Water softener help in Saratoga

Water Softener San Jose is an independent referral service, not an installer or plumber. When you send the form with your Saratoga ZIP code, your details are passed to an independent local water treatment pro, who can contact you and prepare a quote.

First, your water’s hardness

Your bill names the company that supplies your home; ask your water provider for its annual water quality report and find the hardness line. This site has not read every supplier’s report around Saratoga, so it gives no figure for the town. On the USGS scale, 0 to 60 mg/L is soft, 61 to 120 moderately hard, 121 to 180 hard and more than 180 very hard. One grain per gallon is about 17 mg/L.

If your home draws from a private well rather than a water company, the water is yours to test. EPA says private well owners are responsible for the safety of their water, and EPA and CDC advise testing at least once a year for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids and pH, using a state-certified laboratory. Ask the lab about hardness too, and choose treatment from the results.

Salt-based softeners

A salt-based softener uses ion exchange: resin holds the calcium and magnesium that cause hardness and is cleaned with brine from a tank of salt or potassium chloride. NSF/ANSI 44 is the standard for residential softeners of this kind. San Jose Water describes a softener as a system that works to remove high concentrations of those minerals.

• Sodium: a salt-based softener adds sodium to the water in exchange for the hardness it removes. On a sodium-restricted diet, ask your doctor.
• The water heater: San Jose Water notes some softening systems can increase the corrosivity of the water, which can damage the anode in a water heater. Keep the water heater maintained.
• Upkeep: the brine tank needs refilling with the salt or potassium chloride the maker names, and the system needs service on the maker’s schedule.
• A drain: the softener needs a drain line for regeneration water.

Salt-free systems

Salt-free conditioners use a different technology from ion exchange. This site states nothing about how well they perform. If one is offered, ask the installer what the system is certified for, under which standard, and what it does and does not do to your water’s hardness reading. Compare that answer with a salt-based quote on the same terms.

Adding a whole-house filter

A softener does not filter for taste, odor or specific contaminants. If you want that through the house, a filter can go on the same main line. Ask what it is certified to reduce: NSF/ANSI 42 covers aesthetic effects such as chlorine, taste and odor, and NSF/ANSI 53 covers health effects such as lead. Our page on the whole house water filter in San Jose covers how the two share a line.

Questions to ask in Saratoga

• What hardness was the system sized for, and where did the figure come from?
• Salt-based or salt-free, and what is each certified for?
• What does the softener do to sodium in the water, and can the drinking tap be fed differently?
• Where will it go, and where does the drain line run?
• Does the job need a permit? Check with the City of Saratoga.
• Is every part of the price written down?

For the install itself, see water softener installation in San Jose; for drinking water at one tap, reverse osmosis in San Jose. Hard water itself is not a health risk, as San Jose Water says for its own customers; softening is a choice about comfort and upkeep.

When you send the form, choose the job that fits (new softener, salt-free system, softener plus filter, or not sure) and add your ZIP code. Asking is free and you never have to buy.

Questions people ask