Advice on water softening (or not).

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Lee_Leses

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I have my plumber coming in soon to replace all the galvanized pipes in the basement with copper. When he's here doing that, we discussed possibly installing a water softener. I'm VERY confused if this is a good idea or not. I read a number of things. I also brushed up a little on distilling water and reverse osmosis systems. I read different types of water could be obviously healthier, or not. I read different types of water could harm the pipes and appliances more, or not. I read I could save some money because softened water is cheaper to heat up and uses less detergent. I read I could get my water tested (city water) to see what treatments I may or may not need. I read it's good to possibly not soften the refrigerator water and kitchen sink water by running a bypass.

The reasons I started thinking about softening are calcium deposits in the toilets and around the tub drain, and also because of all the white nonsense on the dishes in the dish washer.

At this point I'm totally confused! Do I want water softening or not? If I don't obviously I don't have to worry about constantly adding salt. Wow there's a lot to consider! I thought it was just water. LOL

Thanks for any thoughts, I would really appreciate it!

Lee
 

Reach4

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I predict from your description you would benefit from a softener. http://www.karlabs.com/watertestkit/ kit 90 can get you lab test results in about 2 weeks counting 2 trips in the mail. You could probably get it done faster locally, but more money. If you just wanted hardness testing, the Hach 5-B test can test immediately yourself once you get the kit. Your local water supplier may have hardness info for you free. It may be on the website. A pool store can often check hardness. I expect it varies how good of a job they do.

You can have the plumber install a provision for a softener. You could just have him put in a loop of pipe that gets cut if you install the softener. You could have him put 1/3 or 3/3 of a 3-valve bypass.

You don't want your plant watering water softened. For input to a humidifier or RO filter, you want softened water. For drinking, you could go either way.
 
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