How to Calculate How Much Salt My Softener Will Use
Hard water can cause mineral buildup in your plumbing, restrict your water supply and reduce the effectiveness of your soaps, leaving film on your dishes and you. For this reason, many homeowners decide to install a water softener to clean the minerals out of their water supply. A water softener uses salt to filter the hard water. You can calculate how much salt your softener will use easily. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Look in your water softener's owner's manual for the amount of filtering resin in your appliance. This resin is part of the filter system. If you cannot find the information, you can assume your water softener has 1 cubic foot of resin in it; this is the common amount of resin in most softeners.
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Multiply each cubic foot of resin by 8. A typical water softener with 1 cubic foot of resin will use 6 to 8 lbs. of salt each time an entire tank full of water is filtered. Use 8 lbs. as your amount of salt per cubic foot of resin to err on the side of caution.
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Look in the owner's manual or at the meter on the valve between the brine tank (filter tank) and the water tank to see how many times your tank is set to regenerate. Most metered tanks are set to regenerate once per week. An unmetered valve will regenerate based upon your water usage. If you do not have a metered valve, check your tank every day for a week and see how often it refills and use this as your regeneration amount.
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Multiply the amount of salt needed for your cubic feet of resin by the number of times your tank regenerates in one week. A typical tank with 1 cubic foot of resin will need 8 lbs. of salt. If the tank has a metered valve set to regenerate once a week then you will need 8 lbs. of salt per week. Multiply this number by 4 (the number of weeks in a month) to get the 32 lbs. of salt will be used by your softener in a month.
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Tips & Warnings
Metered valves use less salt then unmetered valves, because you can set the regeneration cycles for once a week rather than depending on how much water is used daily. This can save you money in the long run.
Mark your calendar or set a reminder to tell you when you will need to buy more salt so you do not run out. Consider that the average bag of salt weighs 60 lbs. when setting your salt buying date.
If you are on a sodium-restricted diet, a water softener that uses salt may add too much salt to your drinking supply. Check with your local hardware store about using additional filters or salt substitutes in your softener.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit drinking water image by Andrzej Solnica from Fotolia.com
