The Benefits of Water Softening and Water Filtration

Nowadays healthy living has become an important consideration for more and more people, but most of us don't immediately look to our water supply as a way of improving our health. When we take a closer look at the water we receive to our homes, we see that not only can there be health benefits from using water treatment systems but it can also be better for the life of your appliances, the softness of your clothes and for effectiveness of your home plumbing system. Studies have shown that in excess of 85% of households in the US have hard water supplies, that's roughly 110 million homes! Which begs the question, what kind of impact can our hardness of our tap water really have? The Implications of the use of Hard Water Some people don't realise that all water supplies are not necessarily the same. Different areas of the country have different mineral compositions present and a different water "hardness". Hard water contains much higher concentrations of mineral salts such as Magnesium and Calcium ions than soft water. These ions leech into the water supply from minerals within aquifers, causing a wide range of problems. Build ups of "scale" are caused by higher than normal mineral concentrations in tap water, as well clogging in water pipes and appliances such as irons.rnBoilers can have their effectiveness drastically reduced through long-term use of hard water, soaps are prevented from forming a thick lather and it can even have an effect on the softness of the feel of clothes on the skin. The Implications of Impurities in drinking water 84% of respondents in a March 2009 Gallop poll said that they worrying about the pollution of drinking water either "a great deal" or "a fair amount", and this is not without good reason.rnBacteria, heavy metals and other potentially harmful chemicals can be found in tap water, and with the means to self-test household water supplies being out of reach for the majority of people there is no sure way of fully understanding what you bathe in and drink each day. What are Water Softening and Water Filtration? You may want to consider Water Filtration or Water Softening to improve the quality of the water coming from your faucet but what actually happens to the water when you use these systems? Water Filtration Water Filtration is the process of using various means to remove unwanted impurities from drinking water.rnMethods such as Reverse Osmosis are used to effectively remove contaminants, leaving clean drinking water afterwards. Sometimes more than one method of filtration can be combined together to each target specific contaminants and to increase the overall effectiveness of the system. Water Softening Water Softening is a process whereby calcium and magnesium ions as well as certain other metal cations are removed from hard water.rnThis is done through the use of resins, that act as "chemical sponges" that are ideally suited for effective removal of contaminants from water and other liquids. [source: Dow Water and Process It really comes down to a question of how important clean, fresh water is? The condition that we receive our tap water may not be optimal, but commonly it can be drastically improved with the use of a home Water Filtration system or Water Softener.