Quote:
Originally Posted by Ski Bum
(Post 2110300)
A water softener works by exchanging salt (sodium chloride) for the other minerals in the water. When you take the existing minerals out, and exchange them for salt, it will taste different, but not unpleasant.
|
Conventional water softeners do not "exchange salt for other minerals". They exchange a sodium ion for an ion of the substance which is making the water "hard", usually calcium. Salt is used because it is cheap and readily available as a base to supply the sodium ion. The calcium is permanently removed from the water and flushed to a drain.
The fiction that conventional water softeners add salt to the house water has scared numerous people and has been used as a sales tactic by unscrupulous sellers of non-conventional softeners.
Nuvo, and similar systems such as Ivo, add a small amount of citric acid to the water. The acid works as a chelating agent which "binds" to the calcium and does not allow it to collect on faucets, shower heads etc. These systems remove nothing from the water. To the contrary, the water, together with the chelated calcium and citric acid continue to be present in the water in the house.
The continued presence of the calcium, even though bound to the citric acid, is why these systems do not provide the benefit of cleaner laundry which a conventional salt-based water softener provides. Also, the presence of the citric acid lowers the pH of the water and may, itself, be the source of the off-taste of the water of which the OP complains. If there is an excess of citric acid over the amount required to bind the amount of calcium in the water, the excess acid will be present in the water entering the house.
Nuvo, and similar brands, make a point that their systems do not require the homeowner to "lug" heavy bags of salt to, periodically, fill the softener's tank. This is true; however, it overlooks the heavy work of changing the filters in their systems twice a year. The filters are in a heavy plastic housing which mount vertically and screw into a manifold. As the housing and filter will be filled with water, they are very heavy and present a challenge when they are removed and installed. They are nearly identical to the iSpring filter system I have, in combination with a conventional salt-based softener. I assure you it is quite a task to change out such filters and a lot more work than "lugging" a couple of bags of salt to fill my softener's tank. Finally, a few bags of salt costs a fraction of the cost of changing Nuvo's filters twice a year.
These are the primary reasons why citrus-based systems will never supplant salt-based systems. In simple terms, they do not work nearly as well, cost more, and, actually, add citric acid to the water.
The iSpring system, which uses an activated charcoal filter, is a great addition to a conventional softener. Admittedly, it has the problem of removing/replacing a heavy, plastic housing filled with water. However, it is the only way to remove offensive odors, primarily chlorine, from household water. The first time I took a shower in our new house in The Villages, the chlorine smell was overpowering and akin to sniffing an open bottle of chlorine bleach. I immediately started a search for a filtering system and settled on iSpring along with a conventional softener from Home Depot.
