Water Softener Solutions
WATER SOFTENER TO REMOVE HARDNESS, IRON & MANGANESE
A water softener will remove hard water contaminants found in Gloucester water. The main hardness minerals are magnesium and calcium (the hardness minerals), while iron and manganese are also commonly found in Gloucester. A water softener will be very effective in improving your water quality if these contaminants are present in your water supply. If your water has high levels or iron or manganese, an “up-flow” water softener versus a “down-flow” water softener is the preferred approach and will provide an effective solution.
High Efficiency Water Softener
Without a water softener, calcium and magnesium can have devastating affects on your home’s plumbing as well as your ability to clean, even though the EPA has no published limits on these. Hard water interferes with almost every cleaning task, from doing the laundry to washing dishes to taking a shower. Clothes can look dingy and feel rough and scratchy. Dishes and glasses get spotted and a film may build up on shower doors, bathtubs, sinks and faucets. Washing your hair in hard water may leave it feeling sticky and dull. Hard water can also cause a residue to build-up in pipes that can lower water pressure throughout the house. The EPA maximum allowable levels for iron as a secondary contaminant is .3 parts per million and for manganese is .05 parts per million as secondary contaminants. Small amounts of these minerals can have very noticeable, even devastating affects on your home’s water quality.
OTHER AFFECTS OF IRON, MANGANESE AND HARD WATER
Some of the affects of hard water, iron & manganese 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. This will reduce the useful life of your hot water heater and require early replacement. For more on hard water, see hard water epa.
Damaging Scale
WHAT A WATER SOFTENER EFFECTIVELY REMOVES
A water softener is 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. 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.
Dissolved Iron Staining
For more information on Iron and Manganese in water, see our published articles in Water Technology Magazine at the following link: https://h2ocare.com/pub/.
