WATER SOFTENER SYSTEMS
The primary hard water minerals are magnesium and calcium (the hardness minerals), while iron and manganese (“the stainers”) can also be found in Upton water, mostly in private wells. A water softener will improve your water immensely if you have hard water minerals, iron, or manganese in your water. These contaminants can be removed with a water softener and/or a properly specified sediment filter depending on whether the contaminant’s form is in solution or particulate. If other impurities are confirmed in the water test, they can be removed with other types of water filtration systems. A water test and analysis will determine the best course of action.
Hard Water Scale
Hard water interferes with many cleaning tasks, from doing the laundry to washing dishes to taking a shower. Washing your hair in hard water may leave it feeling sticky and dull. Dishes and glasses get spotted and a film may build up on shower doors, bathtubs, sinks and faucets. Clothes can look dingy and feel rough and scratchy. Hard water can also cause a scale residue to build-up in pipes that can lower water pressure and may have major affects on your home’s plumbing. The maximum allowable level (per the Environmental Protection Agency) for iron as a secondary contaminant is .3 parts per million and for manganese is .05 parts per million. Small amounts of these minerals can have very noticeable, even damaging affects on your home’s water quality. For more on hard water, see hard water usgs.
Water Softener with Sediment Filtration
THE AFFECTS OF HARD WATER, IRON & MANGANESE
Damaging Scale
Scale from hard water can build-up inside water heaters insulating the temperature sensor inside the tank creating extra work to bring the temperature up to the set level. This reduces the life of your hot water heater and will likely require early replacement. Some other affects of these contaminants include corrosion and scaling inside pipes and major staining throughout the home’s showers, bathtubs, and sinks. For those using their well water for lawn irrigation, iron and manganese can cause major staining of walkways, siding and anyplace the water touches. See the link at https://h2ocare.com/lawn-irrigation/.
Dissolved Iron Staining
WHAT DOES A WATER SOFTENER REMOVE?
A water softener is effective in removing dissolved forms of iron & manganese and hardness minerals. To remove particulate iron or manganese, water filtration utilizing a cartridge filter with proper micron rating will be effective. Depending on the specific situation, this could require a series of filters with different size micron ratings to handle heavier levels in the water. Selecting the appropriate micron rating and style of filter can be determined by a water treatment professional based on water test results and other symptoms. For more information on Iron and Manganese in water, see our published articles in Water Technology Magazine at the following link: https://h2ocare.com/publications/.
