Improve Appliance Lifespan With a Water Softener - Central Texas Water Softeners
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Improve Appliance Lifespan With a Water Softener

  • July 9, 2020
Improve Appliance Lifespan With a Water Softener - Central Texas Water Softeners

In the summer I am constantly receiving notifications from many of the box stores and other retailers of appliance sales and appliance bundles.  There a two hot times for these sales (summer) and around Thanksgiving!

Did you know that water-based appliances will last 50% longer with soft, chloramine free water?

The Ice makers in refrigerators will fail with hard water on average in 3 years.  The on board Granular Activated Filters, need to be changed every 3-6 months with hard water and potentially sooner with chloramines in the water.  Rubber components will fail in three years.  This failure is the leading cause of indoor flood damage, and preventable with a softener and catalytic carbon tank.

Dishwashers and Laundry machines will lose 50% of their lives with hardwater and any rubber components (o rings, hoses, etc.) will fail on average in 3 years due to Chloramines.  This will also hold true for the rubber flappers in your toilet tanks – this is one of the leading causes in water waste.  When a laundry machine’s hosing fails, unless you have a shut off valve that automatically closes, this appliance is under high pressure and will spew 5-8 gallons per minute of water into the house.  If you are gone for 1 hour, that is 480 gallons of water.  8 hours, this almost 2,000 gallons of water (an entire monthly usage for one person) or 1/6 of the volume of the average pool, is now inside your house.

Hot water heaters take the worst abuse from hard water.  If you own a tankless unit, hard water voids the warranty, because failure is on average 16 months.  Tanked units will lose 50% of their efficiency in 3 years or less.

If you have to replace any one of these appliances mentioned, before their anticipate life expectancy, then you would have paid for the cost of at least a softener (and maybe even a Catalytic Carbon tank) to remove the chloramines.

Hard water occurs when your water has calcium and magnesium present.  There can be compensated hardness when in addition to calcium and magnesium there are certain types of iron and manganese.  A good Cation resin (softener – must be salt based – the non-salt based will NOT work), will remove these through ion exchange.  Non salt based systems when you test for hardness at any faucet/fixture will test hard.  They claim that the ions have been activated not to stick and it is just going down your drain, which in part is true, if water was constantly moving.  The water in your house is on demand and 95% of the time is at rest in your pipes and appliances and water droplets, when introduced to air’s evaporation will leave behind the Calcium and Magnesium (spotting, scale and other problems related to hardness) will be the result.

Chloramination is the disinfectant of choice for almost all public water sources.  This is a combination of Chlorine and Ammonia (Mustard Gas) which is a highly effective killer!  It is also a carcinogen and leaves nasty byproducts, one of which dissolves rubber, cations, and other inorganic chemical compounds.  Once your water has made it through the public system, these should be removed before household usage.  Granular Activated Carbon will work for a VERY short period of time (we mentioned the exchange of the fridge filter).  Activated Coconut Carbon will also work, probably about 1 year and then it will need to be replaced.  Catalytic Carbon is the best solution and it will work for 3-7 years depending on the amounts of the Chloramination in your water.  By adding 1 tank of Catalytic Carbon, your softener resin will last 3 x times longer (which pays for itself.)

While removing the hardness and Chloramination in your household water is a great start for you and your appliances, water meant for consumption (ice, drinking water, cooking water and water used to prep food) should be from a Reverse Osmosis System.  Our local drinking waters have too many contaminants, from Arsenic, Lead, Pesticides, Herbicides, Radium, Uranium and heavy metals, Fluoride, Mercury, and other organic materials that must be removed!  Being able to combine a sink faucet, refrigerator ice/water line, pot filler and potentially pet watering dish would be ideal.

The average home should be able to incorporate a great softener, catalytic carbon tank and reverse osmosis, if your have a water loop, for the cost of $3,000 – $3,500 installed, about the cost of a major appliance.  This combination should double the life of your hot water, ice maker, dishwasher and laundry machine.

We look forward to earning the privilege of becoming your trusted water treatment company.


Central Texas Water Softeners understands your local water and what is needed to make it the best working and/or drinking water. Our mission is finding the right water solutions to help your home and business get clean, pure water while providing water knowledge. For more information on water softeners, reverse osmosis, water purity and filtration, contact the experts at Central Texas Water Softeners. We take pride in saying that we supply the best water treatments in the Hill Country and surrounding area.



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