A Water Softener Makes Life Easier

Water can be soft, hard or somewhere in the middle. If you live with hard water you will know how difficult it can make life. It seems like a constant struggle with the effects of hard water. Think about all the scrubbing of shower screens and chrome fittings; the dearth of products with chemicals that are supposed to remove or reduce your limescale problems. The extra quantities of product that you need in order to get a good lather with washing up liquid or even soap and personal products. This is without having even touched on the effect of hard water on all of your household appliances. Kettles and boiling water taps will last far longer, your expensive central heating system and its associated water heating method, dishwashers and washing machines all enjoy a much longer life when they are dealing with soft water rather than hard water.

So what can you do?

A good water softener will solve your hard water problems. Hard water is water that is rich in minerals (calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese). By removing these minerals, you can change hard water to soft water. This is exactly what a water softener does.  Very simply, a water softener has a tank containing a special resin compound. Hard water passes through the resin and the minerals are removed leaving the water soft. So literally hard water in; soft water out. Softeners are very low maintenance. They clean themselves (regeneration) on a regular basis which involves the resin being rinsed through with a brine solution. The brine removes the collected minerals from the resin leaving it refreshed and ready to go again with collecting the hard water minerals from the incoming water supply.

So if you fit a good, quality water softener you will be making an excellent investment, not only for your property but for your family too.  Like many things, you get what you pay for. You can certainly purchase a cheap softener but it probably not last very long (the guarantee period is usually a good indicator of the quality you are purchasing). It is better to invest in the best water softener you can as the investment will be worthwhile and don’t forget – you can take your softener with you when you move! Like a washing machine or a dishwasher, they are simple to plumb in and take with you should you sell your house. That’s another thing they might help you with – your bathrooms and kitchen will sparkle and shine and if your property is on the market, a softener may well help sell it!

So  as well as removing limescale from your water supply, over a period of time the softened water will start to erode the limescale that has built up on the inside of your home and appliances – the effects of hard water that you cannot see. Pipework can become choked up with the effects of limescale, making them inefficient and needing more energy to work effectively. The introduction of soft water to your household will start to work on this build up of limescale and make inroads into converting the hidden parts of your house back to being limescale free.

What is limescale?

If you have a home in a hard water area and do not have a water softener, you will have limescale. It’s a crusty build up of minerals which leaves a white powdery residue. This magnesium and calcium carbonate deposit will clog pipework and shower heads, your shower screens will appear cloudy and surfaces will look dirty and uncared for. Ask anyone who has black granite or quartz counter tops that lives in a hard water area!

Interesting note:

Cleaning products will help combat the effects of limescale but its not a solution to the problem. Its very costly, time consuming but also adds to the amount of household chemicals that are finding their way into our water systems via the sewage/waste water systems that network across our country. The anti limescale cleaning products that people can buy in every supermarket up and down the country contain some seriously strong chemicals. The recommendation that you use rubber gloves, avoid contact with your skin and rinse thoroughly is a very good indicator as to how strong many of these chemicals can be. Every time a cleaning product is used to combat the effects of limescale, they are rinsed away down the plughole or wiped away with a cleaning cloth which is then washed and the waste water again goes down the plughole. These chemicals then need to be removed from the waste water before it is recycled and put back into our water supply chain.

Is limescale really so bad?

Many people would argue that ‘they have always lived in hard water areas and its never been a problem for them’ but it is actually one of those things that when you know about soft water and have experienced the delights of it, that you really notice the difference when you don’t have it anymore. Limescale not only destroys the interior of your pipework, your expensive heating system, your appliances and countertop surfaces but it is coating your home with unwanted residue. Everything is less efficient. The limescale build up on your shower screen makes returning it to a beautiful sparkling finish quite hard work. New shower water sticks to the limescale film just adding to the problem,  over time. Cleaning the screen and getting it back to its original condition becomes a very costly, real chore.

In addition, lets not forget the effect of hard water on your body. It can leave skin and hair feeling uncomfortable and ‘sticky’. You end up purchasing all sorts of personal products to counteract this effect, to smooth your skin and hair. The note on shampoo products that suggest to the user that you ‘rinse and repeat’ (and doubling your shampoo usage in one stroke) no longer applies if you are showering or bathing in soft water. Usage and cost is halved immediately.

In particular, skin conditions such as eczema are greatly improved when bathing in soft water. The University of Sheffield recently studied how washing in different kinds of water affects people in terms of skin irritation and eczema. Without getting over technical or going into all the jargon, they did find that washing in hard water left magnesium and calcium on the skin and that washing in hard water left people with eczema suffering with more problems and those people who had healthy skin were more likely to develop skin irritation problems.

Lets look at the benefits of soft water

Less frequent replacement

Appliances last longer. Washing machines, dishwashers and central heating systems will enjoy a longer life, saving money on servicing, maintenance and replacement costs. Your kettle will last longer if you are filling it with softened water and when you look inside it will be remarkably un-furred when compared to a kettle that has been filled and used with hard water.

Less cleaning for you to do

Fewer limescale stains or marks on your dishes, your glasses and your cooking utensils. Your bathroom will take much less scrubbing in order to get it sparkly and shiny. Gleaming tiles, toilet and bath tubs, not forgetting those brilliant taps and chrome fittings. More ‘you’ time or less for the cleaner in your household to do.

Smoother skin

Skin and hair will thank you for bathing in soft water. Not only softer skin and shinier hair, skin conditions such as eczema can show remarkable improvement from continuous bathing in softer water.

Save a fortune on cleaning products

You will need less detergents in your home. From washing powders, salt for the dishwasher and rinse aid, through to limescale busters for the toilet pan. More money to spend on other non limescale elimination items!  Shampoo, conditioner and soap will last longer – no more ‘rinse and repeat’.

Restoration of your home

Over time, your softened water will remove the scale from the inside of your water pipes, hot water cylinders and shower heads. Remember that ‘power shower’ ? Well, it will be back for you to enjoy again.

And the best bits of life without limescale?

Your home will look cleaner, shinier and smarter without having to fight the ongoing battle of limescale removal. There will be more family time and more money in your pocket to spend on your family and the things that you want to enjoy. Less money to put aside for expensive appliance replacements.

Are you wondering how this magical process of converting hard water to soft water works? Well read on…(if not then skip to the next section).

Most water softeners work by passing your incoming hard water through a resin tank. The water that comes out the other side is then converted to soft water. The better quality of the resin results in better performance of the softener.

Simply put, hard water passes through the resin and goes through an ion exchange process, leaving the limescale behind it and emerging from the softener as soft water.  All the nasty hard water minerals are ‘caught’ in the resin and retained in the softener. The softener will need to periodically clean itself (this process is called regeneration) by flushing a brine solution through the resin. This is why water softeners need softener salt to operate. This brine is not in your water supply, just simply there to wash the resin in the softener, now and again. The more minerals in your water supply (hardness level) the more frequently the softener will need to rinse the resin. Water softener maintenance is simple; all you need to do is check that there is tablet or block salt (depending on softener type) in the brine tank, now and again.

Worried about consuming water that has passed through a water softener?

If you choose a softener with food grade resin, this shouldn’t be a problem unless you have been advised not to drink softened water due to health problems.* Food grade resin will be found in more expensive softeners. Older softeners or cheaper imported softeners have a basic type of resin and its not recommended to drink the water that has passed through these softeners. 

*There are certain medical conditions (usually kidney related) where its best to stick to pure H2O or at the very least filter water.

Have you looked in your kettle recently?

Do you look inside your kettle and think ‘yikes!’ What you can see is the white residue of scale furring up the heating element. Scale will form around the heat source when hard water is heated. This will be also be happening inside your hot water system. You won’t be able to see it (unless you cut your boiler open) and you certainly will struggle to clean it.  Look at images online for limescale in your hot water tank to see the effect of limescale in there. The scale forms an insulating layer between the heater and the water, which means that the heating element has to work so much harder to heat the water – costing you more in energy bills. The thicker the scale, the harder your heater is working. If you have soft water running through your heating system, the scale will be gradually reduced and eventually eliminated over a period of time. This will mean cheaper bills and a more efficient heating system. Win/win for you and your household.

Rock hard laundry becomes a thing of the past

Living with hard water, you a probably using a large amount of fabric softener in order to get those super soft towels that puppies and kittens bounce over in all the adverts. However, by fitting a water softener you will be able to wash and dry all of your laundry with the minimum amount of product. Another big benefit of having soft water

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Staying with adverts, what about a lovely bubble bath?

There you are, at the end of a hard day and looking forward to a nice long soak in the bath. In your mind you envisage a bath full of luxurious bubbles created by your favourite product and …. It doesn’t quite meet your expectations because you add more and more product and it doesn’t seem to make any difference. With soft water, you will immediately notice the amount of bubbles that are produced, for very little product use. Water is transformed to silky soft and bath time becomes a pleasure.

Once you have enjoyed soft water you will never want to be without it again.