Why is softened water not recommended for drinking? By whom?
water softner
- Thread starter FT92
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You can look up both and get a good description online. One is an ion exchange process whereas the other removes the offending ions from the supply through a membrane. Most homes do not have an RO system with enough capacity for the entire house but only for drinking water.
You already have a softening system, right? You've stated that in your other posts.
Yes and the amount depends on how hard the water was to start with. But unless you are on a severely sodium restricted diet the amount is very little compared to what you get in many natural foods. Some people get all a twitter about "sodium in soft water" when generally they don't know the facts of what that actually means.
As a young lad, I drove the grocery van and delivered groceries after school. My instructions were to take the bags of water softener salt down to the basement if the customer wanted it. I’d even load their salt tub. Throwing those 50 lb bags around was good exercise. One day a lady wearing a negligee asked me to take the salt downstairs..... but I digress. Wrong forum.
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Another thing you can do if the sodium in softened water is truly a problem is to add a small RO system for your drinking water. Whole-house RO systems are uncommon, expensive, and use a lot of water by themselves, and even if you do install one they typically use a traditional water softener as pre-treatment. RO will remove sodium ions just like the rest.
You bet. I have one. I believe RO systems work well with softened water and I am using the original membrane cartridge after nine years. The drinking faucet is at the kitchen sink but I wish I had one downstairs at the bar.
Yes, limestone by definition is 50% or more calcium in the form of calcite. Water leaches the calcium from the limestone beneath the surface in Florida and my well water is loaded with calcium because the ground water originated from a limestone mountain behind my place.
Drs suggest not to drink soften water due to the high salt content.
But as noted it's not high salt content. In fact it's not actually salt in the water at all.
Here is the process explained. Correct that there is no salt in soft water.
Did anyone put up numbers regarding the amount of sodium in softened water? There are lots of links that give this general rule of thumb:
"GPG hardness x 2 = mg. of sodium in an 8 oz glass of water, more or less. In other words, if your water test tells you that you have 18 grains per gallon hardness, installing a water softener will add about 35 milligrams of sodium to each 8 oz. glass of water you drink.
To put this in perspective, a tablespoon of catsup has 204 mg. of sodium and a slice of whole wheat bread has 211."
It's certainly something to address and manage if you have a softener. As always, investigate ALL of the information, not just anecdotal snipets from us: https://www.purewaterproducts.com/articles/sodium-in-soft-water
"GPG hardness x 2 = mg. of sodium in an 8 oz glass of water, more or less. In other words, if your water test tells you that you have 18 grains per gallon hardness, installing a water softener will add about 35 milligrams of sodium to each 8 oz. glass of water you drink.
To put this in perspective, a tablespoon of catsup has 204 mg. of sodium and a slice of whole wheat bread has 211."
It's certainly something to address and manage if you have a softener. As always, investigate ALL of the information, not just anecdotal snipets from us: https://www.purewaterproducts.com/articles/sodium-in-soft-water
According to my rough calcs, 35mg to 8oz of water is about 140ppm of salt, but according to the link it would be 8ppm of salt. Something is not right about the claims in that link.
8ppm is not a big deal at all, but 140ppm would be a real concern IMO.
8ppm is not a big deal at all, but 140ppm would be a real concern IMO.
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Aren't there ion exchange cartridge systems? I have ridiculously soft water, which was way different compared to when I was living in a house with municipal well water. That stuff was nasty. Never got a water softener though. But when I was researching it I was looking at cartridge systems where the ion exchange cartridges are exchanged with recharged cartridges when depleted. I understood that they got recharged with brine.
I've used a Brita filter at home, which is mostly an ion exchange resin. I heard it might be possible to recharge with salt water.
I've used a Brita filter at home, which is mostly an ion exchange resin. I heard it might be possible to recharge with salt water.
