We have a community well system and the water has been hard. We saw mineral deposits in appliances and I noticed it when washing the car since it left water spots if water was left to dry . I had the water tested and it was 7 to 9 grains hard (fairly hard) and then had a whole house water softener (uses salt). I finally had a chance to ONR one of my cars and I noticed a big difference in how it cleaned and dried. When I washed the dirty mitt out in the sink using dish washing soap it rinsed clean very quickly compared to the past. Of course, the house dishwasher cleans better with a lot less detergent and I noticed the difference in the shower too. They claim you can use pure soaps for washing (hard to find) since the additives in the detergents that try to aid cleaning in hard water actually do take a toll on fabrics. I did switch to woolite (found an He version) to use for the mf towels.
Serious warning, do not use a ater softner to clean you supplies or wash cars for that matter. Water softners are base on Salt Salt over time will 1)kill your car and 2)kill your products. Unless you are using a salt free/tar free one which are waaaay more expensive. If that is the case then you can forget everything I just said.:graduation:
The salt is used just to regenerate the resins...its not in the water per say..the salt is used for back flushing the resins...the water is not salty Al
Water ‘softener’The water to be treated passes through a bed of the resin. Negatively-charged resins absorb and bind metal ions, which are positively charged. The resins initially contain a divalent (single) hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions, which exchange with divalent calcium and magnesium ions in the water. This exchange eliminates precipitation and soap scum formation. As the water passes through both kinds of resin, the hardness ions replace the hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions which are released into the water. The "harder" the water, the more hydrogen, sodium or potassium ions are released from the resin and into the water.
I did do some research since there is a lot of stuff on the Internet. To some, it is like fluoridation of water....just bad. I cannot really taste the salt. I do plan to switch to KCl when I use up to NaCl. I saw one statistic that the amount of added salt is less than what a can of a soft drink (same amounts of water). The only disposal issue is where the backwash is is dumped. It should not be dumped into the septic tank. This water is much higher in salt. Also, some systems waste a lot more water than others during the cleaning cycle. BTW, many car wash products and detergents contain products to soften water to make them work better in hard water.
I understand how it works what it does and how it cycles I have owned on for the entire house. Here are a couple links. Here is a test for you, call the company tell them you told by your auto mechanic that you should NEVER put water from a salt based/resin based water softner in your radiator and they will tell you it would be a good idea to use a source that is not connected to the to the water softner. In short it will corrode your raditator and engine. Here are a few links. Just trying to save you future issues. LACSD Website - Chloride in Santa Clarita How Salt Based Water Softeners Work
