Please tell me about water softeners...

[nonameo]

Do you have one? I have this problem where my hair gets all crunchy and my skin itches when I get out of the shower. It also has that "pool" smell to it for a while. I've always thought it was hard water, because we have a pretty big problem with scale buildup in our water heater as well(have to clean it out every 2 years or so)


I also suspect that our hard water is causing acne problems for me as well...

any comments/ideas/on water softerners/etc?

I saw this:

http://www.watersticks.com/shower.htm

does this sound like a viable option for me? I don't want to spend 600$ on a water softener for the whole house... it's really only a problem(for me anyway) when I'm taking a shower.

 

[hdeck]

my skin used to itch when i got out of the shower, but that was just due to dry skin. solved by switching from bar of soap to body wash.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: nonameo
Do you have one? I have this problem where my hair gets all crunchy and my skin itches when I get out of the shower.

get some soap, you dirty bastard

 

[OverVolt]

folic acid?

 

[bobdole369]

All joking aside - yes, hard water is likely to blame for scaling in your hot water heater. It's not the cause of the pool smell.

As for the itchy skin and hair its not from the water, but maybe a byproduct of the effects of hard water. Since soap (and shampoo) don't work very well in hard water (you typically use twice as much soap in hard water than in soft water for the same effect and sudsiness), you probably use more soap than other people might, could be a factor.

The pool smell is chlorine and is the same as what you use to wash clothes and clean - bleach. Your city adds it in before it pumps you the water.

I never knew about those shower sticks. I'm probably gonna get that - south FL has crazy hard water.

Oh and you shouldn't cook with softened water - it adds sodium.

 

[JEDIYoda]

a good start would be a bar of soap...

 

[Mojoed]

I have a whole-house water softener and filtration system.

Soap does not lather up very well at all if you have extremely hard water. Also over time hard water can destroy appliances and pipe fittings. My well water was extremely hard due to dissolved Manganese (Mn). Iron and Calcium are the other major causes of hard water. I had to supplement my laundry detergent with liquid softener just to clean my clothes. Without it my "cleaned" laundry would simply not get clean.

I would get a free water analysis from Kinetico. They are the largest water "fixer" in the world. They come to your house and test for all kinds of things, explain everything and leave an estimate. It was not a high pressure sale. I had four different companies come and in my judgment, Kinetico was by FAR the most knowledgeable.

Anyway, you'll have two options for softening water for your entire house. A standard electric softener with brine tank which does the job just fine, but it uses up roughly 20-40 pounds of salt per week depending on usage. To me, this option is a HUGE ongoing maintenance pain in the ass. The more elegant option (and more expensive) is a non-electric softener. These units are MUCH more self-sufficient. After every 624 gallons of water pass through, the system cycles and uses only 2.4 pounds of salt from the brine tank. With my usage, this means I only have to add salt once a year. Sure beats doing it every week with an electric softener!

So non-electric softeners > electric softeners. By far.

Within two weeks, all my hard water stains all over the sinks, showers, faucets, everything were gone. I use about a fourth of the laundry detergent and shampoo I used to. Another benefit of soft water is you won't have to towel dry your car and there will be no water spots on your car when it dries up.

Oh, and it tastes real good too. I'm saving about $25 per week not having to buy bottled water and excess soda anymore.

PM me if you need more information.

 

[BoomerD]

Depending on your starting water quality, those "water sticks" may last several weeks...or they may last one or two showers before the ion-exchange beads inside are done.

 

[nonameo]

For all the *soap* people... I soap very well when I shower.

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Depending on your starting water quality, those "water sticks" may last several weeks...or they may last one or two showers before the ion-exchange beads inside are done.

It looks like the stick can be recharged.

Originally posted by: hdeck
my skin used to itch when i got out of the shower, but that was just due to dry skin. solved by switching from bar of soap to body wash.

I use irish spring bar soap right now... maybe I'll try a body wash. What's a good non-comedogenic one to use?

 

[bolomite]

I suggest you get a softener + activated carbon, to address the chlorine in your water. You can actually have a system with softening resin and carbon in the same physical vessel, no need to have multiple big tanks.

Look for softeners with controllers made by Fleck -- highly reliable and durable. For my house I have a 1.5 cubic foot softener with a Fleck 7000 digital controller. I've had zero issues with it. I go through ~ 1 bag of salt (40 lbs.) per month, so about 12 in a year.

Also, you may already know this, but the salt is not what is softening your water, there are cation-exchange beads inside the tank. Calcium, magnesium, iron, and a few other species are captured by these beads, and sodium ions are released into your water (ion exchange). When the beads are saturated and cannot hold any more Ca/Mg/Fe, the softener initiates a regeneration. That's where the salt pellets come into play. A strong brine solution is introduced into the softener, and the sodium ions in this brine populate the beads and 'kick out' all of the minerals which had adhered to them. Now the system is ready to soften water all over again (hence the term regeneration).

So no need to be alarmed, it is sodium ions and not 'salt' that will be present in your water. Look on the labels of soaps, cleaners, detergents, etc. -- sodium compounds are very common. The high solubility of sodium compounds is exactly why a softener works.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: nonameo
For all the *soap* people... I soap very well when I shower.

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Depending on your starting water quality, those "water sticks" may last several weeks...or they may last one or two showers before the ion-exchange beads inside are done.

It looks like the stick can be recharged.

Originally posted by: hdeck
my skin used to itch when i got out of the shower, but that was just due to dry skin. solved by switching from bar of soap to body wash.

I use irish spring bar soap right now... maybe I'll try a body wash. What's a good non-comedown one to use?

After endless trips to my Doctor, he finally recommended a dermatologist. The dermatologist, after taking a biopsy and sending it out for analysis, came up with a diagnosis of severely dry skin. I was broken out in red itchy spots all over. I got great advice from this guy and I told this story as a lead up for advice to you.

Forget using deodorant soaps. Use plain white Dove moisturizing soap. Take tepid showers as short as you can. Hot water is the worst thing for your skin as is taking a long hot bath. Now mind you many, many people have no problems doing these things. But if you are prone to dry skin, long hot showers and soaking in a hot tub are not good for you.

In addition, his advice was to wash only the stinky areas. Armpits, groin and feet. I use plain Dove soap on my hair too and it works just fine.

 

[boomerang]

bolomite, made excellent suggestions IMO. I'll add a little to it.

http://www.ohiopurewaterco.com/shop/customer/home.php

I got the softener I have in my home from these people. You can purchase a test kit through them (although you'll find it cheaper elsewhere) and using the results from the kit, these people can tell you what you need. It can be done online or over the phone. Call them and express what you're trying to accomplish. I should say that they are not the only online vendors of softening equipment.

As bolomite says, Fleck valves are very well respected in the industry. I have a twin tank setup with a Fleck valve. My salt usage is on par with what bolomite is talking of - mine is slightly less. I have a lot of Iron in my water. They tailored my system to remove that and although I'm at the extreme end of the spectrum for Iron removal by a softener alone, it does the job very, very well. My water straight from the well also has a lot of odor. The softener takes care of that too.

My unit regenerates based on water usage, not a timer. If you're out of town, your softener isn't regenerating and wasting salt. It does require electricity though to run the motors for the valves. There is no clock or timer that needs to be reset in the event of a power failure.

They shipped everything broken down as a kit. Assembly is very easy. If you're not up to the plumbing, hire a plumber. One to three hours should do it.

Once you've got a softener, you'll wonder why you waited so long to get one.

 

[Bullhonkie]

Interesting link OP. I was just looking for something like this the other day.

I moved to an apartment in LA last fall and I've noticed that I have to use more shampoo and soap to shower. I also suffer from mild bouts of psoriasis but I've definitely had more flareups of it since moving here. My hair also doesn't feel quite as clean after a shower and gets greasy faster, but I'm not sure how much of that is a function of shampoo not doing its job well enough because of the hard water, the hard water itself, or from the general environment here (air quality and/or humidity.)

Does anyone have experience with a shower head attachment type softener like the one that was linked in the OP? Looks like the best thing I can do given that I can't use other solutions mentioned in this thread since I'm stuck in an apartment complex.

 

[Kanalua]

move to Hawaii. Our water is perfectly soft. Not hard, not too soft (where you feel like you can't rinse off all the soap after a shower)...perfect balance (no one sells water softners here).

And it tastes great right from the tap

 

[mrSHEiK124]

OH GOD, I was reading that Water Sticks page (considering buying one) and that searing blue background burnt into my eyeballs. Everything looks yellow now.

 

[fleabag]

Originally posted by: nonameo
It also has that "pool" smell to it for a while.

That means there is bacteria in your water heater. If a pool smells like "chlorine" as some people claim, that is supposedly means that there is too much chlorine, unforuntately they're WRONG. You get that "chlorine" smell from not enough chlorine, that a pool with too much chlorine or enough chlorine would smell fresh, not smell bad.


You should drain your water heater, fill it up and run the water hotter so it doesn't grow back in there again.

 

[Adul]

water softener + chlorine filter = awesome. We have some seriously hard water out here in az.

 

[bobdole369]

Oh, and it tastes real good too. I'm saving about $25 per week not having to buy bottled water and excess soda anymore.

But you might spend a fortune on your upcoming heart attack from the extra sodium.