Frequently Asked Questions

The most common misconception is that the water flows through the salt or is softened by it — neither is the case. All modern water softeners contain a softening media called "ion exchange resin," tiny beads made of inert polystyrene plastic. When cation exchange resin comes in contact with sodium chloride (salt), the sodium side of the ion sticks to the beads, giving them a weak positive charge. Water passing through picks up strongly positive ions — hardness (calcium and magnesium), clear water iron, lead, cadmium, zinc, and copper — which bond to the resin and release the weak sodium ions into the water. This is called cation exchange water softening, and every water softener uses this same process. Potassium chloride (K-Life) can also be used but is more expensive and less efficient. Because only small amounts of sodium are released, treated water should never taste salty — if it does, your system isn't working correctly.

A cubic foot of standard cation exchange resin can remove about 32,000 grains of hardness before it's exhausted and loses its attractive force. The system then replenishes the resin with brine (salty) water, which overwhelms the resin with positive ions, releases the accumulated hardness, and backwashes it down the drain along with excess sodium. The resin is then regenerated — made new again — and ready to repeat the process. This is used by all residential/light commercial softeners and is the only softening process that really works. Older softeners used zeolite, a mined mineral with similar properties, but it degraded to a mushy material in a few years and needed replacing.

This is directly proportional to your water's hardness. Multiply 7.86 by the grains of hardness to get milligrams of sodium per liter — for example, 25 gpg hardness × 7.86 = 196.5 mg/L, about equal to one slice of white bread. Recommended adult sodium intake is 2,000 mg/day, and you'd need to drink an entire liter of water to get that amount (water also flushes sodium from the body). If you eat regular foods and aren't on an extremely sodium-restricted diet, sodium in your water won't be an issue.

No. This pseudoscience, first introduced in the 1930s, claims a magnetic field makes calcium and magnesium precipitate out or change form so they won't adhere to pipes. There's no legitimate scientific evidence behind these claims — magnets have also been fraudulently promised to treat everything from baldness to heavy metals in the bloodstream. The only proven method is the ion exchange process — actually removing calcium and magnesium is the only way to truly soften water. No serious water treatment professional would use magnets for softening, filtering, or purifying water.

Naturally soft water doesn't feel slippery, but water softened by a water softener does — for two reasons. First, the sodium ions from soft water combine with sodium in soap, producing a slippery feeling. Second, when a softener removes calcium or ferrous iron and exchanges it for sodium, it leaves the alkaline bicarbonate part behind, changing the water chemistry (similar to how alkaline bleach feels slick when mixed with water). The slipperiness is directly proportional to your water's original hardness — the more ions exchanged, the slipperier it feels. You're actually getting cleaner with soft water, not left with a film of soap.

Yes. Try synthetic body washes and shampoos without soap to reduce the slippery feeling, or experiment with different soap brands if you want it slipperier. You can also adjust the salt setting or regeneration schedule on the softener. Potassium chloride (K-Life) instead of sodium chloride helps reduce the slick feeling. Partially bypassing the unit is a common trick to decrease softness, though it defeats the purpose of having a softener and isn't recommended.

For clear water (ferrous) iron, the best method — depending on concentration — is a heavy duty water softener designed for iron removal. For red water (ferric) iron, a heavy duty backwashing filter with iron removal media mixed with calcite works best. If you have both ferrous and ferric iron, you may need both a heavy duty iron filter and a heavy duty water softener. Chlorine injection with GAC carbon filters has been used historically but requires frequent carbon replacement and doesn't soften the water. Chlorine injection remains the preferred method for hard-to-control bacterial or organic iron, and for rare "colloidal iron" that resists normal filtration.

Your water heater has an "anode rod" hanging inside the tank with a negative charge, protecting the tank lining from iron, hard water, and other minerals. That anode rod is also where iron-reducing bacteria thrive, feeding on iron and producing the sulfur smell. The real fix is removing the food source — the iron — with a water treatment system. Removing the anode rod will void the water heater's warranty and shorten its life, and chlorinating the tank only kills the smell temporarily; it comes back once iron-bearing water refills the tank.

This is hydrogen sulfide gas, produced by decaying vegetation underground and anaerobic bacteria, migrating up into your well water supply. Air injection systems are a low-maintenance, reliable way to remove it — adding oxygen via a micronizer or air pump oxidizes the sulfur, and the air and water separate in a tank with an air release valve. Standard air injection oxidizes iron right along with the sulfur, so on its own it needs to be paired with a downstream removal system — an iron filter or an additional water softener — to actually remove what gets oxidized, otherwise the iron will clog pipes and other water-using appliances. Most hydrogen sulfide water also has at least some iron, and often hardness too. Mr. Water LLC invented the first Water Softener with Closed Pressure Aeration (WSCPA), which eliminates sulfur, iron, and hardness in one single system — see how it works →