While there are many great things about living in Arizona, one thing you have to deal with no matter whether you live in Camp Verde or anywhere else in the state is overly hard water. Hard water has a high concentration of dissolved calcium, magnesium and other minerals. All the minerals can give your drinking water an off-putting taste and smell. It also dries out your skin and hair, can make you feel itchy and even makes it more difficult to get your dishes and clothes fully clean.
The biggest concern when your home has hard water is the buildup of mineral deposits or limescale in your pipes, plumbing fixtures and appliances. Over time, limescale can cause extensive damage and create various issues for your plumbing. We’ll explain what these issues are and what options you have for protecting your plumbing system from hard water damage.
How Hard Water Can Damage Your Plumbing
The biggest issue when your home has hard water is that mineral deposits continually collect inside all your water pipes, drain lines and even your main sewer line. That means the inside diameter of the pipes shrinks over time. At some point, the pipes start to get choked off, and less water can flow through them. One issue that arises when there’s a large buildup of mineral deposits inside any water line is that you have poor water pressure in whatever fixture or fixtures that pipe supplies. This issue can then worsen when mineral deposits clog your sinks and shower heads and restrict how much water can flow out of them. Even worse is when the deposits build up inside your main water line since this results in weak water pressure throughout your house.
The same sort of issue can impact your drainpipes and sewer line. However, in this case, the concern when mineral deposits choke these pipes is that it makes them much more likely to clog. This is an especially big concern for your sewer line since you can end up with sewage backing up in your home any time your sewer line is fully or even partially clogged.
The mineral deposits from hard water can also shorten the life of some of your appliances, including your washing machine, dishwasher, water heater and coffee maker. That’s because they end up clogging up valves in some of these appliances and increasing the chances of them leaking. The same thing can happen to the pipe that supplies the cold water and ice maker in your refrigerator.
Hard water is especially problematic for both tank and tankless water heaters. If you have a tank water heater, you’ll need to flush it more often since the hard water results in much more mineral sediment forming and can also cause the tank to rust and corrode more quickly. A tankless water heater also needs to be descaled more frequently to remove all the mineral deposits that form on its heat exchanger. If you don’t flush or descale your water heater often enough, it likely won’t last as long as it should.
How Traditional Water Softeners Overcome Hard Water Issues
The most effective method for overcoming hard water and protecting your plumbing system and appliances is to install a traditional water softener. This device consists of two primary components, the softener tank and the brine tank. Within the softener tank are thousands of small beads made of a special resin. These beads carry a negative electric charge, whereas all of the calcium and magnesium ions in hard water are positively charged. That means that as the water flows through the softener tank, the beads attract and hold onto the minerals.
The softener tank also regularly gets filled with a brine solution consisting of water and either sodium or potassium, both of which are also positively charged. Whenever the softener tank is flushed to remove all the minerals, it then refills with brine. This results in the sodium or potassium ions clinging to the resin beads. Once the flushing process is complete, and fresh water again starts flowing through the tank, the minerals end up displacing the sodium or potassium. The result is that the minerals are removed from the water, and the sodium or potassium is released. That means the process just replaces the minerals with a small amount of sodium or potassium salt.
How Salt-Free Water Softeners Work
The other option for preventing hard water damage is to install a salt-free or brine-free water softener. Despite the name, this type of unit is technically a water conditioner and doesn’t actually soften your water. Water softening is the process of removing the minerals, which this type of unit doesn’t do. Instead, it uses a special process that keeps most of the minerals suspended in the water so that far fewer deposits are left behind. It works by causing the minerals to crystallize and clump together so that they flow straight through your plumbing without sticking inside pipes, fixtures and appliances.
How to Choose the Right Water Softening Option for Your Home
Both traditional and salt-free water softeners have some pros and cons, so it’s important to consider which option is better for your home. The main drawback to salt-free water softeners is that they aren’t as effective since they don’t remove minerals. This type of unit will still help to minimize limescale, but it won’t fully prevent mineral deposits from forming in your plumbing.
Traditional salt water softeners also have a few drawbacks. One is that this type of unit will cause your water bills to be higher as a result of the softener tank frequently needing to be flushed with quite a bit of water. You also have the added expense of having to buy sodium or potassium pellets to refill the brine tank, and this is something that can really add up over time. Nonetheless, the price you’ll pay for all the pellets is still less than what you’d pay if hard water damaged your plumbing to the point where you needed to replace much or all of your water lines, drainpipes or sewer line.
Although the amount of salt a water softener adds to your water is minimal, it can still be a concern for anyone with health problems that require a salt-restricted diet. The bigger concern with the salt is that it can eventually end up in local rivers, lakes and streams and damage the environment. This issue is why some places in Arizona and elsewhere in the country have recently started banning the use of traditional water softeners.
If you want to protect your plumbing from hard water damage, Goettl's High Desert Mechanical is here to help. We install traditional and salt-free water softeners and can assist you with choosing the best option for your home. We’ve been serving the Camp Verde area for nearly 40 years with our plumbing services, and are the company to trust when you need any plumbing, air conditioning or heating help.
To learn more about the water softener options we offer, contact Goettl's High Desert Mechanical today.
