question about hard water with instahot

12 years ago

to soften or not to soften, that is the question!

Plumber was in today installing my new hot water heater and we were discussing his finishing work to be done later. He suggested we connect the instahot (insinkerator) system to our whole house (salt) water softener or the lime scale buildup will wreck it in +/- 2 years. That was a bit surprising to me and seemed a bit unlikely. I know we have hard water and the scale can build up, but to wreck the thing in 2 years? I don't know. Our city has water with a range of hardness through the year from about 9.5 grains to 13 grains if that helps.

The faucet for the instahot will also have a cold water and I presume the intake for these is from the same plumbing line (there's only one filter for both so...). Both the hot and cold will be used for drinking. I can't say I've spent time tasting softened water but I know it does feel different and have heard it tastes different. I'm a bit of a water snob and need to have tasty drinking water so I'm a bit afraid the taste will mean I (and my family) don't drink it which negates the entire point of having it plumbed next to the sink. I'm also aware of the health implications of softened water but am not particularly concerned about that at this point in time.

My preference is still the original plan: to plumb this faucet with hard water. My questions are these - anyone out there with hard water and an instahot ... how long does it last? Anyone out there soften their drinking water? How does it taste? Maybe I should drink a big glass of water from the one bathroom vanity that has running water at the moment...

Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated!

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Comments (9)

User
12 years ago
We have a softener. Culligan.

The water tastes close to normal; I can't tell if I taste any saltiness or whether I'm imagining it since I know I have a softener.

Where I do notice the salt taste is on glasses from the dishwasher. DH has never mentioned it, and it doesn't bother me.... but it IS there. It is not a strong taste, but enough for my taste receptors to say "salty."

For drinking water, we have a R/O faucet. That water has absolutely no taste, no saltiness, etc. It tastes like the purest bottled water. Can you put a R/O system on an instahot faucet?

Your water hardness is "hard" or "very hard" .... I imagine your plumber knows what he is talking about. We quickly got lime build up on our new kitchen faucet pre-water softener.
User
12 years ago
Your plumber is correct. You should have a whole house softening system and everything in your kitchen should be connected to it.
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mmhmmgood
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks lolauren and hollysprings. Guess I'll be chugging some softened water from my vanity tomorrow...but I've never noticed a saltiness on my glasses from the dishwasher. lolauren do you use a rinse aid? Maybe that would help?

I do trust my plumber, he hasn't led me astray so far. I guess I was just a bit surprised since with the water softener we have always purposely bypassed the kitchen sink to keep our drinking water as is. And despite the hardness of our water here I think water softeners aren't as common as instant hot. But I could be wrong on that one.
lalithar
12 years ago
Definitely connect it to the softened water. This was the advice in the plumbing forum as well. I am connecting it to our kinetico system.
Lake_Girl
12 years ago
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but what is an R/O faucet? (My husband says it stands for regular old :)
davidro1
12 years ago
web search "R/O faucet" and you get your answer.
christine40
12 years ago
We are on a well, and are salt softened within the house, not the outside. Everything in the house is connected via the whole house softener. We have lived here for about a year, I don't like the taste of the water at all, but I do cook with it. We use a 5 gal water dispenser. With the kitchen Reno, we are having an R/O (reverse osmosis) filter installed....it will have a spout at the sink....for drinking and maybe cooking, and will also attach to the fridge for ice and water in the door.

Also, on an unrelated note about salt softened water...if you use a netti pot, watch out! The neti salt mixed with the salt in the faucet water....ouch and yikes! We have learned we have to neti with RO water! Just a word of caution!
brickeyee
12 years ago
Reverse Osmosis

The water is forced through a filter so fine it can stop larger ions in solution.
User
12 years ago
"lolauren do you use a rinse aid?" ..... hmmm. I bet it's empty. I didn't notice the salty glasses until recently. I will fill w/ rinse aid and see if that makes a difference (I have a feeling it will. Thanks for the suggestion!;))

question about hard water with instahot

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question about hard water with instahot

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