Is a water softener/purifyer worth the investment?

Question

okay, so my wife and i are considering having a water softener installed. andwhen i say considering I mean it'll be installed tomorrow. What are te pro's and con's? Does anyone regret having this done?

Answer 1

If you have a well and your water is very alkaline it can break down your copper pipes causing a lot of headaches. A water softener will prevent this. Your clothes will wash better. Your soap and shampoo will wash off better in the shower. Cons...Lugging the bags of salt for the aerator. Listening to it backwash. Set it so it back-washes at night when your asleep so you don't hear it. Other than that it's a good investment. I like mine.

Answer 2

I love the softener.  The purpose of the softener is to reduce the mineral or hardness.  Before you install, did you check how hard the water is?  My house is fed 19 grains per gallon.  I set my ion exchange softener to 5 grains per gallon.  I purchased a model that regenerates by itself when the grain count gets above 5.  I progammed the regen to 2 am.

The biggest pro is that my electric water heater lasts longer.  high calcium build up on the heating elements destroyed my neighbors hot water tank.  Another benefit is that less detergent or soap is required to clean up in the bath and washing clothes.  High mineral can also clog your pipes.

The cons are that the water will have higher salt content.  Too little residual minerals can actually eat away your metal pipes as "pure" water is actually caustic.  Any hose bib after the softener should be use sparingly, salt kills your grass.  My rear bib is turned off completely.  To extend the life of the softener, put a whole house filter between the house supply (after the bib) and the softener.  This will remove the non disolved macro particles.  If you have a high iron content, your water supply may smell like sulfer from the bacteria that eats rust.  Use Two filters, the first with 5 micron pores and the second using activated carbon.

Just for drinking, i purchased a reverse osmosis filter instlled under the kitchen sink.  In total, I spent a bit over $500 for all of the equipment.  The RO filter removes salt, and bacteria that the chlorine does not kill.

If your soap feels slimey in the shower, increase the disolved mineral content.  This will extend the time between regens and reduce the amount of salt used.  Salt comes in a few varieties, I use the cheapest sintered variety, not rock salt but powdered salt pressed into tablets.

This kind of salt has less of a tendancy to jam up in the salt resevoir.

oh, when the softener is undergoing regen, the water that you use will bypass the ion exchange filter.  Some models have a bypass and cheaper models won't let you use any water.

Good luck with the instalation, it took me 6 hours to put in the system.  I purchased everything I needed at Lowes.