Not All Water Softeners Are Created Equal!
It’s an established fact that many homes around the Denver Metro area have water that’s “too hard.” Briefly, hard water contains elevated levels of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and can negatively impact the performance and lifespan of many home plumbing appliances (including your water heater and household piping) – in addition to impacting the general health and wellbeing of the home’s occupants. Excessively hard water can be downright bothersome, uncomfortable and unfortunately, costly, if it goes too long before being noticed.
The solution to hard water in your home is a properly sized, professionally installed, quality whole-house water softener that’s the right fit for the home. Many softeners on the market today are pretty basic in design and address only hard water issues. But that may not be the whole story of what water quality issues may need improving. As a result, our team at Save Home Heat Company also installs softeners that, in addition to solving hard water, provide water treatment for a range of other common water quality issues.
In Other Words…
Not all water softeners are created equal. When it makes sense for the homeowner we’re serving, our water quality team at Save Home Heat can take it to the next level and solve other concerns at the same time as hard water. In this post, we’ll provide an overview of some of the more common enhanced performance options that our customers choose to incorporate in their new softeners.
Why An ‘Off-the-Shelf’ Water Softener Isn’t Always Good Enough
If your new water softener comes from “off the shelf” or is purchased from an internet source, it is likely basic in design. If your sole concerns are hard water and it is a reputable manufacturer with a strong track record, you may be okay. Of course, there’s a wide range of products and quality out there, so buyer beware if you go that route.
Our findings around the Metro area indicate that there’s often other issues that accompany hard water. A versatile, quality softener that incorporates the ability to address issues such as other elements than calcium and magnesium, for example, can make a world of difference for the people living in the home. There’s a range of other potential conditions that an enhanced performance water softener can address along with hardness. Keep reading!
What Do Enhanced Performance Water Softeners Offer?
Let’s take a look at some of the key features that are available with more advanced whole-house water softeners:
Environmentally Optimized Systems
“Environmentally optimized systems,” simply put, use less water and salt. This is accomplished thru advanced controls working in concert with the softener’s control valve. For example, if conditions warrant, the time period between salt regeneration cycles can be extended. Hence, the overall amount of water used by the system, as well as the salt, is reduced.
High Efficiency Water Softeners
High efficiency systems, which go hand-in-hand with environmentally optimized controls and reduced salt and water consumption, continue to grow in popularity. The key component is an advanced control board that offers special features such as:
- Demand prediction programming (tracking usage and automatically adjusting frequency of the resin regeneration cycle – smart!)
- Day overrides
- Special programming for softeners installed in homes that have septic systems
Softener Solutions for Limited Spaces
Another challenge that faces some customers is potential space limitations. Some people may think that areas such as a tight mechanical closet or a short crawl space are red flags that can’t be overcome. Not so with our water quality team at Save Home Heat. We have short-boy water softeners available, and our team is adept at installing plumbing in tight crawlspaces.
Removing Iron or Manganese
The enhanced performance water softeners installed by our team can also be adapted to solve iron and manganese issues, which may be found in private wells, in particular. Here’s a closer look:
- Special resin beads for the mineral tank are available, which are designed to remove these minerals as well as standard hardness minerals
- Standard resin beads can also be pre-treated for this purpose
- Of note, specialty softener media (initially from Germany) designed for this purpose are starting to become available
Mitigating Very Hard Water
For especially high hardness situations – where the likelihood of negative impacts on the home and occupants is strong – specially designed, very high capacity water softeners are available. These new high capacity units do not sacrifice efficiency in order to deal with extreme hardness.
As with all of the performance options discussed here, this custom approach to extremely hard water situations reflects our highly customer-focused approach at Save Home Heat Company: accurately identifying potential issues, fully informing our customers, offering sensible options, and letting them decide how to proceed – all in a zero pressure manner.
Addressing Chlorine Impacts
If you have concerns about chlorine in your water, most off-the-shelf water softeners require the installation of a separate, independent carbon pre-filter, located inline before water enters the softener. Our team can supply water softeners that employ special chlorine-resistant resin beads that are effective at reducing the residual impacts of chlorine, a common sanitzer used in municipal water supplies.
Two-Tank Systems: Continuous Soft Water Supply
For steady, uninterrupted performance of your water softener, dual-tank systems (with two mineral tanks plumbed in parallel) provide continuous soft water even during a resin regeneration cycle. This type of system is often used in locations such as Airbnb rentals, where high demand is expected. Two-tank softeners are also a good fit in homes that have extremely high iron levels and limited flow delivery – most often in homes whose water is supplied by a private or local water well.
The Bottom Line on High Performance Water Softeners
This is just a start to understanding how flexible water softener designs are capable of being, addressing far more than just hard water minerals. Our water quality team at Save Home Heat Company, led by our WQA certified Master Water Specialist, installs water softeners that make the most sense for our customers’ needs, whether that’s a highly effective, standard design softener or a unit that has enhanced features to solve additional water quality issues along with hardness.
Expert Water Testing and Water Treatment in the Denver Metro, Boulder, and Loveland Areas
Serving the greater Denver area, we offer expert installation of proven whole-house water softeners that are tailored to your home and your needs. We also provide complimentary in-home testing for hardness and several other potential water quality issues, along with a highly informative, zero-pressure consultation. This is not a sales tactic, rather, a valuable service that can help improve your health and safeguard your home’s plumbing system, too.
For contaminants that can’t be tested for in-home, such as unhealthy bacteria, lead, PFAS chemicals, microplastics, and more, we partner with established, reputable, state-accredited laboratories to ensure accurate results. All testing from our team is conducted in a transparent, professional manner.
To find the right water softener for your home, give our water quality team at Save Home Heat Company a call. And please keep us in mind for all your home plumbing needs!
