Why Use Water Softener Crystals?

Salt is not the only option when it comes to water softeners. Water softener crystals that use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride provide a salt-free alternative to hard water problems. Potassium chloride water softener crystals work by themselves or they can be poured over an existing salt bed.

Hard water can be a major problem in households with wells or in areas where the ground water is high in minerals, particularly calcium. Mineral-rich water isn’t unhealthy, although it doesn’t always have a pleasant taste. Aside from the taste there are other issues that will arise with hard water. Calcium in water adheres to everything it touches and hardens into an eggshell-like material known as scale.

Hard water also causes a cloudy film on tubs, showers, sinks and taps, and the same film is left on your body when you bathe. Have you ever experienced a slimy feeling on your skin, as if you still have soap on your skin no matter how much you rinse? That is from hard water.

It also prevents detergents and soaps from lathering and doing their job properly, which means that you have to use more than the recommended amount of laundry detergent, shampoo and dish detergent.

Naturally, this can cost extra money, but the problems don’t stop there. A coating of scale on the element of the hot water heater has an insulating effect which prevents the heat from reaching the water as easily. This means that the water heater is working overtime to try and keep the water hot, and that can get expensive in terms of electricity costs.

Scale also causes other problems such as plugging the holes in the shower head. If you have hard water you might notice that over time your shower pressure decreases and eventually the shower is reduced to a mere trickle. This is the same thing that happens to the insides of water pipes as well. The scale coats the wall, making the opening in the pipe smaller and smaller until eventually barely any water can get through.

Potassium chloride is an odorless metal halide salt that consists of potassium and chlorine, a substance that naturally occurs in combination with ordinary sodium chloride. Water softener crystals that use potassium chloride are more expensive than salt, while they achieve a similar result without adding excess amounts of sodium to waste water and ground water.

It works on the same principle; replacing scale-causing minerals with potassium ions instead of sodium ions. It also adds a trace of potassium to the water, which is a healthy addition to the diet.

Another advantage that potassium chloride has over sodium-based water softening is that it can be added back into the environment as waste water without adversely affecting plant life. This is particularly important in agricultural areas where cash crops are prevalent.

Sodium hinders the growth of plants, but potassium is actually consumed by plants as a nutrient. Potassium chloride water softener crystals provide a healthier solution to water softening that benefits people, plants and the environment as a whole.