For anyone who's ever dealt with the annoyances of hard water, you've probably weighed the pros and cons of getting a water softener. But without seeing the science behind what a water softener can actually do to save you money and save your appliances, you may have just opted to "deal with it" rather than buying a softener. But what if you could actually see the real benefits of installing a water softener and how much more efficiently your appliances would work? Seeing sometimes really is believing. So, this week, we're sharing with you a study done on energy and detergent savings when comparing softened and unsoftened water supplies being used. Take a look:

The Energy Savings Study
This study tested devices fed with softened and unsoftened water under controlled laboratory conditions designed to accelerate the waterside scaling in the device and quantify the performance efficiency. The project specifically focused on efficiency improvements in household water heaters from use of softened water, and the subsequent effect on performance of fixtures, such as low-flow showerheads and faucets, and appliances, such as laundry washers and dishwashers. For this study, Battelle tested 30 water heaters supplied by WQA over a 90-day period using a Battelle-developed and WQA-approved test protocol. Battelle simultaneously studied the effect of water hardness on
performance of faucets, low-flow showerheads, dishwashers, and laundry washers. Using the empirical data generated from the water heater testing and the effect on performance of fixtures and appliances, Battelle developed a differential carbon footprint assessment for homes using unsoftened water vs. softened water.

Conclusions
For gas storage and instantaneous water heaters, the use of a water softener to eliminate or minimize the scale forming compounds in water resulted in the efficiency of the water heater remaining constant over the life of the unit. In contrast, gas storage and instantaneous water heaters using unsoftened water had a noticeable decrease in efficiency over the testing period resulting in higher natural gas use. This natural gas savings associated with the use of softened water lead to direct energy and economic savings. In addition, because of the need to have the instantaneous water heater delimed or cleaned periodically, the economic savings lead to recovery of the cost of a water softener and operating supplies in a period as short as a year.

Electric storage water heaters did not record any difference in the electricity consumption between units receiving softened or unsoftened water. However, the life of the heating element on the electric water heater receiving unsoftened water needed to be replaced more often due to a shorter lifespan.

Low flow showerheads and faucets using unsoftened water clogged in less than seven days of accelerated life testing, whereas those units using softened water made it through the test without any problems.

The dishwashers and clothes washers on either soft or unsoftened water made it through 30 days of accelerated scale testing, but the units on unsoftened water had noticeable scale buildup on all surfaces that had contact with unsoftened water.

The Detergent Savings Study
The laundry study investigated stain removal with varying levels of hardness, detergent dose, and temperature. Detergent usage was 50, 75 and 100% of the manufacturer's recommended level. Water hardness ranged from 0 to 513 ppm (30 grains/gallon). Wash temperature was 60, 80 and 100ºF. Statistical analysis was conducted to compare the ability of softening water to mitigate the adverse effects of lower detergent dosage and lower wash temperature in turn decreasing costs and energy usage.

Detergent savings was also evaluated for dishwashers. The detergent savings study included tests for removing difficult soils in addition to the spot and film evaluation. The relationship between detergent dose and hardness was investigated with three non phosphate automatic dishwashing detergents with two consecutive wash-dry cycles for spot and film. One detergent was evaluated for five cycles to ensure that effects do not change with increased number of cycles.

Conclusions
The savings in detergent use and the energy required to heat the water is very high for each of the stains tested. Even when 50% of the detergent is used at a lower temperature of 60ºF instead of 100ºF, the washing yielded improved results when softened water was used as compared to when hard water was used. The study showed that one can use cold water and half the detergents for washing clothes stained with any or all of these stains and still achieve the soil removal desired, if the very hard water is softened prior to such use. This is the most significant conclusion of this study. Reduction of hardness is significantly more effective on stain removal than either increase in temperature or detergent dose.

Statistically significant improvements by softening water with hardness were observed in spotting and filming performance as well as in better soil removal in automatic dishwashing. Detergent savings up to 70% was observed for dishwashing when softened water was used compared to hard water. Depending on the soil, hardness reduction was found to be up to 12 times more effective at soil removal than increasing detergent dose.

What Are You Waiting For?
So, as you can see, there are some REAL tangible benefits to getting a water softener to take care of your hard water issues. Not only can it save you money by allowing your appliances to run more efficiently, but you can also save money on detergents, soaps, etc. So, now that you've seen the potential savings in black and white, what are you waiting for? Knowing the benefits of having a water softener at the Lake of the Ozarks you can feel more confident in your choice to purchase a Lindyspring System to treat your water in your home or your business. If you have any questions pertaining to water treatment at the Lake of the Ozarks or are interested in scheduling a time for us to come out to your home to determine which system would best fit your needs, contact Lindyspring Systems today!

For All Your Household Water Conditioning and Treatment Needs Count on LINDYSPRING!