I have recently met a man who tells me that the average life of his electric water heater elements is no more than 3 to 3 1/2 months. They treat their coffee maker with CLR but they don't last a year. Faucet aerators have to be uncloged frequently. He claims that if his well water were any harder it would bruise them in the shower.
He originally had his new home plumbed for a softener but a giant air duct suddently appeared in the utility closet and took up the space. This guy's plumber tells him that a water softener will not work with this water. He says everyone tapped into this aquifer in that area has the same problem and a softener won't fix it.
In a nutshell my response was BALDERDASH (or something similar starting with "B") I am unconvinced that this plumber knows what he is talking about and said so to the homeowner who has a professional with decades of experience on one side telling him one thing and me on the other saying the plumber may mean well but is ignorant.
WHATUP water dudes???? Is there such a thing as water that is too hard to fix??? I don't think so but have limited softener experience and was going on my understanding of the underlying science. There are no off flavor notes to his water straight from the tap. No iron stains. I didn't check but I would bet that unfiltered tap watre made into ice cubes would look like a snowstorm when melting in a glass of water (mine do and my well isn't that hard so as to ruin a heater in a few months. I fortgot to tell him to set his heater temp for 120F as hotter deposits more minerals inside the heater and on the heat coils.
I'd think even if a single pass through a normal household softener didn't make the water soft, it would certainly make it SOFTER! I have never seen multiple softeners employed in series but that should tame water that is saturated with the highest calcium and magnesium content the water is capable of disolving. He can always go RO to get rid of the residual sodium if it were too strong. He has high blood pressure and doesn't need the extra sodium.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]