Certiflow Water Treatment

What Is Hard Water?

Water naturally evaporates from oceans, lakes, and rivers to form clouds. Pure water then falls to the earth as rain, snow, and sleet cleaning the air, and picking up contaminants on the way down. This water, which falls back to the earth, becomes more aggressive. As moisture hits the earth and filters through layers of rock and dirt, it picks up minerals like calcium and magnesium which concentrate the hardness of the water. Hardness can cause a variety of aesthetic challenges for homeowners. Hard water creates a mineral buildup on water-using appliances such as water heaters, dishwashers, an

Hard Water: How "Hard" Is Hard?

Basically water hardness is measured by the amount of hardness minerals (generally calcium and magnesium) in your water. These amounts are measured in grains per gallon (GPG). The following table illustrates the hardness magnitude of water: Often people say, “I’ve heard of places that are 30 grains hard, or even 60 grains hard. This scale cannot possibly be all encompassing!” The United States has some areas that exceed 100 gpg in hardness, but this scale is based on appliance tolerance to hard water. Take your dishwasher for example: The softer the water, the longer

Do I have To Use Salt In My Water Softener?

While you don’t necessarily have to use salt, every water softener uses a cleaning agent of some kind–most use salt. A water softener can only “absorb” so many hardness ions; and after it has reached hardness saturation, it must regenerate (trade all the hard ions for soft ones to be able to soften more water). When the softener regenerates, it must use a solution of some kind to rinse away the hardness ions. Most commonly the solution is sodium saturated water (salt water). Alternatively a potassium solution can also be used to regenerate the resin. Perhaps you’v

Why do I feel 'slick' or 'slimy' in the shower?

If you’re not used to soft water, it’s not uncommon to leap into a shower and lather up and suddenly feel slimy, silky, or very slick. That slimy feeling comes from the glycerin in soap itself. Soft water is exponentially more effective than hard water for dissolving substances. When you’re used to using a certain amount of soap in a hard water shower, when you use the same amount of soap in soft water, you’ll be swimming in suds. You’re using the same amount of soap, but now that soap is up to 50-75 percent more effective.

Is soft water safe to drink?

Soft water is safe to drink for virtually everyone. If you participate in a very strict sodium-restricting diet, salt-softened water may not be right for you. To give you an idea how the additional salt affects your sodium intake, consider this: an average soft-water consumer takes in about five grams of sodium through normal eating and drinking. Of those five grams of sodium, one-third of one gram (0.336 g) is from softened water the equivalent weight of half a watermelon seed. A black olive contains 238 times the amount of sodium you’ll consume in an entire day from soft water! That&#8

How much soap should I use with soft water?

Soft water cleans much more effectively than hard water. To accomplish the same results, soft water requires 50-75 percent less soap or detergent than hard water. This alone creates a great cost savings over time. When you first start using soft water take special care to quarter the amount of soap you typically use. For a lightly soiled load of laundry in a laundry machine, a heaped teaspoon of powdered detergent should be sufficient. You don’t need to fill your dishwasher detergent bin to heaping–in fact only fill it a quarter of what you used to. While the 1/4 rule is generally

Does soft water cure dry skin?

First soft water is not a cure-all for dry skin and eczema. That said, dry or itchy skin is often caused by foreign substances on the skin, substances that can be greatly reduced if not eliminated with soft water. Many sufferers of dry skin or eczema report improvement after using soft water. Because so many factors influence the skin, it’s impossible to quantify the effects of soft water on the skin. However, many benefits are unchallenged: soft water requires less soap or detergent and rinses cleaner than hard water, soap curds and other chemicals are rinsed away leaving pores naturall

How long does resin last?

Under normal conditions, resin (the tiny beads that facilitate the ion-exchange process) should last approximately 20 to 25 years. Resin life can be reduced, however, under harsh water conditions like severe hardness, the presence of excessive iron in the water, or abnormal pH extremes.