I just got finished replacing all my toilet and faucet valves with 1/4 turn ball valves. Several of the gate valves had failed. A few were leaking, and one would not even turn anymore. They did not look "ancient". I have extremely hard water where I live. Is there a type of valve that will resist hard water damage more than others? Or is replacing valves simply an unavoidable ritual to be performed each decade?
Shit dude get a water softener already. Available at your local big box, I have installed two with no prob. If you can replace your toilet and faucet valves then a water softener is within your abilities.
and also problems with the salt it adds into the water, not only health problems in terms of sodium intake but also accelerated corrosion e.g. of water heaters. Just not sure if the cure isn't worse than the disease of having to replace valves and flush the water heater and such...
I tend to agree...
On valves, we also have quite hard water but all that is really required is the discipline to exercise them on occasion ime. That, of course, is another resolution that, like the New Years' type, is easier to make than keep... :)
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Your realtor is wrong. We use softeners for our boilers at work to prolong their life, not because it shortens it. As for health problems, thee may be trace amounts of sodium, but it is about the same as you get eating a slice of bread. Far less than the fries you had at lunch.
Wrong in most cases. You get 7.85 mg of added sodium (with the use of softener salt) per roughly a quart of water per grain per gallon of ion exchange. I.E. 20 gpg hard water would have 157 mg of sodium in a quart of the softened water. A slice of white bread usually has
120-160 mg of sodium.Water heaters and hard water do not do well. Electric elements coated with hard water scale increases the cost to heat water and cause the elements to fail prematurely. Gas and oil fired water heaters fail very quickly and use a lot more fuel since they are full of hard water scale.
Softened water does not harm water heaters as one or more heater web sites etc. claim. Softening water does not reduce the TDS (total dissolved solids) of the water, it slightly increases it, that makes the water conduct electricity; the things dissolved into the water are responsible for conductance. Softened water will have the same pH as hard water, so the water is not aggressive or acidic either.
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Sounds like the realtor was trying to sell a house that didn't have (and probably needed) a water softener.
As other posters have mentioned, the amount of sodium is small. But if your water is as hard as you mentioned, just for flavor, you are probably not drinking the water. If you still want to worry about sodium, you have the following options:
1) You can get potassium chloride (KCl) to recharge the softener with. Now available at most HW stores. It is about twice the price (per mole, not per pound). Claims to be better for plants also. 2) Some people plumb the kitchen cold water faucet to bypass the the softener.In any case, I have had a water softener for 19 years, and soft water good. The pipes and fixtures downstream of the softener are much cleaner and less corroded.
Also, you would like to have outdoor hose bibs that don't go through the softener.
my dad with high blood pressure has softener and osmosis purifier on locations where water is used for drinking, kitchen and bath rooms.
frankly the shower always feels slimy...... i dont like that
Actually, the house I was looking at did have a water softener. That's where it came up in the conversation... I didn't buy that house.
The taste doesn't bother me that much. Having to shut off water and replace valves, pipes, water lines and fixtures is what annoys me ;)
If you still want to
Thanks, very informative!
No one answered your original question. I too would like to know the best valve to use. I'm going with ceramic disk valves. They grind down and polish any sediment that gets in the valve.
Do ball valves get messed up by hard water?
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