The water in the entire State of Florida is among the hardest in the nation. The entire state sits atop a layer of limestone, and the many billions of gallons of fresh water underground flow either through that limestone layer or around it in such a fashion as to pick up large amounts of calcium. The City of Clearwater doesn’t have the hardest water in Florida. West Palm Beach has that distinction. But, its level of 178 parts per million of minerals classifies it as “very hard water.”
The Elements in Hard Water
It’s not just calcium that creates hard water. The next two most common elements that you can find in Florida are magnesium and manganese. You’ll also find traces of many other elements in the water. These elements form the scale that you see on bathtubs, sinks, and the inside of pots, pans, and appliances. Sometimes, that scale can be removed with something acidic, such as vinegar or lemon juice. Other times, the scale forms in a different way, and acid won’t remove it.
How Hard Water Affects Other Things
Aside from the scale on everything, hard water has other effects too. It can cause your laundry to take on a yellowish or greenish hue. It can clog the pipes in your house and foul water intakes on certain appliances. It can even affect the brittleness of your hair if you have a particular hair type.
That’s not to say that it’s not beneficial, too, however. It does contain many minerals that are good for your health. But, the amount of damage it can do at the level of hard water in Clearwater bears consideration even if it doesn’t completely outweigh the dietary benefit.
Ways to Soften Water
The chief method of softening water is to use a softener that comes with a brine tank. The salt that you put into the tank starts a chemical reaction with the minerals in the water. It’s then easy to filter them out. You have to balance the amount of salt with the amount of water in the brine tank. If the salt is either too wet or too dry, then the water softener won’t work correctly. By “too wet,” we mean that the salt cakes and takes on the consistency of wet sand at the beach. Ideally, the water should be slightly over the top layer of salt.
The downside to this kind of water softener is that the water becomes exceptionally salty, which isn’t good for people who need to observe a low-sodium diet. Additionally, the water could taste funny from the salt in it. Therefore, it’s common to have a separate filtering loop that removes the salt from the water for human consumption.
You can also use a reverse osmosis system to remove minerals from the water. This kind of system removes 99% of all minerals without the salt. However, this kind of system uses much more water than a brine tank water softener. It’s also more complex and expensive to install than other systems.
A water conditioner ameliorates some of the problems of hard water, but it doesn’t soften the water at all. Although it wastes less water than either a salt-based water softener or a reverse osmosis system, it only temporarily alters the water.
The Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Advantage
With all of our experience in the industry, we’re qualified to advise you on which kind of system is best for your home. Along the way, we’ve picked up an A+ rating and full accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, so you can trust us in the same way that the industry recognizes our integrity. Call us or come by the office to make an appointment to talk about water-softening technology today.