Water Softener Pros & Cons

July 8, 2005 9:02 AM

What real benefits are there to continuing to feed my Water Softener?

I ask this question after having to lug 4 80lb bags down to the basement and stack them up near the receptacle. I then proceeded to cut and fill it with 3 of them. The salt taste is in my mouth, I can feel it in my skin, and I probably pulled something in my back just getting them downstairs.

This is my first house with a Water Softener, and I'm wondering if any benefits it's giving me are really worth the work and expense of buying more salt.

posted by thanotopsis to home & garden (12 comments total)

If you don't use the water softner, the hard water will leave deposits in the tub/dishwasher/etc. Not a big deal, just makes it a bit harder to clean. Truly terribly hard water can leave deposits in your pipes which could mean they require replacement/cleaning in the future (I doubt it, but anything is possible).

Personally, I hate hard water. Doesn't feel nice when I shower. It's like cleaning yourself with oil...
posted by shepd at 9:11 AM on July 8, 2005

I mean I hate SOFT water. Argh...
posted by shepd at 9:11 AM on July 8, 2005

Like you, I moved into a house with a water softener. I did not like soft water before then, but I have gotten used to soft water and now really like it. My skin feels sticky after using hard water. Our glasses last longer (no more etching), our laundry looks better, and most importantly, we use much less soap. We use about 1/3 of the soap we used before to clean dishes, clothes, and ourselves.
posted by internal at 9:38 AM on July 8, 2005

One more thing. What salt do you buy? I have a Culligan Water Softener and they told me all I needed was the "blue bag" salt, not the expensive "yellow bag". It is about $3.50 for a 50 lbs. bag at Costco. The money we save in soap outweighs the cost of salt for us, I only need to put in new salt about twice a year.
posted by internal at 9:40 AM on July 8, 2005

We have very hard water. I find the extra cleaning issue to be minimal and I think hard water tastes better.Vinegar, baking soda, or both, or borax will solve most hard water deposit/cleaning problems.

Being used to hard water means that soft water also feels gross on my skin now.

There are some baking issues with very hard water, but they can be balanced with a little extra salt.

And besides, there may be a minimal health benefit to hard water.
posted by desuetude at 11:20 AM on July 8, 2005

Soft water is vastly superior to hard water for everything except drinking. It cleans better (with less soap) and doesn't clog fixtures with residue. It just doesn't taste very good (probably because it's virtually tasteless), so I use store-bought spring water for drinking.
Also, I don't understand desuetude's comment about baking. Adding salt to water makes it harder, not softer.
posted by rocket88 at 12:21 PM on July 8, 2005

[sigh] Less salt. How did I mistype that? Anyway, it depends on where the recipe was tested.

I've never had any fixture clog with residue from hard water. I do periodically have to clean the deposits off of the shower head, but that takes very little effort -- paper towel soaked in vinegar wrapped around it for a couple hours.

To thanotopsis: Have you moved to a new area with harder water, or is it the same water that you're used to, but now you have a new house with a water softener? Because if you didn't have any complaints about the local water before, and you haven't found the softened water to be so different as to be life-changing, I say not to bother.
posted by desuetude at 12:35 PM on July 8, 2005

Have you moved to a new area with harder water, or is it the same water that you're used to, but now you have a new house with a water softener? Because if you didn't have any complaints about the local water before, and you haven't found the softened water to be so different as to be life-changing, I say not to bother.

Last August, we moved from Connecticut to Wisconsin. Our house in Stamford had no water softener, but I didn't notice a problem with the water. The new house has all the ammenities, and the water softener thrown in -- I just feel like I'm working myself to death keeping it filled and useful.
posted by thanotopsis at 1:39 PM on July 8, 2005

Well, the easy way is to quit feeding it and see what happens, right?

I'm a research dork, so what I would do would be to call the appropriate city gov't offices in both towns and find out the hardness of the water in each.

If there is a significant difference, then it might be wise to look into why the water softener was installed in the first place. It may have been personal preference by the prior owners or home-improvement enthusiasm, or it may be the solution to some sort of specific problem. Do most people in the area use them, or just those who choose to?
posted by desuetude at 2:02 PM on July 8, 2005

I fyou feel like you're using too much water, you could scale (heh) back the regen time, so the system regens less frequently.
posted by notsnot at 3:55 PM on July 8, 2005

It could take some time (days? weeks?) from the time you stop feeding the softener until it stops softening the water, so if you want to see how hard your water really is look for a bypass valve near the softener that will allow you to take the system off line. Just be careful and don't force it as things can get caked up in there and the last thing you want to do is snap it off.

You should turn off the electricity to the softener if you bypass it -- just don't forget to plug it back in and reset the timer when you do put it back on line.

Once you bypass the system you should have hard water coming out as soon as it pushes out the small amount of softened water sitting in your pipes. Running each faucet for a couple of minutes should do it.

If taste is the major issue, you could have a plumber branch a cold water pipe from upstream of the softener to a separate, drinking-water-only spigot in the kitchen and to the fridge (if you have an icemaker). My parents did this when my dad had to go on a low-sodium diet and in our case the water was just fine for drinking. YMMV.

Now that I'm in my own place on unsoftened, city water, I can't stand the feel of the softened water in the shower when I visit them but I never noticed when I lived there so the gross-feeling-on-your-skin thing might be something you get used to.
posted by Opposite George at 5:52 PM on July 8, 2005

Well, if you stop feeding your water softener, you will (eventually) get hard water out of your taps. Hard water doesn't clean as well; it builds up inside your plumbing (pipes and fixtures). Depending on how hard your water is, it really *does* make a difference in washing. When Mr R has forgotten to refill the softener I have to use a lot more detergent to get the dishes and the clothes clean.

We have a separate cold water tap in the kitchen for drinking water.

Use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride -- much better for you and wherever your softener discharges. We can tell which of our neighbors use potassium chloride and which use sodium chloride by looking at the discharge. The ones who use sodium chloride have bare wet spots, while the ones who use potassium chloride have healthy grass.

If you don't want to haul the salt, find a store that will deliver. Some of the specialty softener supply stores will deliver it. (FWIW, most city water is either naturally soft or softened before it's delivered. The scale buildup clogs pipes.)
posted by jlkr at 7:55 PM on July 8, 2005