If you’ve noticed white crust on your faucets, spots on your dishes, or soap that never seems to lather, you’re seeing hard water at work. Water across much of Western Colorado is hard, and over time it takes a toll on your plumbing, appliances, and water heater. Haining provides water softener installation in Grand Junction, along with whole home water filtration, so you can fix the problem at the source.
Softening and filtration solve different problems, and many homes benefit from one, the other, or both. Our team will help you figure out which your home needs.
Water Softening
Hard water carries dissolved minerals, mainly calcium and magnesium. They’re not a health risk, but they leave scale behind wherever water flows or is heated. A water softener removes those minerals before the water reaches your fixtures.
Most residential softeners use a process called ion exchange. Water passes through a tank of resin beads that capture the hardness minerals and release a small amount of sodium or potassium in their place. Periodically, the system rinses the resin with a salt solution from a separate brine tank to recharge it. Modern softeners regenerate based on how much water you actually use, which saves salt and water compared with older timer-based models.
Benefits of a whole home water softener include:
- Less scale buildup in pipes, faucets, and showerheads
- A longer life for your water heater, dishwasher, and washing machine
- Cleaner dishes and glassware without spots
- Better lather from soap and shampoo
- Less time spent scrubbing tubs, sinks, and shower doors
Scale is especially hard on water heaters. Mineral deposits build up in the tank and on heating elements, which lowers efficiency and shortens the heater’s life. If you’re planning a water heater installation, it’s a good time to add a softener too.
We’ll also explain the routine upkeep your softener needs, like keeping the brine tank stocked with salt, so it keeps protecting your plumbing year after year.
Water Filtration Systems
Where a softener targets hardness, a filtration system targets what you taste, smell, and can’t see. Depending on the system, filtration can reduce:
- Chlorine taste and odor from treated municipal water
- Sediment and particles
- Certain contaminants, depending on the filter type
- Off tastes and smells that make you reach for bottled water
We install whole home filtration systems that treat every tap in your home, as well as point-of-use options for drinking water at the kitchen sink. We’ll recommend the type of system based on what’s actually in your water, not a one-size-fits-all package.
Common filtration options include carbon filters for chlorine taste and odor, sediment filters for particles and cloudiness, and reverse osmosis systems that provide highly filtered drinking water at a single tap. Some homes pair a whole home softener with a reverse osmosis unit at the kitchen sink for the best of both.
