Water Softener

[westyslantfront]

I just had a water softener installed. I was tired of the lime and calcium build up. My two month old dishwasher's heating element is white with build up. With the water softener, that will soon go away. I felt it was important to protect my plumbing and washers.

 

[toggleswitch]

Let us know how this works out.

 

[appnut]

My two month old dishwasher's heating element

Two month old? Ross, did you get another new dishwasher--after the Maytag that replaced the Kenmore?

 

[bpetersxx]

Ross do u have pictures of your setup I am curious what u got

I will go downstairs and snap pictures of the Kinetico WS that dad bought me

 

[~sudsshane]

Good Idea Ross...

When I lived in Arizona back in the early 90's, I couldn't believe how hard the water was compared to NY. You will definately notice a difference, keep us posted.
I still say NYC and Long Island has some of the best tap water in the country.

 

[tlee618]

Ross you are going to love having soft water. Do watch the amount of detergent you use or you will be making a suds cake to the sky.LOL

 

[gansky1]

You will love the soft water, Ross. You'll notice it most in laundry and the shower. Hard water will strip away moisture from everything - hair, skin and clothes. You'll use a lot less soap, shampoo and detergents than you previously have. Be careful of etching in the dishwasher - if you're a pre-rinser, use about half the recommended amount of detergent in the cups.

I put in a GE SmartWater softener I bought at Sam's club about a month ago. It seems to do a much better job than the Culligan I was leasing before - but that POS had some issues. The GE has only recharged once and is very nearly silent during it's cycle. It measures the flow of water to determine when to recharge, the old one was on a timer and recharged once a week whether it needed it or not. Glad to be rid of it!

Let us know what you think after a week or so - I'll bet you will have some suds-cakes going now ;-)

 

[westyslantfront]

Bob- When I did over the kitchen, Manny got all the black appliances and sold them because I wanted to switch to white.
I got new GE stove and microwave, Whirlpool fridge, and Maytag dishwasher.

Terry- Yes, I am going to have to get used to measuring detergent with a spoon instead of a cup.

Shane- I remember how great New York City water was. Nothing like a nice cold glass from the tap in the wintertime. The water in New York City tasted so good.

Greg- I will keep you posted what I think of the water softener. Will be great to get rid of pumice stone for toilet bowl and all the Lime Away bottles. I already tried 1/4 cup of detergent in 1-18 and had plenty of suds.

Peter- Will take pictures later today and post them.

 

[lederstiefel1]

Soft water

Ross, I can fully understand you as I remember quite well my time in Andalusia/Spain where water is so dreadfully hard and before I used to live in areas with soft water throughout my whole life.
Here in Leverkusen we have very soft water which comes from the big Dhünn-Reservoir, 15 miles up the mountains, which provides us with really tasty and very good soft water. I take a bottle full of it to the office every day to drink, as the water here in Cologne, on the other bank of the river Rhine is really dreadful! Very hard and terrible in taste!

The reservoir also feeds the river Dhünn from where the water originally comes and which is running along a few hundred yards from our house, flowing a few miles further down into the river Wupper (from which my native town has its name: Wuppertal = Wuppervalley) and both flow a few meters further, nearby Opladen, into Germany's biggest river: the Rhine - so far to Geography...lol All to be seen at Google Maps!

And I would always try to avoid to move to a place with hard water again!

Ralf

 

[turquoisedude]

Ross, what kind of water softening system did you decide to have installed? I desparately need one in my new home in Ogden (near the VT border) and I have just started reasearching what kinds are out there. I am leaning toward the kind that does not use salt to remove the excess minerals.
The hard water in the house has ruined a 1980's Maytag dishwasher that came with the place and I just can't bear the thought of using my newly-acquired '56 GE washer-dryer and dishwasher with hard water!!

 

[westyslantfront]

Here is a picture of the water softener in the garage

 

[westyslantfront]

Here is a picture of the inside where the salt is. I got sodium in the tank but will change it to potassium in the springtime because sodium is harmful to plants and potassium is not. Most of my outdoor faucets are soft water.

 

[hoovermatic]

I have a water softener but it is under the kitchen sink. It was quite expensive to have installed but wouldn't be without it. Makes an enormous difference in so many ways, never need to worry about damage to applicances from limescale and save money on detergents, shower gels, shampoo and all that stuff cos you learn to use so little. Use about 50% less of everything and no change in cleaning results. If you have appliances that are gunked up, the softened water will eventually leave them like new.

 

[westyslantfront]

I did not know that you had hard water in the UK. Although I moved west 10 years ago, I am originally from New York City where we have soft water. I have only experienced hard water since moving west.

Ross

 

[petek]

What kind of softener are you referring to that doesn't use some sort of salt? Don't be taken in by those expensive "ion" exchange water softeners that have been shown to do nothing other than lighten your wallet.

 

[nurdlinger]

Hi Ross,

I have used a water softener here in Tucson for most of the time since 1979. This was after the first year in my new house using the evaporative cooler, which got white as snow inside from all the mineral in the water. I got a cheap department store softener, installed it myself, and kept it running myself. When it finally died I got another one, not the cheapest, this time from Sears. After about five years it is still OK.

Regarding usage of sodium chloride vs. potassium chloride, I asked my doctor about this. Since I take a blood pressure medication (dyazide) which "spares" potassium, he thought it unwise to increase my consumption with the residual potassium which would be in the water softened that way. I have no plants that require watering so that is no issue for me.

I am certain you will be delighted with the results. Watch out for oversudsing in the machines until you get used to it.

Tom

 

[hoovermatic]

are you kidding!! some parts of the uk, the water is so hard it hurts, particularly where i am in the south west and London water is terrible.

 

[westyslantfront]

Hi Tom. I am working on getting used to measuring detergent with a spoon rather than a cup.

Ross