Salt-Free water systems. We receive many inquiries about these systems and homeowners wanting our company to install them in their homes. These systems seem convenient, easier to maintain, and environmentally friendly, but do they work? Do they actually remove hardness or iron in the water? Do they provide the same benefits as a water softener?
If you did an internet search, there are multiple companies selling devices that are “salt-free” or “saltless” water softeners. These can be enticing because who likes lugging bags of salt to the water softener. Unfortunately, these systems create more questions than answers.
First, let’s define a water softener and salt-free water system. A water softener uses an electronic or metered valve attached to a fiberglass tank. Inside the fiberglass tank is a polymer resin bed, which uses an ion exchange process to make soft water. The water softener goes through different cycles. A cleaning cycle is used to bring sodium ions from the salt inside the salt tank to attach to the resin bed inside the fiberglass tank. When a faucet is turned on inside the house, hard water enters the resin bed. The hard water minerals attach to the resin beads in exchange for sodium ions. Over time, the resin bed becomes exhausted with hardness ions and the water softener will need to recharge itself and recharge with sodium ions to give soft water to the home. Once the resin bed is full of hard water minerals, those same hard water minerals attached to the resin beads are backwashed, flushed down the drain, and replaced with sodium ions.
A salt-free water system often called a descaler, does not remove hardness minerals from the water. These systems alter the chemistry of the hard water minerals. They “crystallize” the hardness minerals to reduce the rate at which appliances, fixtures, and other water-using appliances need to be replaced. The process of these systems changes the hard water minerals allowing them to, in fact, stay in the water.
We’ve installed salt-free systems in customer’s homes. From our experience and at the customer’s request, we removed the saltless system because they felt the water was not soft. It didn’t have the soft water feeling. They noticed hard water scale buildup too. Our company does not sell salt-free systems nor do we recommend them to any customer who has hard water. If you are still considering a salt-free system, keep in mind you won’t receive the same benefits of a water softener. If you have any questions regarding these systems, give our non-commissioned staff a call or contact them.
