Water Softener or no water softener?

[Bloomfield]

Hello folks I am just starting my first laundromat in a small village in upstate New York. I have village water that has a 21 hardness factor. I feel like there should be a water softener system in place but I have heard that the softening process will cause damage to the hot water heater. My questions are these: What is best for the heaters and washers, softened water or untreated 21 hardness water? Please respond in economic terms as well as cutomer satisfaction terms! Thanks, Bloomfield.

[mjwalsh]

Originally Posted by Bloomfield

... I have heard that the softening process will cause damage to the hot water heater. My questions are these: What is best for the heaters and washers, softened water or untreated 21 hardness water? Please respond in economic terms as well as cutomer satisfaction terms! Thanks, Bloomfield.

Bloomfield,

Welcome to the CLA BB.

For our laundromat we just soften the water that goes through our HotWater Makers. That way you get the best of both worlds. The rinses tend to be cold depending on your makes & models so that helps to eliminate soap suds when needed.

With good both (promotional & cautionary) signage, the customers appreciate the fact that they can use less soap & see more suds on the warmer water settings.

From our experience & a visit with Jeff Deal of Hamilton Engineering at a Clean Show reinforced that "soft" is better for hot water heaters in general. I wonder where that misinformation came from & in what exception or context ... about damage occurring to the hot water heater?

We like our Fleck twin softeners. They have to be sized properly because there is a cV factor or in other words a loss of pressure consideration. I realize the extremely tough budget considerations for a lot of operators, but it seems, in my opinion that softeners are something that they should be given consideration. Like you pointed out the level of hardness is part of that consideration.

For our car n dog wash we successfully use all softened water.

mike walsh king koin of bismarck

[Howard]

Hard water causes calcium and lime build up in water heaters and pipes and valves. On the surface it seems that it is obvious that you want soft water. But as in most things in life it is not that easy. You see soft water also causes soaps and detergents to produce more suds than hard water. Since customers almost universally seem to believe that more detergent (in many cases much more) is better hard water actually helps prevent many over sudsing problems. This problem is only going to become worse and worse as the detergent makers keep concentrating the detergents and customers still keep using the same volume.

Mike's idea to soften just water to the heater may be a good one. I have seen some of those "electronic black boxes" that are supposed to do this without adding salt - you might want to explore those as well.

[Duane]

First you need to determine what 21 means.

Is it grains per gallon? If so, anything over 10.5 grains per gallon is considered very, very hard.

Is it milligrams per liter? If so, then 21 is considered just above soft to slightly hard.

Need more info.

My opinion is not to soften water even if it is extremely hard and to use plastic piping through out the store. It will cut down or eliminate the over soaping issues and chances are it would be cheaper to replace a water heater every 8 years or so rather than buying a softener system and needing to maintain it every week.

Duane.