Water Softener

How To Choose The Right Water Softener For Your Home

Most everyone loves the feeling that soft water provides. Your skin feels soft and smooth, almost silky. Hair seems to be more fluffy when washed using soft water. There are other benefits to water softeners besides what they do for your skin and hair.  They make cleaning your home easier because there is less hard water build up.  If you notice that your glasses, silverware, and dishes have spots on them after being washed and your soap doesn't lather up quite so much, you might be a victim of the antics of hard water.  Additionally, if your white clothes look dingy and grey, hard water may be the cause. Fortunately, these problems will disappear by installing the right water softener in your home.

In order to choose the right water softener for your home, let's look at how many gallons of water your family uses. Usually you can get a rough average based upon the number of people in your household because the average person uses about 80 gallons of water on a daily basis.  To be more precise, refer to your water bill.  The average water gallons usage will be displayed on your bill.  This figure may be displayed in a monthly figure or quarterly figure, depending on your water company.  If you are unable to find the water usage on your bill, simply call your water company.

Next, determine your home's water hardness level. If you don't know your home's water hardness level, you can get it tested. Many retailers that specialize in water softeners will test it for free. The test results will provide you with the grains per gallon hardness in your home's water. Multiply the grains per gallon of hardness in your water by the total daily water need to determine the amount of water hardness your water softening system will need to remove. The total daily water need can be figured out using your water bill by dividing the monthly or quarterly usage into a daily amount.  Alternatively, the average person uses about 80 gallons of water per day, so you can use this figure to come up with your household's daily water need.

Lastly, a couple of other tips should be considered before making a whole house water filters or water softening systems purchase.  First, check the size of your whole house main water supply line; this is especially important if you have a fairly new home. Your main water supply line should be one inch or larger, else you need to obtain a water softener with a higher flow valve. Second, if your lab test of water shows a high level of water, consider purchasing one of the water softeners that remove iron.