I installed a water softener several months ago and since then I notice in the shower that I feel that the soap doesn't fully rinse off of me. Is this normal with water softeners? Does this mean my wateris TOO soft?
Should I use a different brand of soap, like Zest, that promotes no soapy feeling?
Thanks!!
Eddie G
To start, let's get a technicality out of the way. There is no such thing as "too soft". There is though, less hard. There are different degrees of hardness, but it is either soft or some degree of hardness. Just like a lamp can be dimmed or brightened, it can be "too off". It is either off or on.
The soap is rinsing off. What you feel is your very clean skin, not coated with minerals in the water. Some people like that feel, others don't. For those that do not, they adjust the softener to do a less than good job or mix in some hard water, defeating the purpose of the softener to start with. Personally, I like the slick feel of clean skin, but if you have never had it, it can be a little strange.
Ed,
How do you adjust the softener? My softener removes hardness by releasing sodium and sequestering calcium. There's no control over this, it removes calcium as long ass it has sodium, I think. Do you rig a bypass so some hard water is mixed with the output of the softener?
Dave M.
My softener has a setting that is based on the hardness level. Depending on how hard the water is, the higher I can set the softener. It is a Waterboss if you are familiar with that brand.
Eddie
My softener has a setting that is based on the hardness level. Depending on how hard the water is, the higher I can set the softener. It is a Waterboss if you are familiar with that brand.
Eddie
As another poster said, the soap is coming off. More or less. However, you aren't feeling clean skin, you feel the sodium carbonate in the water that was left after the ion exchange between NaCl (salt) and CaCO3 (calcium carbonate). It is a base and bases generally feel slick because of their reaction with the oils in your skin. With strong bases, that reaction yields soap and glycerin, no idea what the sodium carbonate is doing. Maybe the same thing.
Soft water that is not artificially softened doesn't give that slick, slimy feeling.
Go to
To my knowledge, there is no provision on any softener to mix hard water with softened water. You would have to do so in the plumbing. I do not suggest doing this.
Ion exchange does not sequester, it removes the positive charged ions in the water with negative charged sites on the resin beads. As those ions are removed, two much smaller and weaker positive charged sodium or potassium ions are released into the water. The sodium is added at the rate of 7.85 mg/l per grain of 'hardness' removed. A slice of white bread usually has 120-160 mg of sodium, a glass of V8 has 560 mg. Softeners remove more than just calcium and magnesium (hardness minerals); such as ferrous iron, lead, copper, manganese etc.. Water is either hard or soft and the hardness varies in all waters.
If a softener is sized correctly and set up correctly, the softened water will be 0 gpg hard every time you use any volume of water (in gallons per minute flow); otherwise the softener is not working correctly and there's little sense in using/having it. The vast majority of people like the feel and get used to it in about 3 weeks, then they really hate the feel of hard water when they go somewhere that has hard water; or if their softener breaks.
Gary Quality Water Associates
What about this:
And if you believe what they say, you'll eventually be buying a bridge to nowhere. The site bends a lot of well known truths and then they mix in their idea of the truth.
Their main product to replace a softener is a very over priced filter to remove chlorine and tastes while it contains a PWT (physical/magnetic water treatment) anti-scale/descale device. It does not remove hardness, iron, maganese etc., so it is not a softener or a replacement or one.
Gary Quality Water Associates
Last year I moved into a house with a water softener. I got used to the slick feeling fairly quickly and like the way it leaves my hair and skin (soft). The thing I really like about softened water, though, is the way it leaves my tub, shower, sinks, and laundry! I can use half the laundry soap, yet the clothes are cleaner, and it's much easier to clean the tub, glass shower doors, sinks, and fixtures.
I have an unsoftened water line to the kitchen sink. I drink that to avoid the taste of softened water (although lots of people don't mind it), and I fill my indoor watering can from that. I have an unsoftened line to the back yard spigot, too; I'm not sure if it would hurt the plants, but I don't see any reason to pay for soft water for them.
Jo Ann
Eddie G wrote:
Softened water *is* bad for plants. As Gary noted, water softeners operate by replacing calcium and magnesium ions in hard water with either sodium or potassium -- both of which cause soil to become hard by decreasing its permeability to water. And that makes it hard for plants to get the water they need. Use hard water on your plants.
People who are on sodium-restricted diets should avoid drinking softened water also -- even if the softener uses potassium instead of sodium.
I have a WaterBoss. If I understood the manual correctly, the hardness setting merely determines how many gallons of softened water you can use before it regenerates. AIUI, as long as the thing is not overdue for regeneration (i.e., as long as you did not tell it that your water is softer than it really is), the water it supplies will be as soft as the device is able to make it.
Perce
When my brother-in-law installed a water softener, he installed a reverse osmosis unit after it to remove the sodium. I simply took the feeds for the irrigation system, the outside hose bibs, the drinking-water spigot and the ice-maker from ahead of the water softener.
Perce
Soft water has a slippery feel and opposed to hard water. Actually, rinsing with soft water will wash away the soap better than hard water. Soap brands make little difference.
Try washing your hands with a jug of distilled water, which is utterly soft.
How does that compare to your "softened" water?
Good ! People should avoid drinking softened water. It contains too much residual sodium.
The most economical way to plumb the softener, is to have it feed your hot-water heater. That way you use softened water for washing.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I believe setting the softener to regenerate less frequently would make the water less soft. I recently moved into a house that has a MacClean softener with a maximum capacty of 30k grains. The family that lived in the house previously had the softener regenerating every 4 days which is probably overkill since I'm the only person living in the house. How would I go about testing the water to determine the hardness and iron content in order to determine the proper setting? There is a bypass valve on the softener. To get an accurate result do I need to bypass the softener and let the water run for a few minutes before I take a sample? Or should I just drain some water from the holding tank. The house uses a well pump/pressure tank setup.
The hardness is one of the 3 parts needed to correctly set up a softener. The other parts are the salt dose and how much water is used daily.
This may help:
Gary Qualty Water Associates
They sell PWT (physical or magnetic water treatment) equipment and compare it to water softeners. Their equipment does not remove anything from water unless they include mechanical filtration like carbon etc. In only very few commercial/industrial cases does PWT/MWT work, it especially doesn't work in residential applications.
Gary Quality Water Associates
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