How To Properly Size A Home Water Softener

If you're getting balance on your plates, soap scum in your sink, and dry peel afterwards a shower, there's a skilful chance you've got difficult water. But you're non alone. Around 85% of American households utilize hard water for their everyday needs.

female checking her dry skin — Having dry skin after shower tin can be due to hard h2o

Unfortunately, hard water can cause bug around your home and affect the efficiency of your water appliances – which is why people turn to water softeners.

Not only can they improve the quality of your drinking h2o, but they can also prevent mineral build-upwards in your showerheads, kettles, and taps. This ways that dishes, clothes, and skin will feel softer and cleaner – and yous won't need to upgrade your pipes all the time!

But there are a lot of h2o softeners out in that location and it's hard to know what the deviation is. Why practice they come in different sizes? Is bigger better? In this article, nosotros explain what a h2o softener does and why hardness and consumption are critical to finding the right size for your household needs. Permit'due south get stuck in!

What is a Water Softener?

A h2o softener is a filtration system that removes dissolved minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, from your water supply. These minerals, which occur naturally in our oceans and soils, accept a tendency to bail with metals, which is why you get hard deposits in pipes and showerheads – hence the name "difficult water."

Luckily, magnesium and calcium don't pose whatsoever health risks – unless y'all have a history of kidney stones, in which case y'all could get recurrences.

The nigh common issues, however, are difficulty with lathering up your hair or achieving a residue-free finish on plates or cutlery. At worst, the mineral build-upwards can obstruct h2o flow, reduce pressure, and corrode your pipes over time – leading to expensive repairs or replacement.

That's where water softeners come in.

These handy units use negatively charged resin chaplet to attract the positively charged minerals and remove them from the water. The demineralised water then flows through your pipes and out of your tap. This process continues until the resin beads reach maximum chapters.

When this happens, the unit is flushed with salt or potassium chloride from the brine tank. This washes the minerals from the resin beads and discharges them through a hose. The organization then reverts to its softening function over again and the cycle continues.

How Big Should My Water Softener Be?

The size of your water softener depends on two key factors: the hardness of your water and daily consumption. Permit'due south detect a closer expect.

Hardness

The first thing you need to do is find out how difficult your water is. Depending on where yous live, your water supply will contain a range of different minerals. The virtually compound is calcium carbonate, which is usually found in marble, limestone, and chalk.

This isn't surprising. Calcium carbonate formed over millions of years from the sedimentation of shells and coral – and it now comprises four percentage of the globe's chaff. However, the amount in your soil or h2o is not uniform. If you lot look at the map below, you'll see how concentrations of calcium carbonate vary from state to state in the United states.

The amount of calcium in your water supply

Other minerals like magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc can be present in your supply also. Information technology all depends on the quality of the soil where you live, too every bit run-off from rain and floods.

To measure your water's hardness, y'all tin can purchase a water-testing kit, request a quality written report from your water supplier, or use an independent laboratory to exam a h2o sample. The results are measured in milligrams per liter (mgL) or grains per gallon (gpg). Yous can find both measurements in the chart beneath.

	mgL	gpg
soft	0–60	0–three
slightly hard	61–120	3–7
hard	121–180	seven–11
very hard	180+	11+

Once you have your hardness value, it'll give you an indication of whether your water is hard, soft, or somewhere in between. Go along this value handy as yous'll demand it when we utilise the water softener computer later on.

Consumption

The next step is to calculate how much h2o you use. Analyse your water bill for the last few months and make a annotation of the total gallons used. There may be fluctuations between seasons, so find an average you can work with.

If y'all don't have access to this information, employ an estimate. According to USGS, the boilerplate person consumes 80–100 gallons of h2o per day. Use this figure and multiply it by the number of people in your home. Annotation: If y'all accept curt showers and don't water the garden, become with 80 gallons; if you think your consumption is higher, go with 100 gallons.

And then, if you take a four-person household that averages 80 gallons each, your daily consumption full is 320 gallons.

H2o Softener Calculator

At present that you have the hardness number and your consumption in gallons, you're ready to use the water softener calculator. The formula is pretty uncomplicated. You multiply the hardness number by the gallons per mean solar day.

For example, if you accept four people using 320 gallons in total and the hardness is 8, the total would be two,560. This means that your water softener would need to remove two,560 grains each day.

Hardness value x Total gallons per twenty-four hours = Grains to be removed per day

Case: 8 gpg x 320 gallons = 2,560 grains per twenty-four hours

If your water has a lot of iron, increase the total hardness value by iii gpg per 1 mg of iron, and so brand your calculation. If these figures are making your head spin, just utilize this easy h2o softener sizing figurer.

How Do I Choose the Right Water Softener?

Grain Capacity

Water softeners are sized to betoken how many grains are removed before regeneration. On average, this happens every seven days. Common sizes are 24,000, 32,000, 48,000, 56,000, and 64,000 grain capacity. However, information technology's wise to cull i that exceeds your weekly consumption past most 30 per centum to allow for backlog usage.

For example, if you were using 2,560 grains per twenty-four hour period, this would full 17,920 grains per week. In that case, a 24,000-grain chapters softener would be suitable.

Nearly homes apply a 32,000-grain capacity, but if your h2o is very hard and y'all've got a big family, yous may need to buy a softener on the higher end of the scale.

Cost

This depends on the size, make, and features, simply information technology tin vary between $300 and $4000. Look for models that allow you know when salt needs to exist added, or that regenerate at nighttime when h2o consumption is low.

You can also become a salt-gratis model to comply with local regulations (some states ban salt water softening systems) and reduce salt content in drinking h2o – but prepare to pay more.

If you want on-demand soft water, you lot can even get a twin tank where 1 tank goes offline while it regenerates and the second tank provides softened water. Simply keep in listen that these units are expensive to run and demand to regenerate more than often.

Can a Water Softener Exist Too Big?

More often than not, you should get a water softener that's slightly bigger for your needs – just not too big.

If a water softener is as well big for your household, information technology won't regenerate often enough, which can harm the resin beads and promote bacterial growth in the tank. As well, big tanks, eat more water and cost more than upfront.

Just don't undersize your water softener, either. This could result in insufficient soft water for your household and frequent regenerations. This can employ more salt and shorten the life of your resin beads – and your water softener.

What is a Good Number for Water Hardness?

When you wait at our chart, anything between 0–iii gpg is ideal for h2o. If y'all prepare your h2o softener to the electric current hardness value of your water, it will remove grains to achieve this optimal range.

When it does, water will feel silkier and plates will look shinier. It can even make your meals or drinks taste better. That's because the loftier concentration of minerals won't interfere with other flavors. Having said that, water will still contain traces of these minerals after softening.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. According to WHO, drinking water tin can be a beneficial source of calcium and magnesium for people who lack these minerals in their diets.

Can You Install Your Ain Water Softener?

If you're replacing an onetime water softener with a new ane, chances are you've got all the fittings in place. All you have to do is switch out the old softener for the new one. This should exist a relatively like shooting fish in a barrel DIY chore that can be completed in a couple of hours.

For those who've never had a water softener, installation will involve some pipe cutting and soldering. You lot'll also need to be familiar with local plumbing codes to ensure that your work is compliant. For example, some states require you to fit shut-off valves in case of emergency.

If you're eager to take on the claiming, come across the video beneath for step-by-footstep instructions.

Of course, not everyone will take the confidence or skills to undertake this kind of work. If that's yous, observe an installer and they'll practice the job rapidly and professionally. The cost could be anywhere between $300 and $1500, depending on the size of the unit, where it's located, your state, and the complexity of the job.

Last Thoughts

Buying the right-sized water softener tin can improve the quality of your drinking water and the efficiency of your water appliances. All you need are 2 simple values: water hardness and daily consumption. Then, using the calculation provided above, you lot can work out how many grains per gallon need to exist removed on a weekly basis – and which size tin help yous achieve this.

While getting a unit that's xxx percentage larger volition encompass you during high-usage periods, anything bigger than this volition result in infrequent regeneration that can harm your resin chaplet and breed bacteria. You'll likewise pay more than for a much larger unit of measurement. Instead, try to stick to the guidelines we've given yous. It'll evidence cost-effective in the long run, and ensure the longevity and efficiency of your water softener.

We promise this article has answered your questions near how water softeners work and why size matters! Bank check out the articles below for more household guides and hacks.

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