How To Use a Salt-Free Conditioner for Hard Water Problems

Understanding Hard Water

Hard water is water that contains high levels of dissolved minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium. These minerals can cause a variety of issues in your home, from scaling in pipes and appliances to reducing the effectiveness of soaps and detergents.

Salt-free water conditioners can extend the life of plumbing and other appliances by preventing scale formation. However, it's important to note that salt-free systems are not designed to remove iron, and high iron levels may require pre-treatment.

The Impact of Hard Water

The impact of hard water on your home can be significant. It can lead to scale buildup in pipes, water heaters, and other appliances, reducing their efficiency and lifespan. Hard water can also cause soap scum in sinks and bathtubs, and leave spots on dishes and glassware.

Salt-free water softeners are an eco-friendly alternative to traditional water softeners, which use salt and electricity. Contaminants like chlorine and hydrogen sulfide can affect water quality and the effectiveness of water conditioning systems. Therefore, pre-treatment to remove contaminants is crucial to ensure the longevity of the media used in salt-free systems.

Knowing how and when to use a salt-free conditioner versus a standard salt-using water softener is important if you want to have great water and avoid wasting time and money.

Water Softener

Salt-Free Water Conditioners vs. Traditional Water Softeners

Water softeners remove hardness scale (calcium carbonate) from water so that fixtures are mostly spot-free, glasses sparkle, skin is soft, and laundry is clean and bright. They do need salt to operate.

A salt-free conditioner keeps hardness scale from building up in pipes, water heaters, and appliances and extends the life of your plumbing, fixtures, and appliances. Little or no maintenance is required, and they don’t use salt. Salt-free water softeners do not remove hardness minerals but alter their chemical state to prevent scale formation. Additionally, having more media can lead to better performance and longer media life.

A salt-free conditioner will work fine for many hard water conditions but definitely is not for everyone and every hard water condition! If you have had a water softener and your water is greater than 10 – 12 grains per gallon and you like soft water, you will likely not like a salt-free conditioner. If you see someone saying they have a “salt-free water softener,” it's technically incorrect. Softening removes the hardness ions, whereas no salt conditioners do not.

Are Water Softeners Necessary?

If your water is hard (greater than 5 to 10 grains/hardness per gallon), water softeners can be crucial for your home or business. Salt-free water softeners are an alternative to traditional water softeners and can help reduce scale formation in water heaters and other appliances.

If you’ve experienced scale buildup and clogging of pipes and fixtures, your water is likely too high in magnesium and/or calcium content—in other words, it is too hard. Soft water is important for clean fixtures, long-lasting water heaters and appliances, clean laundry, and soft skin. Pre-treatment to remove contaminants like iron and chlorine is essential to ensure the effectiveness of water softeners.

A water softener will solve this problem fairly easily, but what kind of softener will you use?

When selecting a water softener for use in your home, you’ll find that you have quite a few options. A good water softener will count the gallons you use and only regenerate with brine (salt water) when needed, saving water and salt. An added benefit of using salt-free systems is that they retain beneficial minerals while effectively managing scale buildup.

The best, most efficient softeners use ‘up-flow bringing’ and much less salt than the more traditional softeners.

To Salt or Not To Salt?

Before you begin selecting a water softener, you should first ask yourself whether you want to use a regular ion exchange water softener, which uses salt and physically removes hardness, or a salt-free water conditioner which does not use salt, but also doesn’t remove hardness and works best to keep scale from building up in pipes. Salt-free water softeners do not remove hardness minerals but alter their chemical state to prevent scale formation.

Normal water softeners use ion-exchange media to remove hardness. An ion-exchange resin inside the softener attracts calcium and magnesium from the water and replaces them with sodium ions from the exchange resin. More media can lead to better performance and longer media life.

During regeneration (the process by which the softener’s resin is cleaned and kept ready for use), saltwater is drawn from a brine tank into the softener to regenerate the sodium in the resin.

These systems will remove calcium and magnesium, thereby eliminating scale and making fixtures spot-free, clothes cleaner and brighter, and skin softer.

In comparison, salt-free water conditioners produce a catalytic reaction to convert calcium and magnesium in water to firm calcite crystals, which are then carried away by the water flow once they reach a sufficient size (the nanometer range). An added benefit is that they retain beneficial minerals like calcium and magnesium while improving water quality.

Thus, saltless water conditioners do not physically remove water hardness but change the dissolved calcium carbonate into a type of calcite crystal that cannot attach to pipes or appliances to create hardness deposits. Additionally, salt-free systems do not use electricity, making them more eco-friendly.

Salt-free conditioners also require less maintenance than normal softeners because they don’t need to be back-washed or regenerated. This makes them cheaper due to decreased water and energy usage. Eliminating the need to replace the brine solution further increases your savings over a normal water softener.

How Do I Know Which Type to Use?

• Test your water first. Get a water softener if your water has a high hardness of over 12 – 15 grains per gallon. Salt-free water softeners are an alternative to traditional water softeners and can help reduce scale formation in water heaters and other appliances.
• If you already own a water softener or had one in the past and like zero-soft water (less than 1 grain of hardness per gallon), then stick with a water softener
• If you only care about protecting your appliances, plumbing, and fixtures and having improved scale control, cleaner shower doors and glasses (but not totally spot-free) consider a salt free conditioner, as they save having to buy salt and are very easy to install and operate. Pre-treatment to remove contaminants like iron and chlorine is important to ensure the effectiveness of water softeners. An added benefit of salt-free systems is retaining beneficial minerals while managing scale buildup.

If you have any further questions about water softeners or other water filtration systems, e-mail us at support@cleanwaterstore.com, contact us on Facebook, or use our online contact form, and we’ll respond as soon as we can.

Learn More: Hard Truths About Soft Water