You might already know the importance of water purifiers as most of us don’t want to drink city water that’s sometimes contaminated with lead, plastic & other substances. Water purifiers or clean drinking water is a necessity for every home. But what about water softeners maintenance in the most basic sense, water softening is the filtering & removal of calcium, magnesium, and other metals or it’s a process that involves turning hard water into soft water.
When groundwater flows through the pipes of your home, the dissolved minerals combine with heat to leave scale buildup, which damages your appliances, pipes & other fixtures.
Further, when water falls as rain, it’s soft water; it’s pure and void of minerals. As it flows through the ground, it collects minerals like calcium & magnesium along the way. Water that has amassed a large number of minerals is classified as hard water. And as you might expect, living in a house with hard water can be a huge problem.
Hard water can be harmful to your health, but it is certainly harmful to your home. So, you see, there are many benefits of having a water softener system, and these systems make an excellent investment.
This blog only scratches the surface of things when it comes to water softening and filtration. But for the sake of your health and your home, read on to learn more about water softeners, how a water softener saves you money, and why Preventive Maintenance is important for your water softener.
What Is A Water Softener?
Water softening is the removal of hard minerals and metals from your water. An excess of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, for instance, can make your water “hard.” That way, you use more water to clean or bathe than “softer” water.
Hard water also causes scale buildup in your household plumbing system as it sticks to the walls of your pipes & fittings. But your water softener will work to treat hard water by removing the minerals responsible through a process called ion-exchange. Mineral ions with sodium ions make the water hard and cause damage to your home, but they are trapped by resin within the system and exchanged with sodium & potassium ions.
How Does It Work?
Water softeners consist of two distinct components. The first is a brine tank that stores all the salt and the second a resin tank to store all the resin. There are single units available that act as a combination of the two components, but it is best to consult us. We at Lone Star Water Services will help you find a water softener suited to your needs and budget.
How A Water Softener Saves You Money?
Appliances: Using a water softener system can prevent the adverse effect of hard water on your dishwasher & laundry machines. Not only does scale buildup lower the quality & efficiency due to hard water composition, but scale inside your appliances might result in a shorter lifespan for your tankless water heaters, coffee machines, ice makers, and other appliances.
Plumbing: When minerals in hard water travel through your pipes, they stick together, forming a scale buildup that eventually clogs the pipes. Places where hard water composition is quite high, the buildup causes irreversible damage to plumbing, meaning a costly & time-consuming repair job. The best way to treat problems related to hard water is by softening your water before it has a chance to build up.
Gas or electric bills: Installing a water softener can considerably lower your gas or electric bill by preventing pipe damage. When scale builds inside a pipe, there is not enough space available for water to pass through.
Consequently, the water pressure must increase for water to push through. Also, the pipe narrowing causes a failure to transfer heat, forcing you to run your water heater more to compensate efficiently, and both these issues result in an expensive gas or electric bill.
Soap and detergents: Soft water dissolves better with soap, meaning more suds and a deeper lather for your clothes, body, and dishes. Hard water uses almost double the amount of cleaning solution to achieve the same amount of suds, as soft water.
Moreover, hot water is often used to remove mineral deposits and better dissolve detergents. But with a house water softener system, washing with cold water will also keep your clothes from shrinking.
Common Problems with Water Softeners
A water softener is first a piece of equipment, and like all types of equipment, it too needs regular maintenance to avoid major trouble with the device.
1. Blockages are a common problem in water softeners as the minerals in water tend to create deposits that accumulate and block the system over time.
2. If you possess a salt-based water softener, there can be a salt buildup within the tank, which means that your device will not soften the water.
3. Motor issues can also happen, but with regular preventative maintenance, your water softener will run for a long time.
Remember that you may be tempted to clean or fix your water purifiers yourself; it’s always in your best interest to enlist the services of licensed and professional plumbers like us. And remember we are just a phone call away, so don’t hesitate, call us now.
Protect Your Water Softener With Preventive Maintenance
Installing a water softener in your home will immediately take care of hard water issues like water stains on dishes, scaling in your shower, and less effectiveness of your soap. Fixing these issues will give your family better quality water; it can even save you money. But what can you do to ensure that your water remains problem-free all the time?
With any mechanical equipment, regular maintenance helps ensure that equipment is working correctly. For instance, you might get a regularly scheduled oil change for your car, or you might opt for an annual service on your home’s furnace and central air systems to change filters and ensure everything is heating & cooling efficiently. Quite obviously, the same concept is applied to your water softener & other water treatment equipment.
Preventive Maintenance for Your Water Softener
Our water treatment professionals offer preventive maintenance to help protect the investment you have made in your home’s water quality.
Even if your water softener or any other water filtration system is relatively new, regular maintenance is still highly beneficial. For instance, power outages & daylight savings time can alter the regeneration process on your unit, and it has an effect on its functions. Apart from that, an issue with other water-related equipment in your home, such as RO purifiers or water heaters, can impact how well your water softener works. For instance, a water softener can have issues if it cannot receive the amount of water it needs because a well system’s pressure tank isn’t working properly.
If left undetected, both your water softener and the pressure tank might need repair or replacement. Thus, regular checkups & maintenance on water treatment equipment are essential, especially for well owners. If you don’t pay enough attention, it could mean unexpected expenses and the return of impure problematic water.
Water softeners can often get out of sight and out of mind, and you probably don’t give them too much attention until there is an issue. However, the cost of repairs is usually considerably more if you wait for your water softener to have a problem than the price of a preventive maintenance plan. And we don’t need to tell you that there’s never a good time to receive a large, unexpected bill for major repairs or total equipment replacement.
What is included with a Preventive Maintenance Plan?
The services that we offer at Lone Star Water Services are comprehensive. Still, there are a few critical components of your water softener or other water filters that see the most wear & tear and should be checked regularly. Our standard maintenance plans include services like:
- Clean the equipment
- Clean the brine tank
- Change all filters and pre-filters
- Check for salt bridging or any other issues in the brine tank
- Validate your equipment’s regeneration schedule
- Ensure that all of the meters are working
- Test raw & treated water to confirm your water softener is working
- Verify that your water conditions have not changed since the last time we checked
- Check & change common wear parts like pistons, injectors, screens, and seals
- Check your water’s flow rate to make sure enough water is being delivered to the system and provide the proper salt for your water softener
- Replenish the media inside an acid-neutralizing filter if it is low (this is an integral part of the water treatment process and must be refilled regularly)
While all these services are a vital part of preventive maintenance plans, we customize the checklist based on the water treatment equipment you have, including water filters, reverse osmosis systems, among others.
Peace of Mind and Healthy Water
The most significant benefit of a preventive maintenance plan has our water treatment professionals regularly review and validate that your water softener is programmed correctly and working perfectly. Through on-site visits, water softeners and other equipment are monitored and maintained so that they remain in peak working condition.
Perhaps the water pressure in your home has slowed down, or your water softener has started regenerating at different times of the day. You might not consider calling us as long as your water seems ok. Yet, these could be signs that need to be addressed.
Investing in water treatment equipment provides your family with high-quality water, plus you’ll have peace of mind in knowing that everything is working as it should, which is priceless.
Protect Your Investment
Preventive maintenance of your water filtration or purifying systems is the ultimate way to protect the investment that you’ve made to provide the best water for yourself, your family & your home. We at Lone Star Water Services have everything included in our preventive maintenance plan. But, if you have any further questions or would like to have a water filtration expert come out to inspect your water filtration systems and the hardness of your water, don’t hesitate to call us. One of our professionals will be right there to serve you.
