What Size Water Softener for a Family of 3
If yous're getting balance on your plates, soap scum in your sink, and dry skin after a shower, in that location's a good chance you've got hard h2o. But you're not alone. Around 85% of American households use hard water for their everyday needs.
Unfortunately, hard water can crusade problems effectually your home and affect the efficiency of your water appliances – which is why people turn to water softeners.
Non but tin can they improve the quality of your drinking water, but they can also preclude mineral build-up in your showerheads, kettles, and taps. This means that dishes, dress, and pare volition feel softer and cleaner – and you won't need to upgrade your pipes all the time!
But in that location are a lot of water softeners out at that place and it'due south hard to know what the departure is. Why practise they come in unlike sizes? Is bigger better? In this article, we explain what a water softener does and why hardness and consumption are disquisitional to finding the right size for your household needs. Let'due south go stuck in!
What is a Water Softener?
A water softener is a filtration organisation that removes dissolved minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, from your water supply. These minerals, which occur naturally in our oceans and soils, take 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 any health risks – unless you lot have a history of kidney stones, in which case you could become recurrences.
The nearly mutual problems, even so, are difficulty with lathering upwards your hair or achieving a residual-free terminate on plates or cutlery. At worst, the mineral build-up can obstruct water menstruum, reduce pressure, and corrode your pipes over time – leading to expensive repairs or replacement.
That'due south where h2o softeners come up in.
These handy units use negatively charged resin beads to attract the positively charged minerals and remove them from the water. The demineralised h2o so flows through your pipes and out of your tap. This procedure continues until the resin beads reach maximum capacity.
When this happens, the unit is flushed with salt or potassium chloride from the alkali tank. This washes the minerals from the resin chaplet and discharges them through a hose. The organization and so reverts to its softening office again and the cycle continues.
How Big Should My H2o Softener Be?
The size of your water softener depends on ii key factors: the hardness of your water and daily consumption. Let'southward find a closer await.
Hardness
The kickoff affair y'all need to do is find out how hard your water is. Depending on where you live, your water supply volition contain a range of unlike minerals. The most compound is calcium carbonate, which is usually establish 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 per centum of the earth'southward crust. Notwithstanding, the amount in your soil or water is not uniform. If yous look at the map beneath, you'll see how concentrations of calcium carbonate vary from state to land in the US.
Other minerals similar magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc tin be present in your supply besides. It all depends on the quality of the soil where you live, besides as run-off from pelting and floods.
To measure your water's hardness, you lot can buy a water-testing kit, request a quality written report from your water supplier, or apply an independent laboratory to test a h2o sample. The results are measured in milligrams per liter (mgL) or grains per gallon (gpg). Yous can notice both measurements in the chart below.
| mgL | gpg | |
| soft | 0–60 | 0–iii |
| slightly hard | 61–120 | 3–7 |
| hard | 121–180 | seven–eleven |
| very difficult | 180+ | 11+ |
Once y'all have your hardness value, information technology'll give you an indication of whether your water is hard, soft, or somewhere in between. Keep this value handy as y'all'll need it when we use the water softener figurer afterward on.
Consumption
The adjacent step is to summate how much water you apply. Analyse your water pecker for the concluding few months and make a note of the total gallons used. There may be fluctuations between seasons, so notice an average you tin work with.
If you don't have admission to this information, use an estimate. Co-ordinate to USGS, the average person consumes 80–100 gallons of water per twenty-four hour period. Use this figure and multiply it by the number of people in your home. Note: If yous take short showers and don't water the garden, go with eighty gallons; if you think your consumption is higher, become with 100 gallons.
So, if you lot have a four-person household that averages 80 gallons each, your daily consumption total is 320 gallons.
H2o Softener Calculator
Now that you accept the hardness number and your consumption in gallons, y'all're ready to utilize the h2o softener estimator. The formula is pretty simple. 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 exist ii,560. This means that your water softener would demand to remove two,560 grains each day.
Hardness value x Total gallons per day = Grains to exist removed per solar day
Example: 8 gpg x 320 gallons = two,560 grains per day
If your water has a lot of iron, increase the total hardness value by 3 gpg per one mg of iron, then make your adding. If these figures are making your caput spin, just use this easy water softener sizing calculator.
How Exercise I Cull the Right Water Softener?
Grain Capacity
Water softeners are sized to indicate 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. All the same, it'due south wise to choose one that exceeds your weekly consumption past about thirty percent to allow for excess usage.
For instance, if you lot were using ii,560 grains per day, this would total 17,920 grains per week. In that case, a 24,000-grain capacity softener would be suitable.
Most homes use a 32,000-grain capacity, but if your water is very hard and you've got a large family, y'all may demand to purchase a softener on the college end of the calibration.
Cost
This depends on the size, brand, and features, merely it tin can vary between $300 and $4000. Wait for models that permit you know when table salt needs to be added, or that regenerate at nighttime when h2o consumption is low.
You can also become a salt-free model to comply with local regulations (some states ban table salt h2o softening systems) and reduce common salt content in drinking h2o – only set up to pay more.
If you want on-demand soft water, yous can even go a twin tank where one tank goes offline while information technology regenerates and the second tank provides softened water. But go on in mind that these units are expensive to run and need to regenerate more frequently.
Can a Water Softener Be As well Big?
By and large, you lot should get a water softener that'southward slightly bigger for your needs – only not also large.
If a water softener is as well large for your household, information technology won't regenerate often enough, which tin can impairment the resin beads and promote bacterial growth in the tank. Also, big tanks, consume more water and cost more upfront.
Just don't undersize your water softener, either. This could result in insufficient soft water for your household and frequent regenerations. This can use more salt and shorten the life of your resin beads – and your water softener.
What is a Proficient Number for H2o Hardness?
When y'all look at our chart, anything betwixt 0–iii gpg is ideal for water. If you gear up your water softener to the 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. Information technology can even make your meals or drinks taste improve. That'southward because the high concentration of minerals won't interfere with other flavors. Having said that, water will still incorporate traces of these minerals after softening.
That'southward not necessarily a bad thing. According to WHO, drinking water can exist a benign source of calcium and magnesium for people who lack these minerals in their diets.
Can You Install Your Own H2o Softener?
If y'all're replacing an old water softener with a new ane, chances are you lot've got all the fittings in place. All yous have to do is switch out the onetime softener for the new one. This should be a relatively easy DIY job that tin 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'll also need to be familiar with local plumbing codes to ensure that your work is compliant. For instance, some states require you lot to fit shut-off valves in case of emergency.
If you're eager to take on the challenge, encounter the video below for step-by-pace instructions.
Of course, not everyone will have the confidence or skills to undertake this kind of piece of work. If that's yous, find an installer and they'll do the job chop-chop and professionally. The toll could be anywhere between $300 and $1500, depending on the size of the unit, where it's located, your country, and the complexity of the chore.
Final Thoughts
Ownership the right-sized water softener can better the quality of your drinking water and the efficiency of your water appliances. All you need are 2 elementary values: water hardness and daily consumption. Then, using the calculation provided above, you lot can work out how many grains per gallon demand to exist removed on a weekly footing – and which size can help you achieve this.
While getting a unit that'due south 30 percent larger volition cover you lot during loftier-usage periods, annihilation bigger than this will result in infrequent regeneration that can damage your resin chaplet and brood bacteria. You'll also pay more for a much larger unit. Instead, attempt to stick to the guidelines we've given y'all. Information technology'll bear witness toll-effective in the long run, and ensure the longevity and efficiency of your water softener.
Nosotros hope this article has answered your questions about how water softeners work and why size matters! Cheque out the manufactures below for more household guides and hacks.
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Source: https://applianceanalysts.com/what-size-water-softener/
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