The Next Wave

Kohler

Rich lather, clean fixtures and bright laundry—what’s not to love about a water softener?

For homes that have hard water—tap water that contains a relatively high amount of dissolved calcium, magnesium and iron—a water softener can be a welcome relief.

Too much dissolved minerals in your home’s water supply reduces the effectiveness of detergents, meaning that if your home has untreated water, you have to use more soap in dishwashers and washing machines, and when you bathe.

Hard water also can reduce the life span and effectiveness of water heaters. Over time, dissolved minerals build up on the inside of a unit’s tank and heating elements, which might reduce their energy efficiency.

Nowadays, the software and sensors working behind the scenes in water softeners deliver features that are easier on the wallet and better for the environment.

SOFTENING ON DEMAND. To turn hard water soft, water coming into a home’s water softener runs through a bed of resin beads saturated in sodium chloride (read: salt). The resin beads attract the dissolved minerals and replace them in the water with the sodium. When the resin beads become fully coated with calcium and magnesium, the beads have to be cleaned through regeneration. The beads are rinsed in salty brine (made from the salt pellets you add to your system), and the unwanted minerals are flushed from the system.

More models today accomplish this more efficiently by cleaning on “demand” rather than by using a timer. Traditional timer water softeners use a simple alarm-clock mechanism to trigger the regeneration of the resin beads. The timer typically is set when a unit is installed and then, regular as clockwork, the water softener would regenerate whether the resin beads needed cleaning or not.

Demand water softeners use sensors to measure the amount of water your home uses and trigger the unit to regenerate after a certain number of gallons of water has been processed. Because demand-style systems monitor water use, they regenerate on a flexible schedule. If you use more water, the beads are cleaned on a more frequent basis. If you go on vacation and no or little water is used, a demand-style system won’t regenerate needlessly. This helps reduce the amount of salt and water used during the cleaning process. Even better—demand regeneration doesn’t necessarily add to the price you’ll have to pay for a water softener.

But Culligan and EcoWater Systems have taken demand water softeners a step further. Models by both companies use software that, the manufacturers say, predicts when your home needs more soft water.

Chris Wilker of EcoWater Systems, which licenses the Whirlpool brand for some of its water softeners, says its software gets to know and remembers a family’s water-usage patterns, so to speak. It does this by monitoring daily usage. The longer the softener functions, the “smarter” the softener becomes, because it has a longer water-usage history. Consequently, the water softener knows how much water is used, and it can match a predetermined dosage of salt based on that water usage during regeneration.

For example, a family of four with typical water usage and water hardness using a traditional softener would use up to 5,500 gallons of water per year during regeneration, and need nearly 1,100 pounds of salt for the cleaning. Smart models can cut water usage to 2,400 gallons per year and salt needs to 400 pounds, Wilker says. This can result in a cost savings of $200 a year in basic maintenance.