What Is Hard Water?
Hard water is one of the most common water quality concerns reported
by consumers in the United States. The hardness of water is determined
by the calcium and, to a lesser extent, magnesium carbonates naturally
dissolved in it. As the concentration of the dissolved minerals increase,
the water becomes harder.
Across the U.S., there are waters that are very soft (low in carbonates)
and waters that are very hard (high in carbonates). If your water contains
substantial amounts of these minerals, water is said to be hard. One
symptom of hard water is difficulty making lather or suds.
Soft water creates the opposite result, making lather or suds easy to do.
Problems Caused by Hard Water
Hard water can be a nuisance in many ways. Most directly, you notice it on
your skin and hair since you bathe in water frequently. Also, very hard
water can leave calcium scale or mineral deposits behind. Beyond that,
you may notice an accumulation of white or chalky deposits on items such as
plumbing, tubs, sinks, pots and pans. Other things you may notice include:
- increased difficulty in cleaning and laundering tasks
- decreased efficiency of water heaters
- white spots on glassware
- white spots on your car after washing
- soap scum on bathtubs, shower tiles and basins
- accumulation of hard, cream colored deposits around fixtures, dishwashers,
clothes washers and inside pipes
How to Remove Hard Water
Removing hard water can be accomplished in a few ways:
- for drinking water, the water can be softened using filters designed
to remove hardness, distillation, reverse osmosis, adding a packaged chemical
softener such as powdered borax or sodium carbonate
- for showers, baths, ice makers, refrigerator water dispensers, washing
machines and dishwashers, you would need a whole house water softener
What Is a Water Softener?
A water softener system removes excess calcium and magnesium ions from the
water "hardness ions". Conventional water-softening systems intended
for household use depend on an ion-exchange resin (typically salt) in which
hardness ions are exchanged for sodium ions. Another option is Filtersorb,
a no salt softener catalyst media that transforms the dissolved calcium and
magnesium carbonate into non-charged neutral chemical bonds (calcite crystals).
When the crystals become nanometer (microscopic), they detach and are carried
away by the water flow.
The Problem with Drinking Salt-Softened Water
Water is a universal solvent. Most materials, especially metals, are partially
soluble in water. If that water is heated or softened with salt, it becomes
much more aggressive at leaching metals from water lines. Lead in soldered
joints and copper in pipes are particularly vulnerable, and these are two of
the heavy metals that should not be present in significant amounts in your
drinking water.
Also, most water softeners for homes can increase your sodium intake, which
is particularly important to people who must watch their sodium intake for
health reasons. Enough sodium left in perfectly functioning
systems has been found to meet the daily value of sodium after drinking two
8-ounce glasses of water. A bigger problem is that most
water softeners use sodium chloride, which is an unnatural chemical form of
salt that your body recognizes as something completely foreign. This form of
salt is in almost every preserved food product that you eat; therefore, when
you add more salt to your already salted food, your body receives more salt
than it can possibly dispose of.
Because commercially available salt crystals are totally isolated
from each other, in metabolizing these crystals, your body sacrifices tremendous
amounts of energy with very little results. Plus, inorganic sodium chloride
interferes with the body's ideal fluid balance and can overburden the elimination
system. That happens because in the body's effort to isolate the excess salt,
water molecules must surround the sodium chloride to break them up into sodium
and chloride ions in order to neutralize them. To accomplish this, water is
taken from your cells in order to neutralize the unnatural sodium chloride.
What Is the Best Water Softener?
The
best water softener is a no salt water softener using Filtersorb®, which is
a specially designed filtration media made of manganese dioxide
coated dolomite (a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate)
cores and pure mined ore manganese dioxide granules.
CuZn has created a smarter,
smaller salt free water softener option to remove up to 25 grains of hardness,
and, unlike other home water softener systems, also removes other contaminants
from your water. Their patented Foam Technology allows them to combine multiple
filtration medias in a Big Blue cartridge with minimal pressure loss. This
unique system comes in a double split-flow unit that is available in 45,000
gallon 10 or 80,000 gallon 20 refillable tanks. This innovative water softener
and water purifier system includes:
- Filtersorb SB3 to condition and soften your water up to 25 grains
of hardness.
- CuZn's patented fast flow GRA (Granular Radial Axel) media with KDF55
and the highly rated Acid Washed Coconut Shell Carbon to remove chlorine,
disinfection by-products (DBPs), herbicides, pesticides and other
inorganic and organic compounds.
CuZn Small to Medium Homes 45,000 and 80,000 Gallon Water Softener and
Conditioner
How to Measure Water Hardness
The two most common units of measurement for hardness are grains
per gallon and milligrams per liter. Some appliances, such as dishwashers
and washing machines, have a setting to adjust for the hardness of
the water. Usually the hardness setting for these appliances is in
grains per gallon.
In grains per gallon, the hardness in water is classified as follows:
- Less than 4 grains per gallon is considered to be soft
- 4 to 7 grains per gallon is considered to be moderately hard water
- 7 to 10 grains per gallon is hard water
- greater than 10 grains per gallon is very hard water
If your test for hardness is given in parts per million (ppm), you
can convert it to grains by using this formula:
17.1 ppm = 1 grain
Divide the ppm by 17.1 for the total grains. For example, if your
hardness is 250 ppm, 250 divided by 17.1 = 14.63 grains of hardness,
with is quite hard.
CuZn Salt Free Water Softener can handle up to 12 grains of hardness.
If you have more than that, call us toll free at 866-875-4386 for more
information about a custom salt-free water softener solution.
How to Test the Hardness in Your Water