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#16
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Watering with soft water
On Mar 1, 9:52�pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:21:23 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 8:42?pm, Billy wrote: In article , ?Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:10:13 -0800, "SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. Thanks. Steve For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. Like Charles said, you would basically be putting salt on your plants. You don't want to drink it either, again it is salt (or the cation half of the salt) and you risk raising your blood pressure. It is good for washing things because the Ca++ in the water (hard water) is out and you don't precipitate fatty acids or get calcium stearate (better known as bathtub ring) which interfere with making the dirtiness soluble in water. |
#17
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Watering with soft water
wrote:
not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. � What do you call "very expensive"? A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50. Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the life of the water softener (about 20 years). If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is VERY expensive. |
#18
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Watering with soft water
On Mar 1, 9:41�pm, Charles wrote:
On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: Charles wrote: "SteveB" wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. That's not true. �There is no more salt contained in softened water than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less. If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water, now would it. �The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that never enters the domestic water. �If the typical water softener uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/ day. �The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water without it building up in one spot. �My grey water (water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. �And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any water softener. �Softened water contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water were not softened. Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. �The common household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for sodium. �The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water stays where it is. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio... Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary school level, and I'm being quite generous. [per your web site] "Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe. "_ DOH! |
#19
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Watering with soft water
In article
, Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: Charles wrote: "SteveB" wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened water than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less. If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water, now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/ day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water (water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. ?And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any water softener. ?Softened water contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water were not softened. Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water stays where it is. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio... Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary school level, and I'm being quite generous. [per your web site] "Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe. "_ DOH! Shelly, my dance instructor once told me that if I was going to fall, I should do it gracefully. You might learn from that and not be so snotty when you are so horribly wrong. The preceding paragraph reads,"The idea behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are replaced with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix called zeolite. The beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As the water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite contain nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium, and at this point they stop softening the water. It is then time to regenerate the beads or zeolite." Hellooooo? Did you get that Shelly? The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are **REPLACED** with sodium ions. Duh. Now go have a nice big glass of soft water:-) -- Billy Impeach Pelosi Bush & Cheney to the Hague http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml |
#20
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Watering with soft water
In article
, Sheldon wrote: wrote: not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. ? What do you call "very expensive"? A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50. Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the life of the water softener (about 20 years). If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is VERY expensive. This was about gardening Shelly, not plumbing. Toxification of the landscape and all that. St. Molly used to say, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. -- Billy Impeach Pelosi Bush & Cheney to the Hague http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml |
#21
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Watering with soft water
In article
, Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 9:52?pm, Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:21:23 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 8:42?pm, Billy wrote: In article , ?Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:10:13 -0800, "SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. Thanks. Steve For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. Like Charles said, you would basically be putting salt on your plants. You don't want to drink it either, again it is salt (or the cation half of the salt) and you risk raising your blood pressure. It is good for washing things because the Ca++ in the water (hard water) is out and you don't precipitate fatty acids or get calcium stearate (better known as bathtub ring) which interfere with making the dirtiness soluble in water. What tripe. ?There is virtually no salt in softened water... whatever salt was contained in the water before it was softened would be far, far less. From:http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/se...ter+softener&G.. . Sodium ions is not salt. The salt used in water softeners does NOT end up in the domestic water... the salt and oher minerals flush out as grey water. You have to give Shellly credit. He may be stoopid but but he is persistent. One more time from the top: The idea behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are ""REPLACED** with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix called zeolite. The beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As the water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually, the beads or zeolite contain nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium, and at this point they stop softening the water. It is then time to regenerate the beads or zeolite. How's that hole coming Shelly? About time to hydrate again, huh? -- Billy Impeach Pelosi Bush & Cheney to the Hague http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml |
#22
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Watering with soft water
"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
... I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. Thanks. Steve Similar question here. How about hydrogen sulfide gas from well water. Its filtered out before entering home plumbing. Hose bibs are connected to the same home plumbing. Normally, I use the 2 standalone faucets outside for irrigation. These have no filtration whatsoever. Any special notes on soaker hoses for this situation? -- Dave |
#23
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Watering with soft water
Sheldon wrote:
On Mar 1, 9:41�pm, Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: Charles wrote: "SteveB" wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. That's not true. �There is no more salt contained in softened water than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less. If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water, now would it. �The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that never enters the domestic water. �If the typical water softener uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/ day. �The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water without it building up in one spot. �My grey water (water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. �And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any water softener. �Softened water contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water were not softened. Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. �The common household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for sodium. �The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water stays where it is. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio... Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary school level, and I'm being quite generous. [per your web site] "Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe. "_ You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium goes into the brine as calcium chloride. So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their chemical composition. If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and without salt and see what you get. -- -- --John to email, dial "usenet" and validate (was jclarke at eye bee em dot net) |
#24
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Watering with soft water
In article ,
"J. Clarke" wrote: Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: Charles wrote: "SteveB" wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened water than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less. If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water, now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/ day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water (water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. ?And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any water softener. ?Softened water contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water were not softened. Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water stays where it is. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio... Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary school level, and I'm being quite generous. [per your web site] "Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe. "_ You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium goes into the brine as calcium chloride. So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their chemical composition. If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and without salt and see what you get. -- From my pitiful short garden experience. * Water from rain is best * then Water from rain barrels * then Water from softener * then Water from the hard line. * Let plants die. When I use my hard line my garden does not grow very well. Still better than no water at all. I have also found that flowers does seem to hold up better with the soft water than vegetables. Most water softeners are first run through a sediment filter taking out some nasty stuff first. Hard lines tend to come straight out of the well. Depending on the size of your garden that softener can get expensive, if it is a large one. If you are very rich and do not care, use the water from the R.O. purification system from your drinking water. Their are some companies that make inline water filters for the outside water lines (also not cheap). I will let you do the searching. Enjoy Life ... Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. |
#25
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Watering with soft water
"Dioclese" NONE wrote Any special notes on soaker hoses for this situation? -- Dave Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the inside. Steve |
#26
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Watering with soft water
"SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message
news "Dioclese" NONE wrote Any special notes on soaker hoses for this situation? -- Dave Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the inside. Steve Central TX, rural hill country west of IH35. Do have calcium etc from limestone in well water. Not really concerned about that since the soil is similar due to runoff from rain. I have a sediment filter, hydrogen gas filtration bottle (aerator), and a whole-house carbon filter running inline to the house. I saw one of those "what ifs" on an educational channel on TV. Evidently, the earth ODed on hydrogen sulfide gas sometime in the past. Killed pretty much everything land and sea. There's potential for that to happen again. The gas is bad ju-ju in concentrations. Thus, the soaker hose question about water with hydrogen sulfide gas. Picture in my mind about a soaker hose is like a holding tank, intermittently burping pure hydrogen sulfide gas in concentration. -- Dave |
#27
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Watering with soft water
"Dan L." wrote in message
... In article , "J. Clarke" wrote: Sheldon wrote: On Mar 1, 9:41?pm, Charles wrote: On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:12:11 -0800 (PST), Sheldon wrote: Charles wrote: "SteveB" wrote: I believe that the hose bibs on the outside of my house are hooked to the soft water system. ?Is there any disadvantage to watering with soft water? They're about to turn on the irrigation water system in our rural area, but I need to get around and water some of the trees before that. For occasional watering it is fine. ?For steady use I'd avoid it. Most softening systems replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium. Plants need calcium and magnesium, sodium is toxic. ?Over time it will build up, change the soil properties. That's not true. ?There is no more salt contained in softened water than there is in the bottled water that people drink, usually less. If softened water contained salt then it wouldn't be softened water, now would it. ?The salt used by water softeners leaves the sytem as grey water (along with the other minerals the system removes), that never enters the domestic water. ?If the typical water softener uses a pound of salt a day it's a lot, usually will use closer to 1/2 pound/ day. ?The trick is to find a way for disposing of the grey water without it building up in one spot. ?My grey water (water from my water softener, dehumidifier, and RO filter) is piped by gravity to a creek, the same creek that collects run off from many thousands of acres of lands as the creek meanders over many miles, which includes the many tons of salt spread on the roads in winter by the highway department.. my couple handfulls of salt a day is so negligible that it doesn't count. ?And salt is not toxic it's a necessity of life, a salt lick for live stock places more salt into the ground than any water softener. ?Softened water contains very little salt, certainly far less than if the water were not softened. Wrong, unless you are using a dual ion exchange system. ?The common household water softener just exchanges calcium and magnesium ions for sodium. ?The carbonate, sulfate, or whatever else is in the water stays where it is. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-a...aundry/questio... Your reading comprehension skills are near the 3rd grade elementary school level, and I'm being quite generous. [per your web site] "Regeneration involves soaking the beads or zeolite in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a very strong brine solution and flushes it through the zeolite or beads (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up in the zeolite or beads and replaces it again with sodium. _The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through a drain pipe. "_ You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium goes into the brine as calcium chloride. So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their chemical composition. If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and without salt and see what you get. -- From my pitiful short garden experience. * Water from rain is best * then Water from rain barrels * then Water from softener * then Water from the hard line. * Let plants die. When I use my hard line my garden does not grow very well. Still better than no water at all. I have also found that flowers does seem to hold up better with the soft water than vegetables. Most water softeners are first run through a sediment filter taking out some nasty stuff first. Hard lines tend to come straight out of the well. Depending on the size of your garden that softener can get expensive, if it is a large one. If you are very rich and do not care, use the water from the R.O. purification system from your drinking water. Their are some companies that make inline water filters for the outside water lines (also not cheap). I will let you do the searching. Enjoy Life ... Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. The filter needed depends on what you want to remove, the concentration of that unwanted substance, AND, how much resulting water you intend to use during a filter change interval. A solar heated still with intermittent manual removal of solids is almost like rain water purity. United States Patent 5181991. Rain barrels are a good idea if you get enough rain, flush the gunk out of barrels and lines once in awhile (green slime, might be black if cold). ----- Dave |
#28
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Watering with soft water
In article , "Dioclese" NONE
wrote: "SteveB" meagain@rockvilleUSA wrote in message news "Dioclese" NONE wrote Any special notes on soaker hoses for this situation? -- Dave Not sure about where you live, but here, the irrigation water is not filtered to a high degree. Fill a glass gallon jug and see if it has sediment or organic materials. This will clog up a soaker from the inside. Steve Central TX, rural hill country west of IH35. Do have calcium etc from limestone in well water. Not really concerned about that since the soil is similar due to runoff from rain. I have a sediment filter, hydrogen gas filtration bottle (aerator), and a whole-house carbon filter running inline to the house. I saw one of those "what ifs" on an educational channel on TV. Evidently, the earth ODed on hydrogen sulfide gas sometime in the past. Killed pretty much everything land and sea. There's potential for that to happen again. The gas is bad ju-ju in concentrations. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?cha...ID=00037A5 D- A938-150E-A93883414B7F0000 Thus, the soaker hose question about water with hydrogen sulfide gas. Picture in my mind about a soaker hose is like a holding tank, intermittently burping pure hydrogen sulfide gas in concentration. -- Billy Impeach Pelosi Bush & Cheney to the Hague http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml |
#29
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Watering with soft water
there is a lot of water needed to backwash the resin (if paying for the water) plus
the electricity. then there are the iron prefilters to replace. on my mothers house the water is very hard and she used a service, rented the equipment, somebody carried the bags down into the basement and filled the softener. $45 every 3 months. She had extensive gardens and I can see that it could have doubled the price if she didnt have well water for the gardens. this doesnt even include the price she paid for city water which I am not even sure how much that costs cause the renters pay for that now. We dont have a softener. During 3 months we use about 12-15 ccf in winter, about 30 or more ccf in summer. 30.0 ccf = $164.89. Remember that sewage fees are based on USAGE it doesnt matter if that water for the garden doesnt go down the drain. Well water costs nothing but the electricity to pump it and the pump replaced every 25 years or so. Ingrid On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:09:52 -0800, Billy wrote: In article , Sheldon wrote: wrote: not to mention is very expensive to use soft water. ? What do you call "very expensive"? A 40 pound bag of salt will typically produce about 6,000 gallons of softened water... a 40 pound bag of salt costs about $4.50. Actually that same $4.50 worth of salt can save the average household about $45 worth of cleaning products each month... not to mention the time and effort of cleaning, and will save more than 6,000 gallons of water each month (mostly hot water) because softened water is just that much more efficient at cleaning. Softened water is kind to your plumbing too, will save untold thousands in plumbing bills over the life of the water softener (about 20 years). If one lives in a hard water locale *not* having a water softener is VERY expensive. This was about gardening Shelly, not plumbing. Toxification of the landscape and all that. St. Molly used to say, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. |
#30
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Watering with soft water
Well I am not confusing anything. salt is NaCl which dissociates in water to Na+ and
Cl-. Cl-, BTW is what makes food taste "salty". The sodium ions are exchanged for the calcium and magnesium ions in the water which are stabilized with the chloride ions which are flushed down the drain. The sodium stays in the softened water. This is a BIG issue with people who keep fish because some places have so much calcium and/or magnesium in their water that the sodium ion concentration is thus high enough to sicken and/or kill their fish. This is even a bigger problem when people use salt prophylactically without testing for sodium ion concentration. It is the chloride ions that are helpful to fish, not the sodium. In addition physicians typically admonish their patients with high blood pressure to not drink softened water, rather, to use RO water for drinking. Ingrid On Mon, 3 Mar 2008 08:43:40 -0500, "J. Clarke" wrote: You're confusing "sodium" with "salt". The process is that sodium ions are picked up on the surface of the zeolite. Not "salt", just one of the chemical components of it. Those are exchanged for less-reactive calcium and magnesium ions in the water, so calcium carbonate (or magnesium sulfate or whatever) gets turned into sodium carbonate (or sodium sulfate or whatever) with a slight release of energy. The calcium and magnesium ions then remain on the suface of the zeolite until such time as it is regenerated by exposure to sodium chloride at which time it picks up the sodium ions and the calcium goes into the brine as calcium chloride. So the softened water has no "salt" added, what is has is the existing calcium and magnesium compounds turned into sodium compounds. The quantity of the compounds doesn't change, what changes is their chemical composition. If you think that a water softener works by "adding salt" then try adding salt to hard water and then have the hardness checked with and without salt and see what you get. -- |
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