Hi. We had a water softening guy come to our house and he quoted us a price(pretty high in my opinion due to what I have seen online, but I do not know average) for one called The Hydro-Quad The Silent Maid, it has a United Standard thing on top of it, the valve I think. Ok, first question, he states a water softener using the salt pellets does not put any more salt in your water than what is already in it to start with, Is this true? Second question, anyone familiar with this system? I feel that the minerals in water is needed by our bodies to function properly, does this remove all of them? Ok, I guess that was three questions. LOL. I have pretty much lived my life without one (I am almost 50), so am not sure about this whole thing. Any input will be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Water Softener
- Thread starter clc20
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I don't know much but know soft water will kill plants. It can't be the removal of minerals, so it must be the salt?
FALSE
Salt is added to your water.
A softener will not remove minerals unless the media is designed to. Your main source of minerals is your food intake.
Why do you feel you need a softener?
Kultulz, We have moved into a new house in a new area(just outside Houston, TX) and everyone is telling us we need one. My husbands Kuerig also got some build up, but that is an easy fix for that, bottled water for the coffee maker, iron, and steamer. The rest, well I am used to having to replace a hot water tank a bit more often anyway than those who have softeners, because where we lived before(just outside San Antonio, TX) we had very hard water. That house was 50 years old and that was the only issue we had because of the hard water. The cleaning there, no problem, as I do it every two or three weeks anyway, and dry off countertops after use. So I don't know. We were living in a rental house for a bit over a year here before buying this one, that house had a softener and I wasn't sure it was even working, but after moving here, I know it must have been a bit. I have a pineapple plant in a pot that was dying there, after a week and half here, it looks like a new plant, so what the poster before said about plants dying, hmm, might be something to that. I would water it with water from the kitchen sink, so softened water?
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(IMO)... 
You should have a complete water analysis done through a certified lab to find out exactly what is in your water. You must know the level(s) of hardness to spec a properly sized softener. The lab and salesman must be certified to guide you along.
Accelerated levels of salt are bad not only for plants, but pets and humans also. Maybe the plant you have thrives on salt and alkalinity? To remove the accelerated salt from your drinking and cooking water you would use a small reverse osmosis unit under the kitchen sink.
Read the links below-
http://www.nsf.org/consumer-resourc...tification/selecting-a-water-treatment-system
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/home-drinking-water-filtration-fact-sheet
http://www.aquatechnology.net/softenerproandcon.html
You should have a complete water analysis done through a certified lab to find out exactly what is in your water. You must know the level(s) of hardness to spec a properly sized softener. The lab and salesman must be certified to guide you along.
Accelerated levels of salt are bad not only for plants, but pets and humans also. Maybe the plant you have thrives on salt and alkalinity? To remove the accelerated salt from your drinking and cooking water you would use a small reverse osmosis unit under the kitchen sink.
Read the links below-
http://www.nsf.org/consumer-resourc...tification/selecting-a-water-treatment-system
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/home-drinking-water-filtration-fact-sheet
http://www.aquatechnology.net/softenerproandcon.html
There is very little salt added to your water with a softener. Not enough to worry about even with high blood pressure. Soft water does not kill plants, it helps them grow like hard water does..
The Hydro Quad back in the day had four different types of media. They claimed it did four things at once. Actually it did 1/4 of those four things at once and poorly. The carbon only lasted for so many months then needed changing. This meant pouring out all the media and replacing it. The unit was also a 1 cubic foot unit. This is the size of most softeners which actually have a cubic foot of media, not 1/4 cu ft of softener media along with 1/4 cu ft of carbon along with 1/4 cu ft of manganese greensand for iron removal and who knows what the fourth was. Stay away from the Hydro Quad.
If a salesman comes to your house and does a bunch of tests on your water, throw him out!
The Hydro Quad back in the day had four different types of media. They claimed it did four things at once. Actually it did 1/4 of those four things at once and poorly. The carbon only lasted for so many months then needed changing. This meant pouring out all the media and replacing it. The unit was also a 1 cubic foot unit. This is the size of most softeners which actually have a cubic foot of media, not 1/4 cu ft of softener media along with 1/4 cu ft of carbon along with 1/4 cu ft of manganese greensand for iron removal and who knows what the fourth was. Stay away from the Hydro Quad.
If a salesman comes to your house and does a bunch of tests on your water, throw him out!
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Excerpt From --Water Softener Health Risks: Salt in Drinking Water-
Simple reasoning, allow your primary physician/specialist to decide on your daily salt intake, not a salesman, driller or plumber.
A softener is not a purifier. The type of salt you choose to use also has an effect on the ionized water (say either mined or evaporated salt - quality of salt manufacturer).
Particles are released from a softener (and resins break down). If using a UV after the softener, there must be a carbon block filter installed or the UV will be ineffective. The RO will remove almost all contaminants.
The pricing from a door-to-door salesman will generally include install.
You might just want to get one of those water filter things that fits on the end of your faucet (that can be removed and put on easily) when you intend to use the water for cooking or drinking.
I'm not sure, but I think there may even be some inline filters if you are worried about it.
I'm not sure, but I think there may even be some inline filters if you are worried about it.
Those will not touch hardness. They are good for chlorine and sediment removal mostly. Hardness (calcium and manganese mostly) have to be controlled by a salt based water softener.
As for plants, hard water should not effect plants for the most. It is the salt content in softened water which is bad. You will notice in the install instructions that it is recommended to bypass the WS for water used for outside spigots.
A thought on bottled water. I use bottled water (spring) for drinking/cooking. The bottled water contains high levels of hardness also due mainly to my geographic location. You would have to buy ionized/distilled water for hardness content.
You keep Googling around and you will soon be a softener expert. You didn't read far enough on the top quote though. The reason you bypass your outside spigots is to save on salt and so you don't exhaust all your soft water while watering the grass.
A carbon filter will remove the chlorine, but when you have chlorimine, you need a more expensive media to remove the ammonia.
The reason you bypass the outside spigots is to not introduce ionized water (from salt based water softener) to your lawn/plants.
-Water Softeners The Hard Facts-
You obviously haven't ever seen the discharge end of a softener drain laying in the grass.
No as it is against most health regulations. The discharge goes to the sewer or septic tank, not into the sprinkler system.
If one wants ionized water on the lawn, he/she/it/mutant must consider the extra cost of softening the sprinkler water, right?
You by-pass whatever filtration system you have, not the softener, right?
I give up!
Maybe explain your position better?
1) You do not send ionized water to the landscaping.
2) You would normally bypass the filtration system only to the outside spigots as not to pay to condition it.
Where am I wrong here...
Who said anything about the sprinkler system? I'm talking about using the outside spigot for hand watering or for using a single sprinkler. You don't want to use up your soft water doing that. It's got nothing to do with the fact that it's "ionized"!
I did. I used the term in lieu (Fr) of hand watering as it didn't require long sentences of typing.
You DO NOT used ionized (soft water) on lawns or plants.
You would by-pass both filtration and ionizer (softener) (really don't have to as many are rich and need not to give a damn) on outside spigot use to lessen the cost of treating home water.
Sit up a little higher as they are shooting over your head. Don't slouch!
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