Water Softener Solutions
Hard water contaminants found in the well water supplying homes in Essex, MA can be removed with a water softener. The main hard water minerals are magnesium and calcium. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has no maximum levels set for calcium and magnesium in drinking water. It interferes with almost every cleaning task, including washing dishes, laundry and taking a shower. Clothes can look dingy and feel rough and scratchy. Dishes and glasses get spotted and film may build up on shower doors, bathtubs, sinks and faucets. Washing your hair in hard water may leave it feeling sticky and dull. It can also cause scale build-up in pipes that can lower water pressure throughout the house and corrode piping.
Also commonly found in Essex are iron & manganese. The EPA maximum allowable level for iron as a secondary contaminant is .3 parts per million. The EPA maximum allowable level for manganese as a secondary contaminant is .05 parts per million. Small amounts of these minerals can have large affects on your home’s water quality. For more on hard water, see the link at Hard water described.
The following categorizes hard water levels. Compare your water test results:
THE AFFECTS OF HARD WATER, IRON & MANGANESE
Some affects include corrosion and scaling inside pipes, major staining throughout the home’s showers, bathtubs, and sinks and destruction of hot water heaters way ahead of their useful life. Hard water scale can also build-up inside hot water heaters insulating the temperature sensor inside the tank causing them to work much harder to bring the temperature up to the set level. Without water softening, this will reduce the useful life of your hot water heater and require early replacement. Hydrogen Sulfide is evidenced typically by a rotten egg smell in your water, however this may also be caused by high Manganese levels in the water as well. For those using their well water for outside lawn irrigation, iron and manganese can cause major staining of outside walkways, house siding and anyplace the water touches. See link at https://h2ocare.com/lawn-irrigation/.
Damaging Scale
WHAT WILL A WATER SOFTENER REMOVE?
Water softeners are effective in removing dissolved forms of iron & manganese and hardness minerals. To remove particulate iron or manganese, 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 regarding Iron and Manganese in water, see link to articles in Water Technology Magazine at: https://h2ocare.com/publications/.
Dissolved Iron Staining
