Many people live in areas where hard water is a problem. Nobody wants their kitchens, bathrooms, dishes, and laundry to be affected by hard water. The common fix for these hard water issues is installing a water softening system. This may not always be the best choice, and there are alternative options. Here are some of the potential problems with water softener systems that may make you change your mind about using one in your home or business.
The Basics
Before getting into the meat and potatoes of potential issues surrounding water softeners, it is first important to explain what hard and soft water are. Hard water is any water with an abundant amount of minerals such as magnesium, copper, and calcium. These minerals cause rust stains, and can make your skin and hair less healthy.
Soft water is water that has very few or no minerals in it and is much cleaner and healthier. Water can be softened in a variety of ways, with the most common being through the use of a salt water softener. Without getting too scientific, hard water is transformed into soft water through a process that removes calcium and magnesium by replacing their ions with sodium, or in some cases, potassium.
Potential Issues
The potential issue that may arise when treating your hard water with sodium is that the excess sodium can be harmful to your plants and the environment in general. Of course, that is not the case everywhere, but it has the potential to be a problem in certain areas. For example, if you live in an area where there is little rainfall, watering your plants with sodium treated water will cause the salt to build up in the soil over time because it is not being washed away by the rain. This buildup will cause your plants to die and make the soil hard for things to grow in. If the use of sodium treated water is widespread enough, it can have serious effects on plant and animal life. In fact, some cities have passed laws where the use of sodium water softener systems has been banned because of the harmful environmental effects.
What’s the Alternative?
There are plenty of great water softening alternatives that are perfectly healthy for the environment, such as electronic water descalers, which get rid of the harmful minerals with the use of salt. There are plenty of other great new ways to soften your water, and you can find great companies offering their products online. If you are at all worried about the environmental consequences of salt-treated water, be sure to look into these great alternatives.
