Finding the Best Water Softener for Your Home
Hard water coming from your community water supply can make everyday home life, well… hard. What should be a pure resource that is refreshing to drink and revitalizing to wash things in will now be a consistent problem.
Hard water can have dietary side effects, make your water taste bad, and cause all sorts of residue and buildups on appliances, showers, and toilets. If you’re looking to solve this pipeline scourge, you’re going to need a home water softening treatment. We’ve gone ahead and compiled the best water softening resources and how to implement them so your life can be easier; read along and learn how to rid yourself of hard water quickly.
How Do I Know If I Need a Water Softening Treatment?
Hard water comes from calcium and magnesium ions among other particulates that are left in your water supply. Water softening treatment replaces them with sodium ions, which helps to keep the other elements from interfering with the action of cleaners and detergents. However, some of the side effects of hard water build subtly, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for you might attribute them to something else.
If you think you might have hard water, here are the most common side effects:
- Mineral buildup on fixtures, faucets, and toilets.
- Itchy or dry skin from ineffective soap/water combination.
- Scum buildup in the shower from your soap not being soluble.
- Residue or cloudy spots on drinking glasses.
- Rusting appliances or silverware.
Any one of these can be a sign that your water supply might be hard, and if you see multiple of these, it’s time to contact a water treatment professional to see what the best solution is for your home system.
Water Softeners on the Market
While softening treatment is the standard for hard water issues, not all systems are the same. Depending on what you are looking for, your region and the type of pipeline your home has, you might want to consider the following options:
- Salt Based Ion-Exchange Water Softeners:
Systems like these typically consist of two tanks. One of them is filled with resin beads designed to remove minerals from the water, while the other brine tank works simultaneously to clean and recharge the beads after the resin has been worn down. This is called ion exchange, and it is the driving mechanism behind removing calcium and magnesium in this water softening system.
- Salt Free Water Softeners:
These systems do not require the same upkeep as ion-exchange filtration systems. This is because they don’t implement salt, and thus do not need bead regeneration. Instead, they utilize mechanisms to neutralize the minerals in your water supply rather than remove them. They do this by preventing them from bonding, which is the main way in which buildup and deposits form.
While these systems are a bit more advanced and costly, it is well worth it with the technology available. OneFlow is one of the leading water softener equipment suppliers in the Arizona area, and can help make your water supply balanced and healthy for you and your family.
- Reverse Osmosis Water Softeners:
While RO is typically not thought of as a water softening system, it does achieve the same effect in principle. Because reverse osmosis systems strip water of all substances, it polarizes them in the other direction as harmful hard water. They do work to re-introduce healthy minerals to most systems, so while It is more of a give-and-take effect, the ultimate product of your pipeline is typically softened by reverse osmosis.
- Magnetic Water Softeners:
One of the newer technologies in water softening, they are similar to salt-free systems in the sense that they don’t remove the minerals from your water. Instead, the magnetic water conditions the hard minerals to not bond together and remain soluble. This means you can soften your water at a more affordable rate that is easier to implement. The installation of magnetic water softeners is essentially just wrapping the system around your pipes to create a magnetic field.
As with any advanced system, you should do your research on the best in class. Magnetic Water Technology is one of the leading brands of water softener magnetic systems. Any top-notch water softener company can work to install this brand or a similar one to keep your drinking and bathing water pure. Ultimately, the health benefits, lifestyle improvements, and home resale maintenance make a modern water softening system a no-brainer if your supply is contaminated.
Water Softener Installation
At Deer Valley Plumbing, we work to provide our clients with a custom solution for any pipeline issues they may have. Our team of specialists has been installing water softeners in the Phoenix area for decades, so we understand how the newest technology interacts with the unique landscape qualities.
If you are looking to improve your life with a water softening system, please reach out to us today. We’d love to show you how a better water supply can make all the difference for you and your family.
