With more than 30 years’ experience in the residential and commercial water treatment space, Mark Nelson is a Class 1 Drinking-Water Operator and a CBWA (Canadian Bottled Water Association) Certified Plant Operator. As founder and president of Nelson Water in Ottawa, Mark focuses on dealing with challenging water treatment system designs for problem water. He also heads the largest water bottling plant in the city of Ottawa with a delivery network throughout the Valley.
Many people consider a water softener installation to remove the hardness and improve their water quality at home. But, one of the common misconceptions is that softened water isn’t safe to drink. Is this true? The short answer is no, but it could be an issue in certain instances, and it’s important to understand this in a broad context. In this article, we will present the information to prove that soft water is safe to drink, but we need to explain some aspects of hard and soft water and how it is softened first.
What is Hard Water?
Many areas in the U.S. suffer from a supply of hard water from municipal suppliers and well water. Hard water contains elevated levels of minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, and also iron that make the water hard to use in your home. These minerals are naturally occurring, and they are added to the makeup of the water as it passes through various layers of rock and soil. Hard water causes the buildup of scale on the internal surfaces of plumbing pipes and fixtures, and heating elements.
This is the hard material that you can see forming on the surface of a kettle heating element. The presence of hard water causes appliances and plumbing systems to wear out prematurely and consume more energy. But, hard water is also bad for your skin and hair because the minerals block your pores and stick to the hair follicles. Hard water inhibits the formation of soap suds, which reduces the efficacy of soap and detergent. Some people attempt to compensate by using more of these products, but the cleaning power is still insufficient. As you might imagine, with all these problems related to hard water, many people are looking for a way to make their water softer and easier to use.
How Does a Water Softener Work?
Removing the hardness from the water can be accomplished in a few different ways, but the most effective method that we have is the ion-exchange system. The incoming water is exposed to resin beads that exchange the ions in the minerals for sodium (salt), which is more benign and easier to work with. This adds a little salt to the drinking water, and the mineral content is left behind on the surface of the resin media. Over time these mineral ions will accumulate and clog the resin media, and they need to be flushed away. This is accomplished with a regeneration cycle that cleans the resin beads to ensure that they are efficient.
Is it Safe to Drink Softened Water?
As you may have noticed in our explanation of the water softening process, some salt is added. The main reservation that people have about soft water is that the addition of salt will make it unhealthy. After all, we notice regular health advice that tells us to reduce our salt intake. But, almost all of the salt that we ingest comes from our food, and processed food is the main culprit. When you look at the bigger picture, soft water would be very low on the list of priorities if you wanted to reduce your salt intake. To put this into some perspective, a single 8oz glass of water would contain around 12.5mg of sodium. Based on the FDA scale for salt consumption, this would rank as very “very low Sodium” levels. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the level of sodium ingested each day should be restricted to 2,300mg. So, if you want to lower your salt intake, it would make far more sense to pay closer attention to sodium levels in food.
What About Very Low Salt Diets?
It is true that some people are advised to adopt a very low sodium diet by their physician. It’s estimated that soft water contains around 20% more salt than hard water. Now, when it comes to people that are adhering to a strict low or no salt diet for health reasons, it would be advisable to avoid soft water. These are rare cases, but if you are concerned, it makes sense to consult a medical professional. Micromanaging your sodium intake can be effective, and drinking salt water needs to be addressed on a case by case basis. If you are sensitive to sodium, there are a couple of options to explore. Firstly, you could look at a salt-free water softener, they are less efficient, but they can still make a difference. Secondly, you could use potassium chloride instead of sodium, it’s still a salt, but it is more benign than sodium. Potassium chloride is more expensive than sodium, but it’s equally effective, and it’s less salty, which makes it a good compromise for people sensitive to salt.
What About Babies and Soft Water?
When it comes to preparing formula for babies, experts advise against using hard water straight from the tap. Babies have developing systems that are not sufficiently adapted to dealing with the elevated mineral content found in hard water. So, the natural next step is to use soft water to make the formula, or is this a mistake? Well, this is a hard question to answer, some experts advise using a softer mineral water up to a certain age, and others say it doesn’t make any difference. If you have concerns, it’s better to seek advice from your baby’s doctor based on your own circumstances.
What About Pets and Soft Water?
As with people, the answer would be that, generally speaking, it’s fine to give soft water to your pets. The only real exception would be if your pet had suffered from kidney or heart disease and a very low level of sodium intake was required. Again, if you are in any doubt, it makes good sense to consult your veterinarian.
Does Soft Water Taste Salty?
When your water softener is professionally installed and well maintained, there should be no discernible salty taste. It is true that soft water does have a taste, but many people like it, and it would be hard to categorize it as salty in nature. Some people like the taste of soft water, and others don’t, but only those with extremely sensitive palettes would detect the minuscule levels of sodium added to the water.
If you would like to install a water softener in your home, contact a local water treatment specialist today.