We use water regularly for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing. Ensuring that the water we consume is pure, clean, and void of minerals or soft water is crucial. However, many households in the United States require water-softening devices. This is because over 85% of the country’s water is considered hard. While not often discussed, hard water has serious consequences for homeowners.
Water softeners are a great solution to remove hard water, which can transform your daily life. Here are some reasons water softeners are important.
What Is Hard Water?
Hard water occurs when water has a lot of minerals in it, like magnesium and calcium. It happens when water seeps through limestone, chalk, or gypsum deposits, accumulating these minerals in the process. The dissolved minerals pass through your home’s pipes to form scale, deteriorating your fixtures, appliances, and pipes.
How Do Water Softener Work?
A water softener uses an ion exchange process to remove the minerals that cause hard water. The water softener contains polystyrene resin beads charged with salt or potassium ions. The calcium and magnesium ions in the hard water are drawn to the resin beads in the resin tank, replacing the sodium or potassium ions. This process creates softened water that provides many benefits to consumers.
Benefits of a Water Softener System
The following are several advantages of installing a whole-house water softener in your residence.
1. Spend Less on Cleaning Supplies.
One advantage of a water softener is that you can use up to 50% less detergent. Magnesium and calcium ions in hard water can hinder the formation of a strong lather, ultimately leading to unclean and stiff garments. It can also affect the cleanliness of your dishes and even your car.
Soft water, on the other hand, produces considerably a richer lather because it dissolves and absorbs soap more effectively. It is also more cost-effective because it requires less soap or detergent for the same cleaning effect. This also aids in lowering the quantity of detergent contamination that finds its way into our streams.
2. Enhances Water-Using Appliance Efficiency
Soft water increases the energy efficiency of your water heater. Efficiency will, however, decline if hard water minerals, known as scale, build up inside the tank and insulate the heating element. In essence, scale prevents heat from entering the water by acting as an extra layer of insulation, which can be highly damaging to your water heating system. Running soft water through your system will solve this issue entirely.
3. Healthier Skin and Hair
Skin issues are more common in people who live in places with hard water than in those who don’t. Hard water can cause dryness, itching, and irritation because of high mineral concentration, which removes natural oils from your skin, leaving it feeling tight and dehydrated. Softeners can assist in returning your skin to optimal levels of hydration and health by eliminating these minerals from your water source.
Furthermore, the scale accumulation caused by hard water can result in dandruff and other scalp issues. Another potential irritant is soap scum, which can irritate when it comes into touch with the skin. This is because microscopic particles remain on clothing cleaned in hard water. This can worsen eczema and other dry skin issues.
Soft water helps your skin absorb and retain moisture more easily because it has fewer minerals. Moreover, it can help balance the pH level of your hair, making its color more vibrant and improving its softness and vitality.
4. Maintains Softer Clothing
Water softener keeps your garments soft to the touch and maintains their brand-new appearance and feel by mitigating the adverse effects of hard water. The water softener removes minerals such as magnesium, which leave deposits on your clothes, making the colors fade with time.
Soft water also dissolves with detergent better, producing a thinner layer of suds that is easier to rinse away, leaving your laundry cleaner and more brilliant.
5. Improves the Taste and Smell of Your Drinking Water
Water with an overabundance of minerals has an unpleasant aftertaste. It also smells different, which is not pleasant. Users typically avoid drinking it even with the recommended water consumption being between 72 and 104 ounces per day for optimal health.
A water softener delivers a convenient source of pure, clean, and delicious water straight from the tap. It uses the ion exchange process to minimize iron, sulfur, or magnesium accumulation, which can cause acidic tastes.
6. Saves Money
Hard water accelerates the wear and tear on internal parts and potentially creates rust in your appliances. This decays pipes, which increases the likelihood of leaks. It can also permanently damage plumbing in homes, necessitating an expensive repair procedure.
Scale accumulation additionally shortens the lifespan of appliances like water heaters, ice makers, and coffee makers. It insulates the heaters, resulting in inefficient heat transfer and requiring you to turn the temperature to compensate. This leads to a high gas or electricity bill.
We at Goettl's High Desert Mechanical in Camp Verde can help you install a water softener system to extend your appliances’ lifespan and reduce energy consumption. This will also reduce the difficulty and cost of doing laundry and also reduce wear and tear on your clothes. Even your hot water bills can be reduced by washing clothes in cold water, as colder water prevents the fabric from shrinking.
The cost and hassle of purchasing bottled water will also be eliminated since you will have endless clean, softened water directly from your tap. Better water might even encourage you to cook more meals at home, saving you even more money.
7. Reduce Cleaning Time
It can be time-consuming to clean with hard water, as creating a strong lather to remove dirt and stains is more difficult. Your shower, sink, and faucet walls may require hours of weekly cleaning to remove chalky lime and soap residue. Soft water is, however, excellent for rinsing because it doesn’t leave streaky residue left by minerals behind, making cleaning up easier.
Contact Us
Using a water softener is the best and most efficient approach to softening water and eliminating the minerals that cause hardness. From safeguarding your plumbing to providing shinier dishes and softer skin, they have become essential to a more comfortable, affordable, and efficient home. As a full-service plumbing business in Camp Verde, Goettl's High Desert Mechanical can install, maintain, and fix your water softening and filtration system. We also offer complete cooling, heating, and indoor air quality solutions. Our plumbing solutions include garbage disposals, repiping, hydro jetting, and repairs.
Goettl's High Desert Mechanical also offers a complete line of commercial heating, cooling, and maintenance services. Protect your investment with a maintenance program membership. Financing is also available on approved credit. You can count on us to provide quality work, reasonable rates, and exceptional customer service.
Contact Goettl's High Desert Mechanical today to learn how we can help you and your neighbors in the Camp Verde area.
