What Size Water Softener for Family of 6
If you're getting residuum on your plates, lather scum in your sink, and dry out pare afterward a shower, there'southward a proficient risk you've got difficult water. But you're not alone. Around 85% of American households employ hard h2o for their everyday needs.
Unfortunately, hard water can cause problems around your dwelling house and affect the efficiency of your h2o appliances – which is why people turn to water softeners.
Not but can they ameliorate the quality of your drinking water, but they tin also prevent mineral build-upward in your showerheads, kettles, and taps. This means that dishes, apparel, and pare will feel softer and cleaner – and you won't demand to upgrade your pipes all the time!
But there are a lot of water softeners out in that location and it'due south difficult to know what the difference is. Why practice they come in dissimilar sizes? Is bigger better? In this article, we explain what a h2o softener does and why hardness and consumption are critical to finding the right size for your household needs. Let's become stuck in!
What is a Water Softener?
A h2o softener is a filtration arrangement that removes dissolved minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, from your water supply. These minerals, which occur naturally in our oceans and soils, have a tendency to bond with metals, which is why y'all get hard deposits in pipes and showerheads – hence the proper name "hard water."
Luckily, magnesium and calcium don't pose whatsoever health risks – unless you have a history of kidney stones, in which case you lot could get recurrences.
The most common issues, however, are difficulty with lathering up your pilus or achieving a residue-free finish on plates or cutlery. At worst, the mineral build-up can obstruct h2o flow, reduce pressure, and corrode your pipes over time – leading to expensive repairs or replacement.
That's where water softeners come in.
These handy units utilise negatively charged resin beads to attract the positively charged minerals and remove them from the h2o. The demineralised h2o then flows through your pipes and out of your tap. This process continues until the resin chaplet reach maximum capacity.
When this happens, the unit of measurement is flushed with salt or potassium chloride from the brine tank. This washes the minerals from the resin chaplet and discharges them through a hose. The system then reverts to its softening function once more and the cycle continues.
How Big Should My H2o Softener Be?
The size of your water softener depends on two key factors: the hardness of your water and daily consumption. Permit's find a closer look.
Hardness
The get-go thing you need to practise is find out how difficult your water is. Depending on where yous live, your water supply will incorporate a range of different minerals. The nearly compound is calcium carbonate, which is normally found in marble, limestone, and chalk.
This isn't surprising. Calcium carbonate formed over millions of years from the sedimentation of shells and coral – and it now comprises four pct of the globe'southward crust. However, the amount in your soil or h2o is not uniform. If you expect at the map below, you'll come across how concentrations of calcium carbonate vary from state to state in the US.
Other minerals like magnesium, copper, atomic number 26, and zinc can be present in your supply likewise. It all depends on the quality of the soil where you lot alive, likewise as run-off from rain and floods.
To measure your water'southward hardness, you can buy a h2o-testing kit, request a quality report from your h2o supplier, or use an independent laboratory to test a h2o sample. The results are measured in milligrams per liter (mgL) or grains per gallon (gpg). You lot can find both measurements in the nautical chart below.
| mgL | gpg | |
| soft | 0–lx | 0–iii |
| slightly hard | 61–120 | 3–vii |
| hard | 121–180 | 7–11 |
| very hard | 180+ | 11+ |
Once you lot have your hardness value, information technology'll requite yous an indication of whether your water is hard, soft, or somewhere in betwixt. Keep this value handy as you lot'll demand it when we utilise the water softener reckoner later on.
Consumption
The side by side step is to calculate how much water you lot utilise. Analyse your water neb for the last few months and make a note of the full gallons used. In that location may exist fluctuations between seasons, so find an average y'all tin piece of work with.
If you lot don't have access to this data, use an estimate. According to USGS, the average person consumes 80–100 gallons of water per day. Use this figure and multiply it by the number of people in your home. Annotation: If you lot take brusque showers and don't water the garden, go with lxxx gallons; if you think your consumption is college, go with 100 gallons.
And so, if y'all have a four-person household that averages 80 gallons each, your daily consumption total is 320 gallons.
Water Softener Calculator
At present that you have the hardness number and your consumption in gallons, yous're ready to use the water softener calculator. The formula is pretty unproblematic. You multiply the hardness number by the gallons per day.
For example, if you have four people using 320 gallons in total and the hardness is 8, the total would exist 2,560. This means that your water softener would need to remove 2,560 grains each day.
Hardness value x Full gallons per mean solar day = Grains to be removed per day
Example: 8 gpg x 320 gallons = ii,560 grains per mean solar day
If your water has a lot of iron, increase the full hardness value by three gpg per ane mg of iron, then make your calculation. If these figures are making your head spin, just use this easy h2o softener sizing calculator.
How Do I Choose the Right Water Softener?
Grain Capacity
Water softeners are sized to point how many grains are removed before regeneration. On average, this happens every 7 days. Common sizes are 24,000, 32,000, 48,000, 56,000, and 64,000 grain chapters. However, information technology'south wise to choose one that exceeds your weekly consumption by about xxx percent to allow for excess usage.
For example, if y'all were using 2,560 grains per twenty-four hours, this would full 17,920 grains per week. In that case, a 24,000-grain capacity softener would exist suitable.
Most homes apply a 32,000-grain chapters, but if your water is very hard and you've got a large family, you may need to buy a softener on the college end of the scale.
Price
This depends on the size, brand, and features, but information technology can vary between $300 and $4000. Look for models that permit yous know when table salt needs to be added, or that regenerate at night when h2o consumption is depression.
You lot can as well get a salt-gratis model to comply with local regulations (some states ban salt water softening systems) and reduce salt content in drinking water – but prepare to pay more than.
If you want on-demand soft h2o, you can even become a twin tank where one tank goes offline while it regenerates and the second tank provides softened water. But keep in heed that these units are expensive to run and demand to regenerate more frequently.
Tin a Water Softener Be As well Large?
By and large, y'all should go a water softener that'due south slightly bigger for your needs – but not besides big.
If a water softener is too large for your household, information technology won't regenerate oftentimes enough, which can damage the resin beads and promote bacterial growth in the tank. Also, big tanks, swallow more water and cost more upfront.
But don't undersize your water softener, either. This could upshot in insufficient soft water for your household and frequent regenerations. This can apply more salt and shorten the life of your resin beads – and your h2o softener.
What is a Good Number for Water Hardness?
When you lot look at our chart, anything between 0–iii gpg is ideal for water. If you ready your water softener to the current hardness value of your h2o, information technology will remove grains to achieve this optimal range.
When information technology does, water will experience silkier and plates will wait shinier. It can even brand your meals or drinks taste better. That's because the high concentration of minerals won't interfere with other flavors. Having said that, h2o will notwithstanding contain traces of these minerals later on softening.
That'southward not necessarily a bad matter. According to WHO, drinking water can be a beneficial source of calcium and magnesium for people who lack these minerals in their diets.
Can Yous Install Your Own H2o Softener?
If you're replacing an quondam water softener with a new one, chances are y'all've got all the fittings in place. All y'all have to do is switch out the old softener for the new ane. This should exist a relatively easy DIY job that can be completed in a couple of hours.
For those who've never had a water softener, installation will involve some pipe cutting and soldering. You lot'll also need to be familiar with local plumbing codes to ensure that your work is compliant. For case, some states require you to fit close-off valves in case of emergency.
If you're eager to take on the claiming, see the video below for step-by-footstep instructions.
Of course, not everyone volition take the confidence or skills to undertake this kind of work. If that's you lot, find an installer and they'll do the job quickly and professionally. The cost could be anywhere betwixt $300 and $1500, depending on the size of the unit, where it's located, your state, and the complication of the chore.
Final Thoughts
Ownership the correct-sized water softener can amend the quality of your drinking water and the efficiency of your water appliances. All you need are two simple values: water hardness and daily consumption. Then, using the calculation provided in a higher place, you lot can work out how many grains per gallon need to exist removed on a weekly basis – and which size can help you achieve this.
While getting a unit of measurement that's 30 percent larger will embrace you during high-usage periods, annihilation bigger than this will issue in infrequent regeneration that tin can harm your resin beads and breed leaner. You'll likewise pay more than for a much larger unit of measurement. Instead, endeavor to stick to the guidelines we've given y'all. It'll prove cost-effective in the long run, and ensure the longevity and efficiency of your h2o softener.
We hope this article has answered your questions about how water softeners piece of work and why size matters! Bank check out the articles below for more household guides and hacks.
tin can utilise the post-obit text:
Source: https://applianceanalysts.com/what-size-water-softener/
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