Although many people do not want to deal with hard water, they are concerned about installing a water softener because of the salt (salt-free water softeners do not exist). While it’s true that softening water does add sodium (in place of the hardness minerals), there are a few things you should know. One is that Puronics latest models only use 6 lbs. of salt per regeneration cycle. Most of this salt is flushed down the drain.
For moderately hard water (5 grains per gallon), softening water adds 78.7 mg to the commonly recommended daily water intake of eight 8-ounce glasses. Consider that the average adult sodium intake is 3,000 to 4,000 mg, so this makes it about 2.5% or less of the total. It’s equivalent to the sodium in about half a slice of white bread.
Water from a properly installed water softener does not taste salty. If your softened water does taste salty, you should have a technician come look at your system and check it.
If you are concerned about the additional sodium, you can install a reverse osmosis system under your kitchen sink, which will remove the sodium along with many other contaminants. You can use the water from the reverse osmosis system for drinking and cooking. If you’re concerned about the salt for other reasons, you can use potassium chloride as an alternative.
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