Salt based water softeners...are they good for appliances?

[def]

Soft water is great for bathing, washing clothes and dishes and even drinking as long as the raw water was not too hard to begin with. Softened water contains sodium which has been exchanged for the calcium and magnesium in the hard, unsoftened water. Softened  water needs little detergent to achieve clean clothes.

Softeners use salt (NaCL) to replenish the sodium and flush away the minerals that made the water hard. While a good softener thoroughly backwashes and rinses the resin bed during regeneration, small amounts of salt may still be present after the softener goes back on line.

Do any of you technicians see any damage to appliances as a result of the use of a salt based softeners? 

How about the commercial laundomats?

 

 

[LowSL2]

In my experience, water softeners extend the life of washers and dishwashers. They always look brand new on the inside. My house is plumbed for a water softener and I plan to put one in whenever one goes on clearance at work.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[def]

In my experience, water softeners extend the life of washers and dishwashers. They always look brand new on the inside. My house is plumbed for a water softener and I plan to put one in whenever one goes on clearance at work.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

I'm not a salesperson so, understand my questions are rhetorical;

1- How hard is your water?
2- Do you have city or well water?
3- Any iron in your water?
4- How many in your household?

I would prefer an old softener with a fiberglass tank and a very simple valve. Some of the new valves are junk and are throwaways.

If you know of a used softener that doesn't leak and parts are available, I would snatch it up and rebuild it. I have done so twice with Culligans that someone had hauled to the curb. Both softeners lasted until I moved from the house where I had installed them.

Replacement resin can make an old softener perform as new. Make sure the resin is actual ion-exchange resin not green sand.

Culligan used to offer a service whereby, you would deliver the resin tank to them, they would float the resin out of the tank, clean it, remove the damaged resin beads and restore the efficiency of the resin and return it to the tank.