A complete household plumbing system is filled with so many useful and interesting plumbing components. While many of these things might not be something the average homeowner thinks of on a routine basis, there’s little doubt that they have an impact on your daily life. After all, wouldn’t you agree that you probably use the faucet, toilet, water heater, shower and plenty others in your day-to-day life? As we often do on our plumbing blog, we like to provide educational information on these various components. The reason for this is so you have an understanding of the proper maintenance required, as well as tips on knowing which products are better than the others.
On today’s blog, we’ll be taking a look at a topic that certainly impacts Kansas City homeowners and that is hard water. Hard water isn’t a new term and is likely something many of us have heard about, but are unaware of how it impacts our actual lives. Throughout this blog, we’ll provide a quick synopsis of the negative effects of hard water, as well as a few things you should know prior to purchasing a water softener. Water softener installations are undoubtedly a popular service for plumbing companies and for good reason, since that probably is your best way to alleviate some of the concerns associated with hard water.
What is hard water and how does it affect you?
For a general definition, hard water is essentially water that has higher concentrations of certain minerals, primarily calcium and magnesium. Given that we’re a plumbing company in Kansas City, we wanted to mention that the Kansas City area is said to have above average levels of hard water. Furthermore, while we’ll touch on some of the bad parts of hard water here in a second, it is important to note that hard water is still safe to drink and wash with. Since calcium is a mineral that offers health benefits, that is something worth taking into account as well. Nonetheless, with this blog being focused on water softeners, you’re probably wondering why so many people get annoyed with hard water.
The most notable thing people notice about hard water is the dryness that it leaves on your skin and hair. While this alone isn’t the worst thing to deal with, it can be accompanied by other side effects like hair breakages. You’ll also quickly recognize that you may be using more soap and laundry detergent with hard water as well. Again, not a terrible thing, but also definitely not ideal. The last thing we’ll highlight before moving on is how it impacts your plumbing system. If you’ve checked out some of our prior blog posts, you may remember us mentioning the phrase, “mineral buildup.” Well…mineral buildup presents that ability to make your plumbing system work harder, and eventually the added wear and tear can lead to some serious plumbing problems. This includes buildup in the piping (thus clogging up the pathways) and your water heater (hence why we recommend flushing your heater once a year). Long story short, hard water is present here in the Midwest and as such, it’s important to understand how you can sidestep some of these negatives that come with it.
Should I purchase a water softener?
Now that you know what hard water is and how it directly impacts your day-to-day life, it should be fairly straightforward to discuss why a water softener could be a wise investment. Before we hop into some of these advantages, I would like to preface this by saying there are two primary types of water softeners that our team at Stine-Nichols Plumbing offers our customers. First off, you have the traditional salt-based water softeners, which are what most people think of when they think about softeners. With these, you’ll keep bags of salt around to refill the unit. On the flip-side, there are also the products from NuvoH2O, which are citrus-based. These take a slightly different approach and have quickly become a favorite amongst many of our clients as well.
Back to the topic at-hand, why should you add a water softener to your home’s plumbing system? First and foremost, you’re going to want to make sure that you get the correct size of softener for your particular home. This will largely be dependent on the level of water hardness that you have, as well as individual factors like house size and daily water usage. Nonetheless, when it comes to picking out the size, this is a good topic to lean on the experts. The company providing the installation services should help immensely here.
Once you have the correctly-sized unit, understanding the many benefits provided is easy. In the hard water section above, we mentioned how hard water often results in dryer skin and hair. Well, with softer water, those problems can largely be a thing of the past. Not to mention, if you have color-treated hair, you may notice that it lasts longer too with soft water, thus meaning less trips to the salon for color treatments. Being a plumbing blog, we always love analyzing how implementing a water softener can provide dividends there. To sum it up, soft water is a great way to reduce future scale buildup from occurring. We already discussed how this can be problematic on your pipes, water heater and individual fixtures, so this is definitely a clear benefit. It should increase the lifespan of different areas of your plumbing system and save you money by having to invest in less repairs along the way.
Another easy example where you’ll notice the benefits of a water softener are on your dishes. Have you ever seen a filmy or cloudy look on your dishes after running them through the dishwasher? While there are specific detergents you can try using to eliminate these issues, a water softener should do the trick! All in all, there are a number of benefits that can be had with implementing a reliable water softener into your plumbing system. We touched on a handful here, but there are certainly more to add to the list. If you ever have any questions about the water softeners that we recommend or just general questions about hard water, don’t hesitate to click HERE to get in touch with our team.
Water Softener Installation Services in Kansas City
Here at Stine-Nichols Plumbing, we understand how frustrating hard water problems can be. As fellow Kansas City residents, we’ve witnessed it first-hand too and have always been amazed at the impact that can be had with a quality water softener. Just like many other plumbing components, it’s also important to note that there are no shortage of softener options currently on the market. This can be considered both a positive and a negative. On one hand, you have plenty of brands to pick from and can find one that perfectly suits your individual needs. However, on the other hand, it’s easy to get a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options available. This is particularly true if you’re relatively new to most of the terminology associated with water softeners. That’s where our team comes into play. With plenty of experience installing and working with water softeners, we feel confident in our ability to deliver expert water heater installation services throughout the Kansas City area. If you’re ever interested in receiving a free estimate for any water softener-related service, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (816) 348-3481. We look forward to hearing from you!