You have hard water problems in your home: you’ve seen the signs or you arranged for water testing and found out for certain. Don’t worry—you’re not alone! Many homes in Orange County deal with the problems of high mineral content in their water (which is what hard water is), and there are solutions to this. A proper water treatment system can counteract the hard water minerals causing this problem.
But a standard water filtration system installation, although beneficial in many ways for a home, is unlikely to solve hard water troubles.
Water Filters in Action
A water filtration system is designed to remove a range of different impurities entering a home’s water from the residential water supply. Filters come in different types, and they can be effective at removing particulates, sediment, chemicals like chlorine, and various heavy metals.
However, although a water filtration system can remove some of the contaminants that cause hard water, especially a powerful reverse osmosis system, this isn’t a water softening system. To address major hard water problems in a home requires water softening.
What Is Water Softening and How Is It Different?
A water softener is designed to remove hard water minerals from an incoming water supply and swap them out with sodium ions. The process is effective at hard water elimination, but it doesn’t address most other contaminants in the water. It is a targeted solution for hard water, and an effective one at that, but it’s still addressing a specific, narrow problem.
A water softener works by doing a swamp between sodium and the hard water minerals calcium and magnesium. Essentially, adding sodium into the water supply counteracts the hard water minerals, which “softens” the water. It might seem strange that adding to the water is a way to eliminate contaminants, but that is exactly what happens.
Because the minerals in hard water have some benefits for humans to drink (magnesium and calcium are essential minerals for health), water softeners won’t remove all of these minerals. In cases where a water softener eliminates too high a level of magnesium and calcium, special remineralization can help to create a balance. And if the water softener is putting too much sodium into the water, a special reverse osmosis filter can help remove that excess.
Combining Filtration and Water Softening
Most homes that have a water softener installed will probably want a water filtration system installed as well to deal with other contaminants. It depends on what water testing uncovers in the water supply.
Our technicians can find out the best way to treat the water in your house so that it is as healthy and good-tasting as possible, while also containing the right amount of hardness that won’t damage the plumbing and plumbing appliances. You can trust us to find the best water treatment systems to do the job. We have 40 years of history working with the water supply concerns of homes in the area, and we’ll know the right installations to help in any situation. Call us to learn more about water softener and water filtration for your house.
Saddleback Plumbing Heating & Air has Served Orange County since 1981. Talk to us today about water treatment systems and hard water solutions.