4 Ways To Save With Treated Water
4 Ways To Save With Treated Water
Did you know that treated water can reduce monthly costs, energy usage, and the amount of detergent needed to thoroughly clean your household items? Hard water, in particular, is known for increasing the cost of many things throughout your home. Here are just a few examples of how fixing hard water with a water softener can help you spend less in other areas.
1. Save on Soaps
The Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) recently organized a study based on a series of experiments carried out by Scientific Services and Battelle to compare how various doses of laundry and dish detergent are affected by the hardness of the water. When washed with soft water, stained fabric in the experiment required about 50% of the detergent needed for hard water. This is because the hardness minerals, like calcium, cling to the detergent’s cleaning agents, making them turn into solid substances (a.k.a. soap scum) instead of the soapy suds that eliminate dirt particles.
That means for the average household spending more than $100 on just detergent each year, switching to treated water could save you up to $50 on laundry soap alone every year. Treated water can also save you money on shampoos and conditioners, body wash, and hand soap, by using minimal amounts for full effectiveness.
2. Use Less Cleaning Supplies
The same goes for your cleaning supplies. Using soft water to clean anything can be very efficient. Softened water makes it easy for soaps to form suds since there are no minerals in their way, therefore using small amounts of detergent or chemicals can be just as impactful when cleaning your tub or toilet. Just a few drops of dish soap can be added to a sink full of water and dirty dishes (Like in the commercials!), instead of a long squeeze from the bottle repeatedly.
Soft water can save on cleaning supplies by minimum wear on things like mops and sponges. Just like they do to detergent and soaps, hard water minerals will stick to everything, wearing them out quickly. The mineral deposits build up and make the material stiff and dingy, which also decreases its absorbency.
3. Keep New Clothes New
Hard water minerals will build up inside your clothes as they spin through your washing machine. Not only that, but remember the solid soap scum that forms when the calcium comes in contact with detergent? That sticky clump also gets embedded in the fibers of your fabrics, leaving them gray, dingy, stiff, and scratchy when they’re dried. When clothes can’t bend like they’re meant to, the fabric wears down faster, giving you thin spots or holes.
Soft water will help make your clothes last. Washing clothes in soft water will help maintain their color, quality, and softness for years. So, there is no need to replace your favorite shirt, socks, or jeans every six months due to the extreme wearing that hard water can cause.
5. Save Energy
Treated water can also save on energy costs in the home. Water heating is second only to heating your actual home regarding energy use. So, it stands to reason that you’ll want your water heater to run efficiently. The best way to do that is to make sure your water heater is on soft water.
When a water heater uses hard water, the calcium and magnesium minerals collect on the heating element inside, forming a thick crust layer on its surface. The water heater needs to use more energy to heat through that rock-like substance before it can raise the water temperature inside the tank. Over time, this hardness build-up can lead to real damage to the heating element. At a minimum, a new part would need to be purchased and replaced, but in some cases, you would have to buy a new water heater.
With soft water, this crust layer never forms, and the water heater can function as its manufacturer intended with little to no maintenance. An efficient water heater can save you as much as 29% per year on water heating costs and keep you from buying a new one for many years.
And that’s just what happens inside a water heater! Think of how many other appliances in your home have water running through it. A dishwasher, washing machine, humidifier, coffee maker, and more all go through the same increased energy draw as they try to work through the hard water mineral build-up inside their mechanisms.
Treat Your Water and Start Saving
Hard water contains minerals like magnesium and calcium that can cause headaches in your home. You may not know it, but the hard water in your home could cost you hundreds of dollars in cleaning products and even more in wasted energy when it comes to heating your home and washing your clothes and dishes.
Treating your home's water with an Evolve Series® water softener can remove these nuisance minerals, saving your home lots of money and energy.
With our advanced Water Efficient Technology® (W.E.T.), you can also be sure that your water softener saves you as much energy, water, and salt as possible! Contact your local authorized Evolve dealer today and find out how high-quality water can help you save on household items and energy.
