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No salt water softners .

14 years ago

Hello all,

First thanks to many knowledgeable persons who post here and share their expertise.

I was researching on the net for no salt water conditioner/softner.

I found some-

1) Life source

lifesourcewater.com

2) NuvoH20

www.nuvoh2o.com

3)Pelican

waterfilter-usa.com

All say they make the water soft keeping the benefical minerals ( calcium and magnesium) in it but they will not cause scaling or buildup.

Can some one explain? or suggest something ( non salt water softner) which really works. I don't feel comfortable just buying something online reading the web site content .

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Comments (3)

User
14 years ago
If you search this forum and the internet you will realize that there is no such thing as a NOSALT water SOFTENER. If any of the companies you listed portray their devices as SOFTENERS then they are grossly misrepresenting their products. They can call them conditioners for what that is worth as their is no technical standard for a conditioner.

To "soften" water is to remove calcium (among other things like iron) from water, not calcium deposits from pipes, and that is commonly done by one of two methods.

One method is ion exchange as done by a water softener. A water softener exchanges either sodium ions (if using NaCl) or potassium ions (if using KCl as a SALT SUBSTITUTE) for calcium (and other) ions in the hard water. That's it, no ifs, no ands, no buts, and no sales double talk. Simple chemistry and physics. Softening water is not black magic. It is physics and chemistry with a side of mechanics. No matter how hard sales people try (and want) to they can not violate the laws of physics or change the nature of chemical actions and reactions.

The other is by a filter and/or membrane technology or distillation, but no simple filter will remove calcium. You would need a reverse osmosis unit large enough to service your entire house. You would not want to pay for that big an RO nor pay for the service and routine maintenance it would require and RO water would be very aggressive in your plumbing and it would waste a lot of water.

NO magnet(ic) gizmo or electronic gizmo or "conditioner" will soften water but people waste their money on them EVERYDAY.

Check out this URL for one story http://www.nmsr.org/magnetic.htm and there are many more on the net if you Google.

Pick the right softener (not a box store brand), size it properly and get a competent install and you should get 10-15 years of reliable service.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing is that water treatment begins with a comprehensive water test so you know what needs to be treated or filtered out to get the quality water you want. Are you on a well or a water system? Do that and post the results so we might help.
baymee
14 years ago
Very interesting. I've heard about the no-salt softeners in passing, maybe three times, tops. I'll have to listen closer next time.
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srbfl
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for your inputs. I also thought so. I live in Orlando. It is mucipality water and hardness is 10 Grains pm and clorine is 3 ppm. household/townhome 2.5 baths for 3

I chose to get estimates from Rainsoft, GE ( Avantapure) and
Ecowater.

Regards,

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