Bryan wrote:
>brooklyn1 wrote:
>>Nancy2 wrote:
>> >Mark Thorson wrote:
>> >> I'm watching Ask This Old House, and they're replacing
>> >> a water softener. *Actually, they're using the old tank
>> >> but replacing the head and the resin beads. *As they were
>> >> dumping out the old beads, there was all this black muck
>> >> at the bottom of the tank. *They didn't comment on that.
>> >> I'd hate to think of my drinking water passing through
>> >> that crap.
>>
>> >> When I was a kid, a friend of mine across the street
>> >> had a water softener at his house. *I always thought
>> >> the water tasted terrible over there. *Borderline
>> >> undrinkable.
>>
>> >You're not supposed to drink soft water - usually, the setup excludes
>> >the kitchen/cold water from the soft water system. *Soft water is best
>> >for laundry, bathing, washing hair, etc. *Drinking it is not the
>> >recommended usage -
>>
>> Horsepucky. *Water softeners do not add salt to water
>
>Of course they do. You must be thinking of reverse osmosis filters,
>not water softeners. They exchange sodium for calcium and magnesium.

Water softeners do not exchange minerals for salt. Brine enters the
softener tank only (in concentration set based on hardness testing and
at times set by a clock and gallons used, typically after every 3,000
gallons and in the middle of the night to prevent pressure drops), and
removes the minerals collected by the beads, and minerals and brine -
salt is a mineral - is flushed out as grey water... none of the grey
water enters the domestic water. Salt can only enter the water
system (along with the minerals) when the unit is malfunctioning. Also
many folks run a water softener for many years way past its
usefulness, they continue to feed it salt in greater adn great
quantity but it is no longer removing minerals because the beads that
attract minerals have been spent... all they are doing is wasting
money by dumping salt out as grey water. The life of a water softener
is about 10-15 years depending on model and water hardness. It really
doesn't pay to recharge the softener with new beads because all the
other parts are probably worn and/or ready to die and over time the
new softeners become more and more efficient. It's important to test
for water hardness regularly so that one can tell when recalibration
of brine concentration needs to be increased and when a point is
reached when the unit is no longer operating efficiently that the
price of the salt used is more than the cost of a new unit. When
water tastes awful or is stinkly or contains excessive bacteria that
is not the fault of the softener, softeners only remove minerals, they
do nothing to remove sediment, improve water taste, eliminate odors,
or in any way disinfect water.

>It was my job to fill the salt tank at the resort I worked at.

So, do you really think folks would pay good money to patronize a
resort if their water was loaded with salt?? duh

It was your job to shovel salt because OBVIOUSLY you're too stupid to
do anything more elaborate... what a moroon.

Many folks knock water softens by saying they make water salty, but
that is just ignorance and sour grapes, those are the cheapo peon
*******s who don't want to pay the dollars for a softener... and
usually poor schnooks who live in a dinky apt so they have no way to
dispose of the grey water anyway.