How Big A Water Softener Do I Need

If you're getting residue on your plates, soap scum in your sink, and dry skin after a shower, there's a good chance you've got hard h2o. But y'all're not alone. Around 85% of American households use hard h2o for their everyday needs.

female checking her dry skin — Having dry out skin after shower can exist due to hard water

Unfortunately, hard water tin can crusade problems around your home and touch the efficiency of your h2o appliances – which is why people turn to h2o softeners.

Not merely can they improve the quality of your drinking water, simply they tin can also prevent mineral build-upwardly in your showerheads, kettles, and taps. This means that dishes, apparel, and pare volition feel softer and cleaner – and you won't need to upgrade your pipes all the time!

But there are a lot of water softeners out there and it's hard to know what the difference is. Why do they come in different sizes? Is bigger amend? In this article, we explain what a water softener does and why hardness and consumption are critical to finding the right size for your household needs. Permit's go stuck in!

What is a Water Softener?

A water 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, have a tendency to bond with metals, which is why you get difficult deposits in pipes and showerheads – hence the proper noun "difficult water."

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

The most common problems, however, are difficulty with lathering upwards your hair or achieving a remainder-free stop on plates or cutlery. At worst, the mineral build-upwards can obstruct h2o menstruation, reduce pressure, and corrode your pipes over time – leading to expensive repairs or replacement.

That's where h2o softeners come in.

These handy units use negatively charged resin beads to concenter the positively charged minerals and remove them from the h2o. The demineralised water so flows through your pipes and out of your tap. This process continues until the resin chaplet attain maximum capacity.

When this happens, the unit is flushed with common salt or potassium chloride from the brine tank. This washes the minerals from the resin beads and discharges them through a hose. The system so reverts to its softening function once more 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. Let's find a closer look.

Hardness

The first affair you need to do is find out how hard your water is. Depending on where y'all alive, your water supply will contain a range of different minerals. The nigh compound is calcium carbonate, which is ordinarily 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 4 pct of the world's chaff. However, the amount in your soil or water is not uniform. If yous wait at the map beneath, you'll see how concentrations of calcium carbonate vary from state to state in the United states of america.

The amount of calcium in your h2o supply

Other minerals like magnesium, copper, fe, and zinc tin can be present in your supply besides. Information technology all depends on the quality of the soil where you live, as well as run-off from pelting and floods.

To measure your h2o'due south hardness, you tin can buy a h2o-testing kit, request a quality report from your h2o supplier, or use an independent laboratory to test a water sample. The results are measured in milligrams per liter (mgL) or grains per gallon (gpg). You can find both measurements in the chart below.

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

Once you have your hardness value, it'll give yous an indication of whether your water is hard, soft, or somewhere in between. Keep this value handy as yous'll need it when we use the water softener calculator afterwards on.

Consumption

The adjacent stride is to summate how much water you utilize. Analyse your water bill for the last few months and make a note of the total gallons used. There may exist fluctuations between seasons, so find an boilerplate you lot can work with.

If you don't accept access to this data, use an estimate. Co-ordinate to USGS, the average person consumes 80–100 gallons of water per twenty-four hour period. Utilize this figure and multiply it by the number of people in your home. Note: If you take short showers and don't water the garden, become with 80 gallons; if y'all retrieve your consumption is higher, get with 100 gallons.

And so, if you have a four-person household that averages 80 gallons each, your daily consumption total is 320 gallons.

Water Softener Calculator

Now that you take the hardness number and your consumption in gallons, y'all're prepare to use the water softener calculator. The formula is pretty unproblematic. You lot multiply the hardness number by the gallons per day.

For example, if you take iv people using 320 gallons in total and the hardness is 8, the total would be 2,560. This ways that your water softener would demand to remove 2,560 grains each day.

Hardness value ten Full gallons per mean solar day = 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 3 gpg per 1 mg of atomic number 26, then make your calculation. If these figures are making your head spin, but use this easy water softener sizing calculator.

How Do I Cull the Right Water Softener?

Grain Capacity

Water softeners are sized to bespeak 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. Even so, it'due south wise to choose i that exceeds your weekly consumption by about 30 percent to allow for excess usage.

For example, if yous were using 2,560 grains per mean solar day, this would total 17,920 grains per week. In that case, a 24,000-grain capacity softener would exist suitable.

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

Cost

This depends on the size, brand, and features, but it tin vary between $300 and $4000. Look for models that let y'all know when salt needs to be added, or that regenerate at night when water consumption is depression.

Yous tin can also go a salt-gratuitous model to comply with local regulations (some states ban common salt h2o softening systems) and reduce salt content in drinking h2o – only prepare to pay more than.

If y'all desire on-need soft h2o, you can even get a twin tank where one tank goes offline while information technology regenerates and the second tank provides softened water. But keep in listen that these units are expensive to run and need to regenerate more than frequently.

Tin a H2o Softener Be Too Big?

Generally, you should get a water softener that'south slightly bigger for your needs – but not too big.

If a h2o softener is as well big for your household, information technology won't regenerate often enough, which can damage the resin beads and promote bacterial growth in the tank. Also, big tanks, swallow more water and price more upfront.

But don't undersize your water softener, either. This could consequence in insufficient soft h2o for your household and frequent regenerations. This can use more table salt and shorten the life of your resin chaplet – and your water softener.

What is a Good Number for Water Hardness?

When y'all look at our nautical chart, anything between 0–3 gpg is ideal for h2o. If yous ready your h2o softener to the current hardness value of your water, it will remove grains to achieve this optimal range.

When information technology does, water will experience silkier and plates will look shinier. It tin even brand your meals or drinks gustation better. That's considering the high 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 affair. According to WHO, drinking water tin can be a beneficial source of calcium and magnesium for people who lack these minerals in their diets.

Tin can You Install Your Ain Water Softener?

If you lot're replacing an old water softener with a new i, chances are y'all've got all the fittings in place. All yous have to exercise is switch out the former softener for the new one. This should be a relatively easy DIY job that tin be completed in a couple of hours.

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

If yous're eager to take on the challenge, run into the video below for footstep-by-pace instructions.

Of grade, not everyone volition have the confidence or skills to undertake this kind of work. If that's you, find an installer and they'll exercise the task quickly and professionally. The cost could be anywhere between $300 and $1500, depending on the size of the unit of measurement, where it's located, your state, and the complexity of the job.

Terminal Thoughts

Buying the right-sized water softener tin can improve the quality of your drinking water and the efficiency of your h2o appliances. All you need are 2 elementary values: water hardness and daily consumption. Then, using the calculation provided in a higher place, you tin can work out how many grains per gallon need to be removed on a weekly footing – and which size can help you lot achieve this.

While getting a unit that's 30 percent larger will cover you during high-usage periods, anything bigger than this volition issue in infrequent regeneration that tin can harm your resin beads and breed bacteria. You'll also pay more for a much larger unit. Instead, effort to stick to the guidelines we've given you. It'll bear witness cost-constructive in the long run, and ensure the longevity and efficiency of your water softener.

We hope this article has answered your questions near how water softeners piece of work and why size matters! Cheque out the articles below for more household guides and hacks.

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