Water Softener Or Water Filter?
Question:
Water Softener Or Water Filter for my car service?
Answer:
Water, the substance we depend on for survival; odorless, colorless and tasteless yet fundamental to the survival of all life. It will dissolve nearly everything it comes in contact with and carry that substance with it. Knowing that our water supply is safe is important; and knowing potential problems with the water coming into our home and how to make it safer is equally important.
There are a number of potential problems that can occur along the way with water that comes into our homes; among them, high levels of calcium, minerals and sediment, otherwise known as hardness. Hard water can really be damaging to your home’s plumbing and appliances. For many years people have been turning to softeners, also known as conditioners, that use salt to neutralize minerals causing water to be “hard.”
When home owners are on municipal sewage systems the salt brine from softeners or conditioners backwashes into the system. Sodium makes its way into the nation’s waterways. Those same waterways eventually become the water supply to other homes further down the stream. In areas where softeners are frequently used, large amounts of sodium have become quite a challenge! Municipal water departments are unable to bear the expense of reverse osmosis systems in order to remove the sodium, so they have no choice but to allow it on through to their customers. In some cities, sodium from water softeners has become such a challenge they have banned the use of salt brine conditioners altogether.
Beyond the challenges of sodium in the system, softeners/conditioners do nothing to address the larger problems of contamination. Cysts, chemicals and disinfection byproducts, pharmaceuticals and other carcinogens numbering in the hundreds are in the public and well water supplies. Conditioned water may help your plumbing, but it does absolutely nothing to address the real dangers to you health posed by these contaminants.
Some softener (Calgon water softener for sample) companies are going door to door or doing telephone solicitation to get into your home to sell their salt brine systems. They are promoting these systems as if they are home filtration systems. Unfortunately, their demo is pretty impressive and so are their claims. The price tag is pretty impressive too. That is, if “impressive” means up to $8800.00! That’s a lot of dough to make your pipes happy!
There is a new, state-of-the-art alternative that provides not only the ultimate in water softening, but the ultimate in purification as well. It’s called Nano-filtration.
