A salt free water softener system will do exactly as it says - soften your water without having to pass it through salts. Salt free water softeners work by preventing the hard scale that sticks to, and can be so destructive toward pipes, valves and other water system components. They do this by changing the dissolved ‘hard’ minerals in the water into harmless and inert, or inactive, soft scale particles.

These softer particles will remain in the water, but are suspended in it rather than dissolved, meaning that they will harmlessly pass through the water system and down the drain - without involving any ecologically damaging and harmful caustic salts.

A water softener trades hard minerals in water for soft minerals. This usually involves calcium and magnesium, the hard minerals, and salt or potassium, the soft minerals. A water softener contains chemicals that attract the hard minerals and exchange them for the soft minerals. These chemicals are referred to as an ion exchange resin. Water softeners can also remove iron.

Do I Need A Water Softener?

The causes of water contamination are various. Run off from agricultural practices and the misuse of household cleaning supplies are just two of many. Although we have received benefits from the numerous chemical compounds our society has developed, we have also inherited pollution and water contamination from these same compounds.

Any attempt at fixing your washing machine yourself will be helped greatly by a basic understanding of how this major appliance works. Most everyone knows that washers go through wash and spin cycles, but as not so clear on the details of what goes on inside to run them.

Also, the exact design will differ among manufacturers and models, but there are some things all washers share. They all have electric motors driving the action, some way of draining and filling themselves with water, and timers to control the activation and stopping of the different cycles, for example.

There are many products that you can buy claiming to be no salt water softeners for people living in hard water areas. Hard water can not only taste unpleasant but can cause staining in your laundry, cost you money by having to use greater quantities of detergents not to mention harming water heaters and pipes with due to them becoming clogged up with lime-scale. In these more environmentally aware days using ever increasing amounts of salt to counter the problem is seen as a less attractive proposal compared to one of the more sophisticated no salt water softener systems.