Water quality solutions save you money in a variety of ways:
BUY LESS soap, shampoo, detergent, and household cleaners!
When you use soft water, you will need to use less of your cleaning agents.
There are two main reasons for this:
- The hardness in water counteracts the alkalinity of a cleaner, such that some of the cleaner combines with the minerals in hard water to form a build-up. The amount of the cleaner that combines with the hardness minerals doesn’t lather or dissolve. Because less of the soap/shampoo/detergent lathers and dissolves, more is required.
- The build-up itself requires cleaning off (of your skin, hair, tub, appliances, etc.) so even more of the cleaning agent is required!
Replace clothes, bedding, and other fabrics LESS OFTEN!
A Purdue University study found that, by washing in hard water colors fade faster, whites darken or yellow faster, fabrics aren’t as soft and other issues. The increased wear-and-tear that fabrics washed in hard water suffer may also be because the effectiveness of detergents – which help lubricate fabric and prolong its life – is reduced by hard water.
All of this means you’ll need to replace your clothes, bedding, towels, and other fabrics much more often.
SAVE MONEY on your energy bills.
There are several important ways softening your water will reduce your energy bill:
- You’ll use less energy to heat by reducing scale on the heat source. When hard water is heated, certain minerals in it (calcium and magnesium) are deposited on the heat source, coating it. This build-up makes the appliances that heat the water much less effective.
- Interestingly, even once scale is removed from appliances, those appliances that use hard water still consume more energy.
- Hard water reduces the cleaning ability of soap, detergents, and other cleaning agents.
Extend the life of your water-using appliances, plumbing, and fixtures!
There are several ways in which hard water will cause you to have to replace your appliances, plumbing, and fixtures earlier than you should have to:
- Appliances have to work harder and more often with hard water, and thus will have to be replaced sooner. Hard water forces you to run extra wash and rinse cycles in your washing machine and dishwasher. Likewise, hard water forces you to use appliances that heat water longer because it takes longer to get through the scale to heat the water.
- Scale insulates the heat source of any electric heating elements in your home. The insulating scale will cause appliances to overheat – and have to be replaced.
- Calcium and magnesium deposits can build up in pipes, decreasing your plumbing system’s performance. Eventually, pipes can become completely clogged.
- The build-up of deposits from hard water causes excessive wear on moving parts, causing premature failure of appliances.
- The effects of hard water are serious. A study by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) found that washing machines used with hard water can wear out up to 30 percent faster. This means that a washing machine that should last 10 years will last only 7 years when hard water deposits form in it.
BUY LESS bottled water.
Besides softeners, many other water treatments can save you money. Click here to learn more about bottled water:
- Plastic water bottles
- Water delivery
- Accuracy of bottled water labels
- Total money spent on bottled water versus water treatment systems