5 Benefits Of Installing A Water Softener
First off, before installing a water softener, it’s important to make sure you understand what soft water is and why you’d want it in the first place.
We say you have “soft” water when your water has little or no minerals in it.
In particular, it’s when your water has very little, if any, calcium or magnesium.
Essentially, this means that your water is just water with nothing else inside it.
By contrast, “hard” water is water with a lot of mineral content.
And a water softener is a device that is designed to remove those extra minerals from your water.
Now that we’ve gotten that basic introduction out of the way, here are some of the major reasons you might have for installing a water softener.
1. Your Water Will Taste Better
Minerals are basically tiny rocks.
So, naturally, they tend to make water taste a little more bitter or even earthy or metallic.
That’s hard water.
By contrast, soft water just tastes like water.
Plain old water, with nothing else in it.
Now, if you’ve lived your whole life in a place with hard water and you’ve never had soft water that has been purified of all its mineral and other content, you may not even know what water alone actually tastes like.
That alone is a pretty good reason to be installing a water softener.
Why deprive yourself of the experience of knowing what actual water tastes like?
2. Your Water Heater Will Function Better
Soft water heats up faster in a water heater.
On top of that, the fact that it heats up faster means that it also requires less energy to heat.
So that’s money and time saved right there.
And to make it better, you’ll probably prolong the lifespan of your water heater because it won’t be constantly expending excessive energy, struggling to keep hard water heated.
The more fuel you use and the less efficient your water heating system is, the faster it is probably going to wear down and break.
3. Your Showers Will Feel Better
Hard water tends to feel more rough and abrasive.
Now, to be fair, this tends to only be noticed by people who either have sensitive skin or who have experienced the difference between hard and soft water.
Most people might not be aware of the difference simply because they’ve never experienced it themselves and don’t know what they’re missing.
But you’ll notice it after you make the switch by installing a water softener because the feeling on your skin just won’t be quite the same as it was before.
Unlike hard water, soft water feels smooth and even slippery by comparison.
Which brings us to…
4. Your Hygiene & Cleaning Products Will Work Better
Since soft water does not contain all those minerals, there is nothing in it to get between the water itself and any product you might be using.
That goes for shampoo and soap as much as for dishwashing and laundry detergent.
And if you’re using any kind of product that lathers up and produces bubbles upon contact with water and friction, you’ll notice a difference right away.
In fact, hard water on average requires around twice as much soap or detergent to get bubbles going.
So, after installing a water softener, you’ll get more of those satisfying suds while also probably saving a considerable amount of money on products.
5. Save Money on Repairs
“Scale” or “limescale” is that rough, gritty buildup on your faucets and pipes.
Well, it’s not from the soaps you’re using in the shower or when washing your hands, which you should be doing after you’ve done certain things in the bathroom.
Actually, scale buildup is caused by the minerals in hard water accumulating over time in places where water flows through.
That means that the scale you see isn’t the only scale you have.
There’s inside as well.
And because of that, it can cause a host of problems from clogs to health issues.
At a certain point, you just need to call a plumber and have them come to replace everything.
6. Save Money On Appliances
Did you think it was only your pipes and faucets that were susceptible to limescale buildup and the damage associated with that?
Well, your appliances are vulnerable, too.
They are connected to the pipes, after all.
They have water flowing through them just like your pipes do.
And just like the water flowing through your pipes, if the water going into your appliances is hard water, you’re probably going to get mineral buildup at some point.
In most cases, this is going to mean replacing your appliances.
To be clear, hard water isn’t necessarily unsafe for humans to consume…
Benefits Abound
We could keep going, but we think you’ve more or less gotten the idea by now.
Soft water, as its name implies, is smoother and gentler on you and everything else it touches.
So it causes less friction, buildup, and damage over time.
And you could even say that soft water is the more “real” water because that’s all it is: water, with nothing else added.
In that sense, you could say that a water softener makes your water more watery than it would otherwise be.
If nothing else, you should try it just for the experience. 💧
