Hard water, which is water with a high mineral content, can cause numerous problems for you and your house. One common but minor complaint is the unpleasant taste and smell, but the build-up of limescale it creates can actually damage the appliances in your home.
In the long run, this makes investing in a home water treatment system worthwhile. This short guide will introduce the different types of system and their benefits.
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How can I prevent hard water?
Let’s get this common question out of the way first. The short answer is that you can’t unless you want to move house. The hardness of the water depends on the area in which you live.
Home hard water solutions
The taste and smell of hard water is a big problem for many people, but one that can be solved by buying bottled water or installing a drinking water filter.
But those who are also concerned about damage to their plumbing and appliances, such as their shower, washing machine, kettle and coffee maker, would do better to go with a filter system that covers their whole house.
Fortunately, there are lots of options on the market. However, different water treatment services use different names for their products. Solutions like these Kinetico whole home filter options might be called water softeners or filtration systems by others.
What types of filter are available
Hard water filters generally come in two types: those which use salt water and those which do not.
- Salt water softeners
These essentially work by swapping the minerals in hard water for salt. This is known as an ion exchange. It works well, but the resulting soft water is undrinkable because of the salt. Also, the salt that the filter needs in order to work has to be replaced often.
- Salt-free softeners
In a salt-free system, the hard water minerals are filtered out instead of exchanged with salt. This is done by having the water pass through media like granular carbon to remove contaminants. Another popular but more expensive option is reverse osmosis.
The soft water produced by a salt-free system is safe to drink, but is generally not as soft as salt water. If you plan to go salt-free, look for a product that offers “scale reduction” or a “scale inhibitor” for the best results.
Expressions like “ion exchange” and “reverse osmosis” make water filters sound complicated, but you can now see that they are not as difficult as they sound. Now that you know the different types of products and what they are called, you are better informed to choose the right one for your home.