WATER SOFTENER SYSTEMS

Arizona gets its water from a variety of sources and it has to travel a long distance to reach our homes. Along the way, it accumulates high levels of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. If you buy your water from the city, it is purified for safe drinking, but still may have floaters.

Most of the water in Arizona is between 15 and 25 grains per gallon, which is considered “extremely hard” by the Arizona Water Quality Association. The hardness is really dissolved rock. The average family of four will have more than 15 pounds of rock per year in their water for each grain of hardness.  Water suppliers periodically test the water and usually publish an annual report, often found on municipality or utility websites.

Water softeners can improve the “working water” throughout the home (water used for bathing, cleaning, laundry, etc.). However, softeners alone only remove calcium and magnesium bicarbonates which are the hard water deposits.  To further clean the water for other contaminants such as iron and manganese, heavy metals, nitrates, arsenic, chromium, selenium and sulfate, a whole house filter using granulated activated charcoal (GAC) is used to remove these things.  In tandem, a whole house filter and softener together is the most efficient and economical option available to do the job. This would give you drinkable water throughout the home and increase the life of your appliances pipes and plumbing fixtures. Your laundry, skin and hair will be softer. There is less spotting on dishes, less mineral build-up in tubs, showers and toilets and reduced cleaning time.

Here are some key details regarding the most popular components and specs of water softeners which should give you a better idea of what to look for and how to most adequately address your particular needs.

Capacity

If you have decided to go with a salt softener then the resin capacity is your main focus. You will need to find out how much water on average you would use. This usually depends on the number of family members. The larger the capacity, the less frequently the softener will need to regenerate. The grain capacity may vary with the lowest typically starting from 16,000. Some units may even reach 96,000 and when you have a dual-tank softener this is quite the capacity.

There aren’t many different types of resin although some softeners are good for well water with iron. Capacity is also related to the brine tank. If your media tank houses a lot of resin, then the salt needed for it will also be more than usual.

A Bypass Valve

Another important component is the bypass valve. It allows the water to bypass the actual softener. This can be useful on numerous occasions such as filling a pool with water – activities for which you do not need softened water. It is imperative that the valve is easy to find and easy to operate. The valve will usually have two red arrows – you point them towards each other the water stops going through the softener.

The Regeneration Setting

Something else you want to realize is whether you want a metered water softener or a timed one. With the metered system, the resin will regenerate after a certain amount of water has been used. You decide on the number. With a timed softening system, the device will regenerate every few days based on the prognosis of how much water you would use.

The downside here is that if you use more water than planned prior to the regeneration, you will likely run out of soft water. Another drawback is that even if you aren’t at home over an extended period of time, the softener will still regenerate and use water and salt. A metered softener will regenerate only when it has to.