Hard vs soft water

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

My city water is 25 grains hard. i have a hard water tap at kitchen sink but also has a softener for hot water. all other faucets in house have soft cold water. cold kitchen water tastes lousy. i have no filter. if i use hot water then that means it is salty tasting due to softener. i think the hot water tastes slightly better then cold. is this due to some filtering effect by running water thru softener resin bed first? or is it all in my head?

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Comments (7)

Jake The Wonderdog
2 years ago
@stoveguyy,

There are several issues / questions in your post:

1. You have a common setup - softened water at all the indoor taps except the cold in the kitchen.

2. You can easily make the cold water in your kitchen smell / taste better by adding an under-sink carbon filter. Such a filter will remove chlorine, tastes, odors, VOC's and various other things. Don't go down the rabbit hole though -- a simple carbon filter will do wonders.

3. If your softener is adjusted properly and reasonably new, you shouldn't have a "salty taste" even at 25 gpg (I also have 25 gpg hardness and my soft water doesn't taste salty).

4. Taste is a subjective thing: Water softeners remove calcium, magnesium and iron and replace those ions with sodium ions. Does that taste better - It's hard to know.
stoveguyy
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
My good friend has installed softeners and repaired them for 25 yrs. he installed one at my parents house and i can taste difference with sft water at their house. i cant even drink it. cold water in their kitchen is great.. bathroom near my old bedroom was soft water. ugh, couldnt stand getting a drink at night. i grew up with that water. so, i also can tell difference with water at my house. i used to work at soda machine manufacturer. we made beverage dispensers. . spent lots of time in lab. hard water, soft wter, filtered water, even deionized water was available. we needed it for testing our sensors. i hate drinking soft water.
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Simpler terms of what Jake says above ... A 30 amp 125 volt circuit (if that's really what you have) on your current water heater can provide 3,750 watts, figure 3,000 sustained continuous wattage available per the 80% rule. If it's (probably) really a 30 amp 240 volt circuit then the capacity is 7,200, or 5,700 continuous watts available. 36,709 watts (yes, thirty-six thousand seven hundred watts) is required for the tankless water heater per Jake's calculations to instantaneously raise the temperature of 55°F incoming water to 105°F for 2.5 gals per minute flow on each of two simultaneous showers. That's a 192 amp (say 200 amp) 240 volt circuit per the 80% rule. Just. For. The. Water. Heater. You may not need quite that much heating capacity in real usage (if you run the showers at lower flow), or you may need more capacity for higher temperatures on multiple tasks or lower than 55°F incoming water supply ... but either way it's still much more power than you're apparently understanding, so, no, your existing electric circuit to your tank water heater cannot support a tankless unit of sufficient heating capacity. My electric tankless on a 120 amp 240 volt circuit has been fine for 17+ years but I'm a one-person household, run my shower lower than 2 GPM by habit, and rarely run shower and/or dishwasher and/or clothes washing at the same time. Whether you can upgrade that circuit to support a tankless water heater depends on the details of the total available power supply to your condo, and space in the existing breaker box, and your budget.
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HU-867564120
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We have both hard and soft cold water in our kitchen (different sinks) and our family can't tell much of a difference. Our water comes from the town wells and our hardness is 24 grains per gallon, 1 ppm iron.
Jake The Wonderdog
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
@stoveguyy

Again, taste is subjective. I'm not going to try to convince you that "it's all in your head".

That said new softeners that are properly configured don't produce water that has the same taste and feel as they did 40 years ago, for example.

Put a simple carbon filter on your unsoftened cold water in your kitchen and you should be good.
stoveguyy
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Ha, i did have a whole house carbon filter in laundry room for kitchen line then it started dripping so i took it out.

coffee at parents house is 2x better tasting. they have no hard water filter as well.

i have a brita pitcher in garage fridge. takes up too much space in kitchen. i have it rough.
Jake The Wonderdog
2 years ago
Hi @stoveguyy

So I'm not clear at this point, is there a question?

If you want to improve taste and odor (as well as remove some chemicals) at a reasonable cost and hassle, use a carbon filter on your drinking water. All filters require maintenance.

I use Pentek Big Blue cartridge holders and KDF / Carbon filter.

If you want an easier solution - use the Pentair Everpure. It's got a lower capacity (in treated gallons) but is nsf certified and easy maintenance.
stoveguyy
Original Author
2 years ago
how long will brita cartridge last if i use 1 pitcher per mońth?

Hard vs soft water

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Hard vs soft water

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