Are Salt-free Water Softener Water Softeners Or Conditioners?

Why do people soften water? This may be the question that crossed your mind after seeing the water filter bottle.

If you are familiar with the types of water, you will know that we have basically 2 types of water— hard and soft water.

Findings show that the hardness of water is determined primarily based on the amount of calcium and magnesium present in it. A high concentration of these two minerals and others signifies hard water.

Although there are no serious health hazards associated with drinking hard water, it’s been found to cause skin and hair problems like dry skin and dry hair while weakening the skin’s protection against infections due to a pH imbalance in the skin.

Hard water is usually treated by softening, the process of softening hard water is the replacement of the calcium and magnesium minerals by sodium in ion exchange.

But what are the signs to look for to know whether you have hard water or soft water at your home or work.

1. If deposits of calcium carbonate appear as spots can be found on your silverware collected from the dishwasher. 
2. If your clothes colour are fading in an unusually rapid manner
3. If your water has a funny taste or smells wrong.
4. Perhaps you feel your hair and skin feel dry or itchy after a shower.

These are signs of hard water, for soft water, the following are the possible signs. According to a trusted source:

1. A healthy lather when washing clothes, dishes, and even your hands and body.

2. Normal water pressure.

3. Clothes are not damaged, and the colour doesn’t wear off too fast.

However, you need to understand the bed for a water softener before you can soften your water.

There are 2 types of softening water systems, we have the water softener without salt and the salt-based water softener.

It is believed that a salt-free water softener isn’t as effective as a salt-based water softener as it does not solve the problem of hard water.

Salt-free water softeners help prevent scale from forming in your plumbing. 

Salt-free water does the job of conditioning and not softening water. In a salt-free water softener, there is a water filtration system that crystallizes magnesium and calcium minerals prevalent in hard water. These micro-crystals are unable to leave the solution and attach to pipes and water heaters in the form of scale. 

Another upside to a salt-free water softener is that it conserves water and doesn’t flush water down the drain like the salt-based types and is more efficient.

However, the problems of hard water go beyond preventing scale. Hence a salt-based water softener is more desirable as it does the following:

In addition to preventing the buildup of scales, it eliminates the calcium and magnesium minerals responsible for the hardness from the water supply and flushes them out of the system. These minerals are then replaced by sodium.