In order to make hard water safe for drinking and for use in other important things around the house, you will need to soften it using a water softener system. Here is everything you need to know about softened water and whether it’s safe for drinking or not.
What Happens In The Water Softening Process
Hard water is useless as far as things around the house and drinking it is concerned. You can’t do anything with hard water. It has excess calcium and magnesium in it, which leaves yellow and white colored residue all over the things you use this water with. It also doesn’t produce any lather and washing clothes with it is nothing less than a disaster.
You can’t drink it either because the excess calcium and magnesium can cause a lot of problems in your body and can lead to issues with skin and digestion. This is why you need to soften this water, in order to make it usable around the house. This is done with a water softener.
A water softener involves the softening and chemical treatment of water by removing the heavy metal ions of calcium and magnesium and replacing them with neutral ions, like potassium or sodium.
This process can be used around the house wherever you are getting hard water from the supply. It’s going to make sure that the water coming from the water softener is safe for use around the house, like washing dishes, clothes, bathing, and even drinking.
Soft Water And Drinking
Soft water is a lot safer to drink than hard water. The only precautions or things you need to know beforehand are:
Soft water can have a pronounced saline taste. This is because of the exchange of heavy metal ions with less reactive metals like sodium. If your water is very hard and needs a lot of ions to be replaced, then your water will have a slightly salty taste. This isn’t a huge problem, but it’s better to not drink water that is too high in sodium content, because it can dehydrate the body and excess sodium can lead to hypertension and kidney diseases.
Soft water only removes the metals in the water which makes it hard. It doesn’t remove any kind of dirt, debris, or even organic materials or microorganisms. This can be a problem if your water is extremely dirty. You will need to have some sort of filtration system installed with the water softener, in order to get water that is free from calcium and magnesium ions, but also other kinds of unwanted chemicals or materials, which can render the softened water useless for any kind of use or drinking.
Does A Water Softener Remove Everything?
No, a water softener doesn’t remove anything but the calcium and magnesium ions. It isn’t designed to work like a water filter. If you have metal-infested water and dirt coming into your water, from the supply then it’s best that you couple the water softener with some sort of water purification system. It will lead to perfectly safe water, which can be consumed, and used for cooking and other things.
You don’t need to have an extra filtration system if your water doesn’t have any sort of chemicals or dirt in it and just needs to be rid of its hardness. You need to check the composition of your supply water before getting any sort of water softening or filtration system installed.
What Can Soft Water Be Used For
Soft water can be used for:
- If the water doesn’t have too much of a salty taste.
- Washing clothes. Soft water makes excellent lather and it cleans your clothes without leaving any weird scale or yellow stains on your clothes.
- Hard water can really affect your skin, if you’re using it on your body on a daily basis it’s best to get it softened so that it doesn’t lead to detrimental skin issues.
Conclusion
There you have it! Soft water is generally safe for drinking, but you should still be careful when consuming it because there might be a high concentration of salt in it. Discuss your preferences with an expert when considering water softener installation Erie.
