Do I Need a Water Softener?

What is a Water Softener?

Water softeners remove excess calcium and magnesium ions via exchange with sodium or potassium ions—which won’t lead to staining or build up in your pipes.

Water softening systems help increase the lifespan of your plumbing, water heater, and clothes. They can be water guzzlers though, using up to 25 gallons of water per regeneration cycle. The frequency of regeneration depends on your water usage and hardness so it can vary widely from place to place and person to person. 

Put this in perspective, the national average water use per capita is about 80-100 gallons per day.[3]

6 Signs You Might Need Water Softener

1. Dry Skin and Tangled Hair
   Your skin and hair can take a hard hit when you have hard water. The minerals in your water react with soap to form “soap scum,” a sticky substance that can build up on your skin. Soap scum can block your pores, causing inflammation. Your hair may also feel dry, brittle, and prone to tangles.
   
   
2. Scale Buildup on Your Appliances
   Mineral deposits, also known as scale, are indicative of hard water. It appears as a hard, chalky substance (made of precipitated calcium and magnesium minerals). Scale can form on the inside of appliances like coffee pots, as well as on faucets, showers and bathtubs. If you already have stubborn deposits, try scrubbing affected areas with a one to one mixture of vinegar and water.
   
   
3. Decreased Efficiency and Lifespan of Certain Appliances
   When scale builds up in appliances like your water heater or washing machine, reduce the efficiency of the appliance. The buildup of scale can cause lower flows and less efficient heating. In the long run, hard water can also decrease the lifespan of appliances due to the extra wear and tear of working harder to combat the water hardness.
   
   
4. Your Glassware is Cloudy
   The same scale that builds up in your appliances and on faucets can deposit on your glassware, causing a cloudy, dull appearance. While a water softener is the best way to eliminate the problem altogether, if you do have cloudy glassware, here are two things you can do:
   
   Option 1: Run your glassware through the dishwasher with a solution of ½ cup vinegar and no soap.
   Option 2: Soak your glassware in the sink with water and ~1 cup of vinegar.
   
   
5. Your Clothes Look Dingy and Faded
   While there are many types of water quality-related clothing issues, hard water often results in stiff, gray laundry. Because laundry detergents (especially powdered ones) bind with the calcium and magnesium in hard water, it can be hard to get your clothes looking and feeling clean. There are several ways to combat this:
   
   — Choose liquid detergents rather than powdered ones
   — Add ½ cup of laundry borax to each load
   — Soak your clothes in 1 cup of white distilled vinegar mixed with 1 gallon of water for 30 minutes. Rinse, then launder.
   
   A water softener is the best way to avoid the problem from the start.
   
   
6. Plumbing is in Constant Need of Repair
   All types of pipes can suffer lowered water pressure with excessive scale build-up. At the extreme, flow can become so restricted that pipes need to be replaced entirely.
   

Test Your Water and Consider a Water Softener

Look into your water hardness levels with a laboratory test kit:

Tap Score water tests will test your water for water hardness, in addition to many other parameters and potential contaminants. With a personalized water quality report, we will provide you with an unbiased-assessment of water treatment options.

When Should You Buy a Water Softener?

For most cases, water softeners are a personal preference, but we recommend considering one when your water is “very hard,” meaning your water hardness levels are at or above 180 PPM (parts per million or mg/L) or more than 10 GPG (grains per gallon).

What is GPG or Grains per Gallon?

Grains per gallon (GPG) is a unit of measurement specific to water hardness that refers to the amount of calcium carbonate in a gallon of water. One grain is equal to 0.002 ounces of calcium carbonate dissolved in one gallon of water. Grains per gallon can be easily converted from parts per million (PPM) of calcium carbonate by multiplying PPM as calcium carbonate by 17.1.