5 Important Things to Consider While Buying Water Softeners
Your friends keep telling you how a water softener has become an indispensable part of their lives and recommends the same to you but you cannot figure out how and why. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. For starters, water softener removes the ions that causes hardness in water and that results in less soap usage plus increased lifetime of plumbing. In addition, it keeps the skin and hair soft and also makes cleaning easier. Let’s see what you should consider before getting this much helpful unit.
- Do you really need it?
You may get influenced knowing the benefits of a water softener from different sources and feel like getting one right away. But hold that thought. It is actually important to determine if you actually need it or not and that depends on the presence and level of minerals like calcium and magnesium in the water. For that, you need to get the water tested as their presence makes the water hard and requires softening. If the analysis gives you a thumbs up, you can move further with other steps.
- Salt Based or Salt Free?
A major choice you have to make while buying a water softener is between a salt based or a salt free one. Either one will do the job so it really depends on your need. As the name suggests a salt-based water softener uses sodium to remove minerals like calcium and magnesium to make it soft whereas the salt free one only neutralizes those minerals using electricity or magnet. So, it is pretty clear that the contaminants will still be present in the water treated by a salt free model.
- Right Size
Water softeners come in different sizes and don’t think that its size doesn’t matter because it does! The right size for your house depends on the water flow rate of your home and the mineral content i.e. water hardness level. If it’s comparatively small, the life span of the components will be adversely affected. Alternately, if it’s too large, there will be wastage of salt and backwash water, sanitary will also be a problem. This step is important to avoid wastage of salt, water and also money on replacement parts.
- Other Factors
Besides size, you also have to choose between fully manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic. That wouldn’t be too hard. No matter what type you buy, maintenance is inevitable. You have to restock the salt supply periodically and also clean the brine tank too. When you get the water analysis of your home, it’ll become evident that you may need a water filtration along with the water softener. Water filter is a must so if you don’t have it already, get it installed while you’re at the softener. This will save you from unnecessary costs down the line.
- Price and Quality
The golden rule of price and quality applies to water softeners as well. Buy a quality product in the beginning, even if it costs more, to avoid wasting money for replacements on low quality cheap products. Make sure your water softener has quality components, a meter styled valve and a long duration warranty. Installation cost will also be involved so define budget accordingly. Talking about the price, note that salt-based water softeners are more expensive than salt free ones. But that should not be the sole reason behind choosing the latter one, okay?
Simply put, water softener is just one of those things that makes life so much simpler. And now that you know why it’s a boon for many people and why and how to get one, don’t wait any longer. Ciao.
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