info, kenny! I'll have my husband take a look at that for sure. We were just about to begin researching long-term solutions as the delivery is not something we planned to continue indefinitely, just for a few months while other projects were at the top of our to-do list. This device will be our starting point!

 

[ponder]

We have well water and were not softening it when we moved in. Our glasses turned OPAQUE with build up from the water in the dishwasher, and there was a film on EVERYTHING.

Fortunately, the house already had a softener, so we just added the salt and VOILA! Instantly better dishes, hair, skin, fixtures...EVERYTHING. However, the water is noticeably salty, so we've opted to start having 5 gallon jugs of water delivered and we keep the dispenser on our kitchen island. I'll be the first to admit that it sucks to pay for water, but I think the trade-off is worth it!

Slight threadjack, but since you brought up delivery of drinking water ...
We used to have drinking water delivered too.
Then a few years ago I bought this $250 GE Profile Reverse Osmosis water filter at Home Depot and installed it myself. Easy.




It's amazing.
The water is completely tasteless.
MUCH cheaper than bottled water, plus no big diesel truck belching exhaust.
No plastic containers to eventually end up in a landfill or floating in the ocean.

Even considering you have to replace the carbon filters once or twice a year and replace the RO membrane every 2 years it is still much cheaper than bottled water.
Also RO water can be added to an aquarium with no additional chemicals to remove the yuckies.

I appreciate the threadjack Kenny, we are looking at all of our options and have talked about filtration on top of softening. Right now we use mainly bottled water for practical purposes unrelated to the water quality. I have a 3, 2, and 1 year old in a house with wood floors. Every drink has to have a leak proof lid. I can't wait until they are old enough to go back regular cups.

 

[texaskj]

My parents have to have a system because there is so much lime in their water. You're right, you really are not supposed to drink it. Theirs is set up so the cold water in the kitchen bypasses the system.

 

[ponder]

My parents have to have a system because there is so much lime in their water. You're right, you really are not supposed to drink it. Theirs is set up so the cold water in the kitchen bypasses the system.

There is alot of conflicting info on how safe it is to drink. Some sources say that it adds about as much sodium as a slice of bread per day, but that pregnant women should not drink it and baby bottles should not be made from it??? Anyone use potassium in theirs? Does it work as well? Hopefully my plumber gets back to me soon.

 

[rubyshoes]

Kenny, a neighbor got the same system and I tasted the water in her house. Yummy! We also went into her basement where she showed me the filters. They were so gross and nasty!

The only thing I don't like is that whole "refer a person and if they buy, you get free filters" schitck. It means I have to listen to her drone on and on about it every time we meet, so I buy it. I can see people really getting on their friends' nerves with that.

 

[kenny]

Kenny, a neighbor got the same system and I tasted the water in her house. Yummy! We also went into her basement where she showed me the filters. They were so gross and nasty!

The only thing I don't like is that whole "refer a person and if they buy, you get free filters" schitck. It means I have to listen to her drone on and on about it every time we meet, so I buy it. I can see people really getting on their friends' nerves with that.

I didn't hear about that promotion.
Hmmmmm.

To me RO water has no taste whatsoever, but it does seem 'lighter' if I can say that.
I'm sure it's all in my head.

 

[kenny]

If you get an RO unit you should also get a TDS meter so you know when to replace the $90 RO membrane.
TDS, total dissolved solids, is everything in your water that's not H2O.
The two carbon filters are changed every 6 months for the "average family of 4" and the pair costs $40.

BTW, I'm talking about RO units intended for drinking water only, not whole-house units for laundry, bathroom, etc.

When new an RO membrane removes around 95% of the TDS in your tap water.
Your RO membrane needs replacing when it only removes 75%.
You can elect to change it at 80% or 85% if you are Howard Hughes OCD or have very sensitive tropical fish.
Not replacing your RO membrane early is how the TDS meter will quickly pay for itself.

My TDS meter was $24.



http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-4-Thermometer-Measurement/dp/B0002T6L5M

Our city tap water has TDS of 250 ppm and my RO water has only 17 ppm of TDS. (ppm is parts per million)
So the RO unit is removing 93% of the yuckies.

Water softeners are totally different animals that I know little about since we don't need one here.
I do know they don't remove any yuckies.
They just add other yuckies so the original yuckies can't do as much harm.

Some people with hard water buy a huge VERY expensive RO units for the entire house, but working people get one of the various other water softener systems that are much more affordable, and maybe add an RO unit just for drinking water.

 

[ponder]

If you get an RO unit you should also get a TDS meter so you know when to replace the $90 RO membrane.
TDS, total dissolved solids, is everything in your water that's not H2O.
The two carbon filters are changed every 6 months for the "average family of 4" and the pair costs $40.

BTW, I'm talking about RO units intended for drinking water only, not whole-house units for laundry, bathroom, etc.

When new an RO membrane removes around 95% of the TDS in your tap water.
Your RO membrane needs replacing when it only removes 75%.
You can elect to change it at 80% or 85% if you are Howard Hughes OCD or have very sensitive tropical fish.
Not replacing your RO membrane early is how the TDS meter will quickly pay for itself.

My TDS meter was $24.



http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-4-Thermometer-Measurement/dp/B0002T6L5M

Our city tap water has TDS of 250 ppm and my RO water has only 17 ppm of TDS. (ppm is parts per million)
So the RO unit is removing 93% of the yuckies.

Water softeners are totally different animals that I know little about since we don't need one here.
I do know they don't remove any yuckies.
They just add other yuckies so the original yuckies can't do as much harm.

Some people with hard water buy a huge VERY expensive RO units for the entire house, but working people get one of the various other water softener systems that are much more affordable, and maybe add an RO unit just for drinking water.

We are starting to lean towards a water softener for the majority of the house to get the benefit in decreased lime scale build up, use less soap, softer skin, etc. If we can't by pass the cold water at the kitchen sink, then we will look into a RO unit like the one Kenny has.

 

[ponder]

A whole house RO system would be VERY pricy. We have one at the office and was shocked when I found out how much it was.

 

[chemgirl]

We have to have a home water softener as we have extremely hard water. We rented a place where the previous tenants didn't run the softener and the appliances were destroyed. The plumbing was also very crusty. When we bought the first thing we looked at during open houses was the softener, if it was in use and whether it had salt in it!

We actually just ordered a new system today. Our current system regenerates daily whether we need it or not. We found it wasted a lot of water and we went through way too much salt. The new system measures the amount of water use and salt content so we don't waste! Should save about $40 per month compared to the old system. The old one was reaching the end of it's life anyway.

We have a separate drinking water tap in the kitchen that doesn't go through the softener. That seems to be the standard here. The general consensus is don't drink softened water.

Eta: The connection already exists so that could influence the price, but most of our quotes were between $1000 and $1500 installed. The system we went with is unbranded so it was only $1100.