Water softeners eliminate many problems out of your life but yet there are one or two facts that you might need to look up for. Is softened water safe to drink? This is the main question since it enrolls your health. Keeping your health as your topmost priority, you need to understand the nature of softened water.
What is Soft Water?
Soft water is the water that does not contain water hardening minerals in it. The most common water hardening minerals are calcium and magnesium. The main concern here is the softened water you get from a water softener. That is the product of an ion exchange technique that water softeners commonly use. To understand this concern, you need to understand the working of the water softener.
Water softeners use an ion exchange method to get rid of the water hardening minerals. But with time their efficiency starts diminishing. To cop up with that there is a brine tank present in the water softener. This brine tank while playing a major role in increasing the life span of your water softener, might also add sodium into the softened water. This is from where the whole issue starts.
Why the Question of its Safety Rises?
Is softened water safe to drink? If not, then why? Let’s talk about this issue now. This question arises because of some of the sodium that the brine tank might dissipate into the water. The amount of sodium in the softened water might slightly change the taste of the water. But, this isn’t why people question the safety of softened water.
There is a certain amount of sodium intake that is mandatory to carry out a healthy diet. If that amount increases then it can be an issue for you. Increased sodium intake can be a problem for kidney patients and blood pressure patients. This is why this question is asked whenever we talk about the water softener.
The amount of sodium that the brine tank dissipates into the water is very minute. The quantity of sodium varies with the extent of hard water that you have. If the concentration of hard water is high then you might need more salt for the regeneration cycle which will increase the amount of sodium that your water can contain.
If you have a medium concentration of hardness in the water then it means there can be almost 5 grains of sodium per gallon. Thus, it is a pretty minute. Drinking this water is safe if you are not facing health issues like blood pressure and different kidney issues.
Use of Softened Water in Daily Life:
Apart from the fact that drinking hard water is not the best thing, it also affects several other things. Hard water can ruin your floor, your house’s water pipelines and it can make laundry a nightmare. Hard water leaves a residue in the form of a soapy scum that takes hours to scrub. Softened water will help you out in saving all the hustle of removing it off. Hard water also decreases the life span of many electrical appliances that use water. Your house’s water pressure will also get disturbed due to the accumulation of minerals in them by the usage of hard water.
For all these things, softened water is the best alternative. It saves you from scrubbing stains off the floor that hard water usually leaves. It keeps your hair and your nails healthy too.
Softened water is ideal to be used for daily life work. The increased amount of sodium will not affect anything related to the chores. The concern that it mostly raises is only related to the health of the users. As I have already told you that if you have no health problems, then you are good to use the softened water at any time.
Salt Concentration in Brine Tank:
The salt concentration varies since you have to add salt into the brine tank manually. So, you need to consult professionals to ensure that you are using the right amount of salt. The addition of salt will vary with the concentration of the hardness in the water.
Because of the regeneration cycle that every water softener uses, it is recommended to get your water softener checked now and then. This will help you in taking control of the water concentration to a large extent. The control valve plays an important role in this regard too so keep a vigilant check on the health of your water softener.
A Solution to High Sodium Concentration:
There can be basic two issues by now that you might be encountering because of water softener:
- Taste isn’t the same.
- Health Concern
If you are facing these two issues then there is one solution that can change the whole game for you. You can install a Reverse Osmosis System in your home. This system helps in keeping the water taste fresh and neutral. The salts are absorbed from the water through this system which eliminates all of the health concerns that you might be having.
It is highly recommended for people who have high blood pressure problems or kidney-related issues. You can also use this system specifically for the water supplies that you use to cook food and drink water while, the rest of the water can be used for other chores such as cleaning, laundry, etc.
Softened water is safe to drink than hard water since it will keep you away from drinking minerals such as calcium and magnesium. The presence of these minerals in the water can lead to various serious health issues. Thus, it is highly recommendable that if you have a hard water supply in your area then you should switch to softened water.
Final Word about Is softened water safe to drink?
Keep a check on the efficiency of your water softener and the amount of salt that you are adding into the brine tank. There are several professionals available to help you out with this concern. It is wiser to switch to drinking softened water. If you have salt-related health issues then trying out the reverse osmosis system will help. Get a valuable review information regarding Water Softeners Kits to buy.
