Water Wisdom

An ever-increasing amount of salt is seeping into municipal water supplies through road salting, manufacturing and residential water softening. For homeowners in hard water areas living without a water softener is unimaginable, but unless salt and water consumption is put in check, a future ban on sodium based softeners seems inevitable. It happened in California, it happened in parts of Europe and it can happen in Canada. Waterloo Region in Ontario is taking serious steps to maintain the integrity of the water supply and individual homeowners can help. Reducing the amount of salt used by water softeners is a challenge...

You should never over-fill your salt tank   But how much is enough? Well, the answer will be different for different homes, but here's a general idea. Factoring in a few variables will make this easier to explain. The bigger the family, the more salt you will use. Also, the harder your water, the more salt you will use. So, if you are a family of six, with a water hardness of 30 grains per gallon, your salt consumption will be double that of a family of 3 or a family of six with 15 grains of hardness. That's not...

Does Salt-Free work in Waterloo Region? You have probably heard about the Region's interest in salt-free water conditioning. Notice I didn't say salt-free "softener." Well, that's because these systems do not actually soften the water. Softened water occurs by way of an ion exchange process which is what happens when you use a sodium-based water softener.  Salt-free systems are better described as "scale inhibitors." And now the question you've wanted to hear the answer to -- do they work?    The answer is a loud and clear YES!   In light of the recent salt shortage in Kitchener, Waterloo and area,...