The Reality of Hard Water In Your Home

The water supply in your household can arguably be stated to be the single most important within your home. Next, in order of importance for the comfort of its occupants being waste drain and electrical systems. The water in your home is of absolute importance in order to live comfortably within your home. Running water is not only convenient it is crucial. The quality of the water in your home is extremely important as it not only affects the appliances and plumbing systems, it can affect the health of your family.

Undesirable Effects of Hard Water

Water supplies throughout the United States are not all created equally which is why it is of the utmost importance that your household water is evaluated prior to use. There are however, some tell-tale signs that can be seen throughout your home that are dead giveaways on whether your home has or does not have hard water or water that has arsenic or other adverse elements within it.

Many homeowners may not even be aware of the damage that hard water can actually create physical damage to their home. Often times hard water can cause serious damage to your homes plumbing while also doing damage to appliances such as your dishwasher and washer and families clothing.

One tell-tale sign that you have hard water is finding a film on dishes after running a load of dishes through the dishwasher, staining on the faucets and fixtures within the home or landscaping, or a smaller than normal lather when working with soaps and shampoos.

How Water Softener Systems Work to Combat the Undesirable Effects of Hard Water

Many residential water systems work in the same manner, they hook up to your homes water inlet from the city or well system. In order for water to be softened the outside source of water must be hooked up to a water treatment system. There are many different options in water treatment systems that can be installed in your home to treat your homes hard water, the most common being a water softener system using salt or potassium chloride.

The typical process of water softening uses a typical Ion Exchange which uses salt or potassium chloride to replace the minerals in the water that makes it hard. This ion exchange system consists of using more than one tank and a flow control system that first removes all of the minerals and mixes the salt back into the water before discharging it into the household’s water system.

How Safe Is Softener Water?

According to most health experts, softened water is safe to use a s a source of usable water and quality drinking water although an excess can be harmful as we can see in the excess consumption of anything. An excess of sodium or a reduction in naturally occurring minerals within a water supply can be unhealthy however when used normally as is seen within household water usage the health benefits of soft water our weigh the possible harmful effects.

Most water softener systems use some sort of process that strips away most of the minerals and replaces them with higher levels of sodium. This means if you have high blood pressure or one of several heart-related conditions your doctor will likely have you on a no or low sodium diet. If this is the case, then you may want to consider the source of your water before choosing a water softening treatment system for your home.

Sodium is not the only health concern, trace minerals and other nutrients that you may not be aware that are in found in your typical “hard water” are actually extremely good for you. Without them you would need to resort to other sources, such as supplementation or altering your daily diet to increase the amount of the important minerals. Water softening does not eliminate minerals it does however, decrease the amount that can be found to a healthy amount to ingest.

At Reynolds Water Conditioning Company, we are here to help make sure our clients don’t buy water treatment systems that they don’t need. We are here to make sure you find a water softening system that gives you the results you are looking for, whether it is to remove iron or odor from you water; we have a solution that will help! For more information contact our experts at 800.572.9575 or at our website https://reynoldswater.com.

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Removing Hard Water With A Water Softener

Before we discuss water softeners, it’s essential that one gains an understanding of what hard water is and how it affects you and your family. Hard water refers to water with a higher-than-usual mineral content. This is typically the case with water that is extracted from areas with large deposits of calcium and magnesium carbonates (naturally occurring in areas with limestone and chalk). While it can be argued that hard water does have some health benefits for humans, it can also pose some serious problems to homes and industry found in these areas.

Recognizing Hard Water

Here are a few ways you can recognize the presence of hard water:

If your water fails to foam or lather up when exposed to soap, you most likely have hard water.
Hard water is also responsible for corroding metal. This will show in faucets and sinks that are not covered with an anti-corrosive coating. Other equipment exposed to this water may also begin to corrode over time.
If used to fill a swimming pool, it manifests a “milky” cloud in the water. This occurs when the calcium in the water reacts with the carbon dioxide present in the air.

Softening Hard Water

Hard water can be “softened” using a water softener. Water softening is the chemical process of removing calcium and magnesium (among other metals) from the water. The end result is water that responds well to soap and which has little or no corrosive effect on metals. Water softening is thus a good idea especially in residential and business buildings because there will be less corrosion in the plumbing system and other critical equipment.

If you suspect you have hard water, then you may want to consider purchasing and installing a water softening system. A quick search online will yield high-quality, local, water softener installation and repair companies. Some are costlier than others depending on the features and capacity. Sometimes they’re known as water purification systems, water conditioners, or water filtration.

For residential homes, water softeners can be installed as a complete system costing thousands of dollars or a point of use filter which has a lower capacity and can be more affordable.

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Common Mistakes When Selecting a Water Treatment

It is a known fact that water obtained from a well is not the best option when used for drinking or cooking purposes. It includes certain minerals and particles that can adversely affect your health, how your skin feels, staining on your fixtures, and more. Many professionals recommend water treatment options that purify your homes well water. The water analysis will help tell professionals which of the available water treatment options are best for your homes water. Water treatment options include the use of a water softener, iron filters, reverse osmosis, water purifiers, and water conditioning systems.

There are many of the different well water treatment options. However, selecting the right one can should be left up to professionals after an analysis of your water. Many people make some common mistakes when selecting a water treatment options for well water especially when they do not listen to the advice of water treatment professionals. These mistakes affects your homes water quality. Many common issues DIY homeowners forget to consider are:

Not Taking Impurities into Consideration

A very common mistake people make is that they do not take water impurities into consideration when selecting the water treatment option. There are different types of impurities in well water; hence, an appropriate treatment option must be selected considering those impurities. For example, if you are using an iron filter as a well water treatment, it won’t perform efficiently if the water is acidic in nature, which, generally, well water is.

Not Taking the Location of Well into Consideration

Many people opt for tried and tested water treatment options for well water without taking the location into consideration. This is an absolutely wrong approach as a well that is located in an area that has high pollution rate requires a different treatment method than that of an area with low pollution rate. Similarly, more chemicals, toxins, and impurities are found in the water that is obtained from wells located in an industrial area.

Not Having Ample Understanding of Pressure & Pump Flow Rate

It is another common mistake made by homeowners. They do not understand two important aspects of water system i.e. pressure and pump flow rate. As a result, they are unable to select the right treatment method for removing contaminations from the water. Therefore, it is recommended to have a deep understanding of these aspects along with others vital factors of the well water system so that you can select the most appropriate well water treatment option.

Wrongly Identifying or Not Identifying Well Water Problems

Some people go for a well water treatment simply because it is known to produce effective results. They make this mistake of not identifying the problems before selecting the solution. Similarly, some people wrongly identify the well water problem. The result, in such situations, is impure water that still contains harmful chemicals or toxins. Using this water for drinking or cooking purposes can lead to fatal health conditions.

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The Best System For Your Home Drinking Water

There are different ways you can improve the quality of water in your home to make it safe for drinking and cooking as well as for other household applications such as cleaning, swimming, and more. Before you invest in a filtration system, conditioning system, water softener, or filtration system it’s important to have your water tested and checked for any harmful chemicals, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, fluoride, or bacteria and also to determine the pH balance of your water.

Water that doesn’t fall within the safe pH range of 6.5 to 8.5 can be a sign of chemical or heavy metal pollution. You may want to test your water and install one of the following filtration systems, especially if your faucets and pipes have taken on a rusty red, white, or blue color. A professional water analysis is deemed to be the most important step in making sure that the correct water system is installed to bring your family quality water throughout your home.

Water Softener

Water softeners remove excess minerals or metals, such as calcium, magnesium, and iron found in hard water. By installing a water softener, you will not only notice a marked improvement in the way of minimal scale build-up in your sinks and bathtubs, but softening your water will also extend the life of your washing machine, dishwasher, water heater and various household appliances.

You also benefit from a cleaner plumbing system, and as a result, reduced energy consumption and utility bills. Whole-house water softeners are available in both reverse osmosis and ion-exchange options, however, there are also smaller systems that you can install only for your cooking and drinking purposes.

Ion Filter

There are several different kinds of ion filters, however, the best would definitely be one that has a double filtration system that can effectively adjust the ionization to the mineral content of the water. When you install an ion filter, your hard water goes through a process known as electrolysis, which separates it’s alkaline and acid content to make water safe for use. Although installed ion filters can be costly, they can be used with any water source, and most of them come with a lifespan of up to 30-years.

Reverse Osmosis

A reverse osmosis unit allows only the passage of water molecules, but not those of contaminants found in water. While it may not remove all contaminants, a reverse osmosis system provides several stages of removing impurities to make water safe for use. RO systems are also easy to maintain, and different varieties of these units can be tailored to fit your everyday usage.

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Maintaining Your Salt-Free Water Softener

A salt-free water softener uses potassium chloride instead of salt, so you will not experience salty water, or the salt build up that can occur inside the tank of your water softener. There are many other positive benefits of using a potassium chloride water softener, but you will only see them if you maintain it properly.

One of the things that you will need to keep track of is how much potassium chloride you have inside your brine tank. The potassium chloride should be at least three inches above the water line at all times, although you may find that you can keep less in there if you find a residue on the sides. It is a good idea to check your levels every couple of weeks at first, until you know how much potassium chloride you are using.

Your valves are a necessary component of your potassium chloride water softener, and you will want to turn them from one position to the other and back again once a month. This will ensure that they will turn easily when you need to cut off the water supply to your softener. This is also the time to clean the valve between the brine tank and the resin tank. To clean that valve, you will need to disassemble it first, but make sure that you relieve the water pressure before taking anything apart. If you notice that any of these valves are leaking, this would be the best time to replace the washers or seals.

The resin in your potassium chloride water softener is what helps soften your water, and you will want to keep it functioning properly. A water softener cleaner can be added every few months prior to a regeneration to keep the resin in optimal form.

New potassium chloride softeners do not need to be cleaned often, but they can benefit from an annual cleaning and so can your homes water. To clean your potassium chloride water softener, you will need to close off the water intake and take all the water out of the tank. Then you will remove all the potassium chloride and scrub the inside of the brine tank with hot soapy water. After the tank has been thoroughly rinsed out, you should sanitize the tank with a mixture of water and bleach.

Keeping this maintenance schedule will allow your potassium chloride water softener to continue working for many years, as it provides you with softer water.

At Reynolds Water Conditioning Company, we are here to help make sure our clients don’t buy water treatment systems that they don’t need. We are here to make sure you find a water softening system that gives you the results you are looking for, whether it is to remove iron or odor from you water; we have a solution that will help! For more information contact our experts at 800.572.9575 or at our website https://reynoldswater.com.

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What Water Treatment Option Is Best For The Water In My Home

Regardless of whether your homes water is supplied through public or private water treatment facilities, the purpose of improving the quality of drinking water is to make it safe to drink and use, palatable, and sufficient enough to serve your entire home’s needs. Point-of-use (POU) technologies such as water softeners and reverse osmosis devices are commonly used to treat contaminants before the water is deemed safe to drink. A POU device can either be attached to the main faucet, installed under the sink and can also be set on the counter for the purposes of reducing contaminants in drinking water or to enhance the aesthetic quality of water supplied by a local public drinking water system.

A Point of Entry (POE) device, on the other hand, is a unit such as the ion filter that is installed to treat the water entering a house also to reduce contaminants in the water distributed throughout home intended for showering, washing dishes, clothes, flushing toilets, etc. You ‘may’ not need a water treatment unit in your home if you live in an area where you receive your water from public water suppliers, that is if your PWS meets all the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. You still want to get your water tested first to determine if there are any contaminants present.

Individuals who have a private well also need to have their water tested for contaminants and use a home water treatment unit like an ion filter or water softener to lower any health-related contaminants and ensure that any water entering the house is safe for use. The reverse osmosis (RO) is a popular POU filtration unit with many homeowners because it removes impurities such as fluoride, lead, chlorine, pesticides nitrates, and sulfates. The ion filter system unit, on the other hand, provides both water softening and deionization water treatment option that removes every calcium or magnesium ion in hard water to produce soft contaminant-free water.

Reverse osmosis is, arguably, one of the most effective and efficient methods of treating and softening drinking and cooking water. It has an osmotic membrane chamber filled with tiny pores that only allows water molecules to pass through while contaminants such as calcium and magnesium are left behind as softened water is produced. To determine if any of the above water treatment options are suitable for your home ask for a professional water analysis.

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Increase Water Quality With A Water Filtration System

Health care experts advise people to drink at least 8 full 8 oz. glasses of plain water every day to stay hydrated. This is important because the human body is two-thirds water and without an adequate supply of fresh, clean drinking water your body will be at risk. Most homes in the United States are either hooked up to a municipal water source or localized well water.

Unfortunately, just because the water source is supposed to be safe and healthy to drink, there have been issues in the past whereas one or more of the water sources like a water well was contaminated. If this is a fear you have then there is something that you can do to prevent your family from drinking contaminated water without any knowledge that it is happening.

One solution would be to have a full house water filtration system or one that attaches to the faucet and filters the water before it comes out. Most water filtration systems work by having the water flow through some type of media material that is designed to trap even the tiniest of contaminants present in the water. There are several different types of water filtration systems and each one works in a unique way to clean the water and prevent you from being contaminated.

5 Different Types of Water Filtration Systems

Activated Carbon Filter Systems

Activated carbon filters or carbon filters for short work trapping suspended particles in the water and also helps to absorb chlorine and other chemicals that after often responsible for causing the smelly odor in your water that comes out of the faucet. Most of the systems that use these type of filters make it possible for them to be replaced periodically.

Reverse Osmosis Filter System

This filter system works by forcing the water under pressure through a membrane that will only allow water to pass through it and nothing else. This is also why RO is used to convert seawater (saltwater) into drinkable freshwater. The RO filter is usually part of a total water filtration system.

Alkaline/Water Ionizer

One of the more popular health kicks these days is alkaline water. One of the reasons is because is being reported that many of the most common illnesses thrive in acidic conditions. By drinking only alkaline water, you reduce the acidity level within your body you could help to possibly prevent one or more of them.

UV Filters

Ultraviolet filters are used specifically for killing dangerous bacteria when present in a water supply. By exposing the water to ultraviolet radiation any bacteria will be killed without having to use dangerous chemicals or heating up the water. This type of filter is also typically found as part of a multiple stage filtration system.

Infrared Filters

This type of filtration system combined heat and electricity to filter and soften the water by negatively charging the water to change its molecular structure. These type of filters work a lot like Alkaline and Water Ionizers.

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6 Reasons Why You Should Consider Reverse Osmosis

Many homeowners are looking into reverse osmosis water treatment as a useful method for treating contaminated drinking water. RO is probably best known for its use in turning seawater into actual drinking water however, it’s also an effective way for treating water quality problems your home might be facing. Having a reverse osmosis water system in your home can reduce how much bacteria, particulates, and other common things found in contaminated drinking water so that you drink only clean water. Here are a few reasons why you’ll want to get a reverse osmosis water filtration for your home:

High Quality, Drinkable Water

Water that has been treated using a reverse osmosis water filtration system is totally drinkable and some cities actually use this treatment when there’s too much saltwater in the water. You’ll be able to taste the difference in the cleaner water since there are no impurities that will give your home’s water a funny taste.

Increased Peace of Mind

If you live in an area that’s plagued with issues in the water, getting a reverse osmosis water system will make you feel better about the water you drink. It can make a lot of sense and is a great option for removing trace minerals in your water.

Decreases Sodium in Your Water

If your home has a water softener, a reverse osmosis water filtration system will reduce sodium in softened water. This way you enjoy the benefits of both soft water and purified water.

No Need for Bottled Water

When your water is filtered with a reverse osmosis water system, you no longer have to spend money on bottled water since your water is cleaner. This will also reduce plastic waste while also saving you money in the long run.

Better Tasting Food

The impurities in the water you have at home can affect the taste of the food you make, but that won’t happen when your home has its own reverse osmosis water filtration system.

Clearer Ice

Have you ever wondered why your ice cubes look cloudy? That’s because of all the impurities in the water. Having a reverse osmosis water filtration system in place will give you crystal clear ice cubes, which is an indication of cleaner water.

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Troubleshooting Your Homes Water Supply

No matter where your homes water comes from, a well, a spring, or the city, problems can exist. Individual water quality issues are fixed with distinct water treatment solutions. It is our job to help determine what solution will work best in treating and eliminating your homes water issue. From hardness to foul smells, we have a solution to bring you high quality water throughout your home. There are several issues that are commonly found in water throughout Michigan homes.

Common issues with your waters quality:

Hardness
Foul Odors and Taste
Mineral Buildup
Acidic
Arsenic

Hard Water:

Most often homeowners don’t know that they have hard water. What they do know is that there are spots on their glassware, laundry appears dingy, increased usage of soap, change in the texture of hair and skin, increased energy costs, and scale build up on faucets and such. Homes affected by a hard water supply have plumbing that tends to age quicker than those who seek to soften the water. The most common way to treat hard water in your homes water supply is with the installation of a high-quality water softener.

Foul Odors and Taste:

Foul odors and strange tasting water is something extremely noticeable to homeowners. Water can taste unpleasant metallic, chlorine, or can smell awful like rotten eggs, when this occurs one of the most common treatment options that is suggested is using an activated carbon filtration system. Backwashing carbon filtration systems are a combination of a large filter filled with activated carbon media. This removes foul tastes and odors from your whole house water supply leaving you with high quality water throughout the home.

Mineral Buildup:

Homeowners may not notice that they have an accumulation of minerals taking place within their water supply. The most common symptoms of a build up of iron and magnesium include unpleasant metal taste, staining, reddish tinted water, odors, and rust particles in the water. The treatment for a mineral buildup is the installation and usage of an iron filter system.

Acidic:

When the porcelain surfaces start to turn from white and ivory to green and blue green there is an issue with acidic water, low ph within the water. What this means is that your water supply has acid in it which is causing a corrosion of your pipes and plumbing fixtures. The fix for the issue of acidic water is with an acid neutralizer using Calcite.

Arsenic:

Arsenic is an element found naturally within ground water. Arsenic within your homes water supply can cause adverse health effects even in low concentrations as it is a carcinogen at high concentrations. In order to remove arsenic from your water supply homeowners should install an arsenic reduction system.

All water supplies need to be treated on an individual basis as symptoms can also be masked by other occurrences within the water supply. Free water analysis is done to diagnosis the issues that are found within your homes water to ensure that the treatment options is specific for your water needs.

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Water Treatment Systems Improve Water Quality

There are a variety of water purification systems that can be used to improve the quality of the drinking water throughout your home. To determine what type of water treatment system your home needs it is important to understand the qualities that each system offers in increasing water quality. Professional water analysis can be done on your homes water to provide you with a more accurate look into the actual issues plaguing your water supply, from rust to arsenic, your drinking water could be affected.

Using the right system to purify the water in your home can help to keep your family healthy. It is common knowledge that we need eight glasses of water or more each day to maintain personal health; purer, cleaner water dispensed from the faucets in your home help to increase the water that is consumed by your family daily.

There is a major difference between water softeners, conditioners, filtration systems and purification. It is important to understand that water purification solutions leave valuable minerals in your water supply while eliminating harmful elements that may not be seen or smelt. Hard water and smelly water issues are not solved with the installation of a purification system however common contaminants such as chlorine, cryptosporidium spores, giardia cysts, viruses, and pharmaceuticals are eliminated.

Not all water needs to be purified so it is crucial to understand the issues with your homes water before purchasing a water treatment system. Water purification systems go a long way in removing common contaminates that may alter your health. They can be installed so that they treat the entire supply of water throughout your home or specific areas where water is supplied.

Water softeners unlike water purification systems bring homeowners high quality drinking water by removing iron, rust, odor, sediment, and smells. Softeners remove the minerals that make the water hard. Some of the symptoms that your home could benefit from the use of a water softener is dry skins, smelly water, staining, and clogged plumbing. Water softeners are installed treating the homes entire water supply. Water softeners can use salt or potassium chloride using a process of ion exchange.

The water treatment option that is used to bring you quality water will be determined by your water analysis. There are times when a homes water supply will need more than one treatment solution to bring families quality water. Hard water can contain contaminants that a water softener will not remove thus a water purification or filtration system needs to be installed either at the point of entry (whole house) or point of use (faucet).

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