How Much Does A Water Softener Reduce Hardness?
Hardwater contains more minerals than ordinary water, and these minerals are mostly Calcium and magnesium. As the degree of water hardness increases, the amount of minerals dissolved increases. Magnesium and Calcium are positive ions and do not allow other positively charged ions to dissolve in water, so this is the reason for soap not working effectively in hard water. Hardwater causes clog in the pipes and break them. Limescale deposits caused reduce hot boilers’ efficiency and damage laundry machines in your house. To protect your household appliances, you need to use a water softener and reduce water hardness.
What Is Water Softening?
Hardwater causes many household problems like clogs in pipes, not working well with soap, and other issues. A water softener is used to reduce the hardness. A water softener unit using softening salts to remove the minerals dissolved in water. The best way to use a water softener is to connect the softening unit directly to your house’s water supply.
Understanding Water Softener Capacity
The softening capacity is simply the hardness that it can remove from water. Most of the softeners have 24000 or 32000 or 48000 or 64000-grain capacity. The capacity indicates how much the softener can remove hardness before it regenerates. There is a need for about 18 pounds of softener salt for achieving this capacity.
What Size Of Water Softener Is Needed for Household?
The size of water softener needed for your household depends on two factors like
- Average daily water usage in your house
- Amount of Hardness present in water
Calculating the amount of water usage can be done very quickly. On average, a person consumes about 167 gallons of water. Multiply the average consumption with the number of people in the household to get the average daily water usage for your house. The hardness of water is measured in grains per gallon. Water hardness can be found using various methods, including meter testing. Now to calculate the daily hardness removal requirement, use the below formula.
The Number of people in house X Average Daily Consumption X Hardness of Water = Hardness to be removed.
It is recommended to use a softener to remove hardness for seven days, even before regenerating itself.
Softening Salts Mostly Used
Most of the companies use three types of water softening salts for removing the hardness of the water. The salts are
- Rock Salt – Contains 98 to 99 % of Sodium Chloride.
- Solar Salt – Contains about 85% of Sodium Chloride.
- Evaporated Salt – Contains about 99.6 to 99.99 % of Sodium Chloride.
What Softener Should I Buy?
Some standards are to be followed so that the water softeners can operate efficiently to reduce hardness in water. An average softener should remove 4000 grains of hardness for every One pound of salt used. Always ask the suppliers to compare various softeners available in the market. The information is found in the softener manufacturer manual, and all the details are mentioned.
Contact For The Best Water Softener Salt for Your Household
Using hard water in your household can cause damage pipelines and other machines using water. One should use a water softener salt to remove the hardness of water so that water is good to use for household purposes. Our Canada Salt professionals are always there to help you choose the best water softener salt based on water available at your house. Contact us today for a free estimate.
