5 Ways Treated Water Prolongs The Life Of Your Appliances
1. No Scale Build Up
Treating your home's water will remove the hard water minerals, like calcium and magnesium, that could be causing chaos in your home's water-using appliances. When treated water runs through your dishwasher, it doesn't leave behind hard minerals that cause scale build-up, therefore prolonging the life of the machine.
Untreated water can contain unwanted minerals. These contaminants build up over time in appliances like your dishwasher, coffee pot, or washing machine. The scale builds up, and mineral deposits caused by hard water can damage your water-using appliances, wearing them down quickly.
2. Minimal Soap Usage
The Water Quality Research Foundation found that with soft water, appliances need to use less soap and detergent, yet be just as effective. Detergent use dropped by 50% in washing machines with soft water. That means minimal soaps or chemicals need to run through your washing machine and dishwasher, reducing the amount of wear on the appliance.
3. Washing Machines Can Run On Lower Temperatures
According to the WQRF research, with treated water, appliances can be run at lower temperatures, and be just as effective. With treated water, tests showed washing machines could run with a water temperature of 60 degrees instead of 100 degrees and still remove tough stains.
4. Maintain Efficiency
With treated water, appliances like dishwashers and washing machines are much more likely to retain original factory efficiency ratings for an extended time. If untreated water is being run through those appliances, their efficiency is going to decrease dramatically as months and years go by. That means you aren’t actually getting the energy savings you think you are.
Most of us don’t actually pay much attention to appliance manuals, but if you did, you’d see many of them recommend using treated water for the best performance. In fact, the warranties for some high-efficiency models are void if you’re using them with hard water.
5. Full Water Heater Life Expectancy And Efficiency
According to the Department of Energy, heating water accounts for 14% to 18% of the energy costs in your home, and it could be as high as 25%. The 2009 WQA study indicates soft water has a very positive impact on the lifespan of water heaters.
“As for water heaters, the researchers found that when they used softened water, the units maintained their original factory efficiency rating for as long as 15 years.”
“Running hard water through the units cut efficiency by up to 48 percent. Scale buildup shortened the lifespan of the heating elements inside electric water heaters, and some tankless water heaters using hard water failed after just 1.6 years.”
Make The Switch To Soft Water
Hard water is extremely common across the United States. These minerals in your water could be wreaking havoc on your appliance.
In addition to costing you more money in cleaning products and energy, hard water can cause buildups in your washing machine and dishwasher and can lead to broken pumps and problems in other appliance parts, forcing you to repair or replace expensive appliances more frequently than you should.
To avoid unnecessary costs on dishwasher cleaners, appliance repair, and excessive energy bills, invest in a water softener system from us today and learn how you can help extend the life of your water-using appliances and maintain their efficiency.
