Water Softener Installation in Dallas-Fort Worth

Hard water looks like any other water coming out of the tap. You notice it in what it leaves behind.

Spots on Dishes and Glassware

When hard water dries, the calcium and magnesium in it stay behind. That is the cloudy film on glasses and the white spots on dishes that come out of the dishwasher looking unwashed.

Scale on Fixtures and Your Water Heater

The same minerals build up as white, crusty scale on faucets and showerheads. Inside a water heater, scale settles on the bottom of the tank and on the heating elements, where you cannot see it. In a 2009 Battelle study, a gas storage water heater on 30 grain water had a projected life-cycle efficiency loss of 25.5 percent, and 8.5 percent at 10 grains.

Curious what hard water does to the rest of your home? Read why treating your water matters.

Hard water carries dissolved calcium and magnesium. A salt-based softener runs your water through a tank of resin beads that hold on to those minerals and trade them for sodium, so the water leaving the tank is soft.

When the resin is full, the system rinses it with salt water from the brine tank and starts over. That rinse is called regeneration, and it is why a softener uses salt. Softening adds a small amount of sodium to your water.

Soft water running through the whole house means:

• Softer skin and hair
• Less soap and detergent
• Spot-free dishes and glassware
• Less scale on your water heater, dishwasher, and fixtures

A softener treats hardness. It is not a drinking water filter. Cleaner, better-tasting water at the kitchen sink is a job for reverse osmosis.

The whole job of a softener is to take the hardness minerals out of your water. A salt-based softener does that: the calcium and magnesium are removed, so they cannot form scale or spots.

Some systems sold as salt-free are conditioners. They change how the minerals behave, but the minerals stay in the water. Because removing hardness is the point, salt-based softening is what we install.

There is no single price that fits every home. Three things drive it:

• The size of your home and how much water it uses
• How hard your water is
• Your existing plumbing, and where the system will go

The free in-home water test gives you an exact recommendation for your home before you decide anything.

We install new salt-based softeners and service existing systems from any brand.

Hardness is measured in grains per gallon. The Water Quality Association calls 7 to 10.5 grains hard and anything above 10.5 very hard. Fort Worth Water reports 6 to 9 grains per gallon, and Southlake, which buys its water from Fort Worth, reports the same.

Fort Worth says its water is usually hard enough to create a coating on the inside of any metal pipes or fixtures. A softener takes the hardness out before it gets that far.