When you’re in the market for a system to help soften the hard water running into your home, you have several choices. While the most popular type has traditionally been salt-based water softeners, salt free water conditioners are quickly catching on. However, if you don’t know that difference between them, here are some of the things you should know about when choosing between the two systems.
How Salt-Based Water Softeners Work
Hard water is caused by an abundance of minerals in the water that feeds into your house. These minerals include calcium and magnesium. Salt-based water softeners remove these minerals through ion exchange, which is when a sodium particle is exchanged for one of these mineral ions.
All water-softening systems use the ion exchange system. The exchange takes place in a tank full of polystyrene beads, otherwise called resin or zeolite. The beads have negative charges and the sodium ions in the softener have positively charges. These ions bond together, so as the water flows past them, the salt is exchanged for the mineral.
One of the main disadvantages to this exchange is that too much calcium and magnesium can be removed from the water. Your body needs these minerals to thrive, although you can take supplements or get more of these two minerals from your diet.
How Salt Free Conditioners Work
Salt Free Water Conditioners, also known as water descalers, don’t soften your water as salt-based systems do, but they work by altering the water minerals chemical structure. By descaling the water, the minerals will not stick to pipes and other components. This allows for the free flow of water so you shouldn’t have a water pressure problem as you would if your water wasn’t conditioned.
Since they don’t use sodium or other chemicals to condition the water, salt free water conditioners don’t need as much maintenance and you can save money because you don’t have to continuously buy sodium and other chemicals. They also don’t waste as much water as salt-based water softeners can, which also can save money for your household.
The Other Benefits of Water Conditioning
Along with keeping your pipes free from limescale, conditioning your water will allow your soaps and detergents lather better. Not only will our skin and hair look and feel healthier, but your laundry will be cleaner as well. When you have hard water, you will use more soaps, conditioners and laundry detergents to try to get your body and clothes clean.
It also helps preserve your clothing because hard water can damage your clothing and other textiles due to detergent build-up. It is less expensive to operate salt free water conditioners and they work well for conditioning hard water in various locations.
