[New Englander]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

With a softener, you have two choices to use to regen the resin (or called back washing)

Most common is salt, that will result in "the feeling silky, some call it slimy"

The reaction between a triglyceride molecule (fat) and sodium hydroxide (lye) to make soap yields a molecule of glycerol with three ionically bonded molecules of sodium stearate (the soap part of soap). This sodium salt will give up the sodium ion to water, while the stearate ion will precipitate out of solution if it comes into contact with an ion that binds it more strongly than sodium (such as the magnesium or calcium in hard water).

The magnesium stearate or calcium stearate is a waxy solid that you know as soap scum. It can form a ring in your tub, but it rinses off your body. The sodium or potassium in soft water makes it much more unfavorable for the sodium stearate to give up its sodium ion so that it can form an insoluble compound and get rinsed away.

Instead, the stearate clings to the slightly charged surface of your skin. Essentially, soap would rather stick to you than get rinsed away in soft water.

We recommend using Potassium chloride rather than salt to eliminate that slippery-when wet feeling after rinsing the soap off. Also you're not adding salt to your drinking water.

During the softening process, sodium is released from the exchange media into the output water. For every grain of hardness removed from water,

8 mg/1 (ppm) of sodium is added. People on restricted sodium intake diets should account for increased levels of sodium in softened water. Your family physician should be consulted.

Sodium intake from softened water can be avoided by have a reverse osmosis kitchen tap drinking and cooking.

Substituting potassium chloride for sodium chloride may be appropriate if health or environmental reasons necessitate restricting sodium.

Potassium chloride is more expensive and adheres more strongly to the resin, reducing the exchange efficiency when compared with sodium chloride.

Salt is about $7 a bag Potassium is $30

I've never had a water softener so I'm wondering how long this potassium chloride lasts in the system? How often do you have to add more to the system?