Advantages and disadvantages of water softeners

More than half of America’s states have implemented restrictions against water softeners. But as you might have heard, governments, are not always known for perfection in the decision making process.

Water softeners work by ion exchange. Through this process, 'hard' minerals found in water such as calcium and magnesium are replaced with sodium or potassium. At first glance, water softeners may seem like a good for the filtering household water. A closer look, however, isn't always so favorable.

Advantages of Water Softeners
When water is softened, users can expect to enjoy the following benefits:

Saving on Cleaning – Your wallet will experience a small break with use of water softeners. Use of a water softener requires lesser amounts of soap and detergent use when cleaning dishes, clothes or other items in softened water. Laundry shops, hotels, and other businesses that perform extensive washing definitely notice a decrease in expense for the different soaps and detergents they need to use.

Staining – Believe it or not, an almost-translucent liquid like water can still cause staining. A water softener, however, will effectively put an end to that. The most meticulous individuals among us would certainly welcome this particular advantage of water softeners. Furthermore, water softeners are known to lessen spotting and scaling as well.

Minerals in the un-softened water can permeate paint and gloss coats on automobiles if left to bead and minerals are allowed to absorb.

Saving on Electricity – With water softeners, less energy is required to heat water for bathing, cleaning or anywhere hot water is required. Accordingly, and again, it is hotels and resorts that find this particular aspect of water softeners very cost-efficient for their use.

Disadvantages of Water Softeners
Water softeners, like everything else in the world, are not perfect.

It’s Not 100% Effective – Earlier, we mentioned that minerals like calcium and magnesium are eliminated from water through water softening. This process however is unable to eliminate other undesirable elements also found in water such as lead and chlorine.

It’s too soft for the taste – Although water softeners are great for cleaning, they do not make water more palatable for us humans. Indeed, some getting used to is needed when a household switches from hard to soft water. Even if you find the taste of softened water tolerable, drinking it will do you no good if it's undesirable in health due to increased sodium content.

Water softeners will never be the chef’s best friend – For the same reasons specified above, softened water is also not good to use for cooking. Obviously, anything unhealthy that you use for cooking will ultimately affect the user’s disposition once the food has been consumed.

Sodium sensitive individuals beware – People with kidney problems or with an excessive amount of sodium in their systems should try their best to stay away from water softeners. Since water softeners replace hard minerals with sodium, softened water naturally has a higher sodium content than the natural un-softened tap water.

Replacing one sin with another – Water softeners are very good at leaching. Unfortunately, ability to leach may go a bit too far. Water softeners are known not to leach metal from your faucet. Softened water from the faucet may contain an amount of undesirable metals that’s more than usual or desirable. If, however, you insist on using softened water for any consumption-related purposes, make sure that you let the water run from the faucet for a minute or so before using it.

In the end, the choice is up to you. Just remember that your family’s safety should always be your topmost priority.

common typos: softener, softner, softeners