{"id":4261,"date":"2018-01-29T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/?p=4261"},"modified":"2018-01-23T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T22:52:11","slug":"water-softener-save-water-heater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/plumbing-service\/water-treatment-systems\/water-softener-save-water-heater\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Water Softener Can Save Your Water Heater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/water-heater-service\/common-water-heater-repairs-in-orlando\/attachment\/orlando-water-heater\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3061\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3061\" src=\"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Orlando-Water-Heater-124x300.jpg\" alt=\"Orlando-Water -eater\" width=\"124\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Hard water is bad news for a home in many ways. Here are a few:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It makes it tough to work up soap lather, turning simple cleaning and showering into hassles.<\/li>\n<li>It leaves buildup on the inside of pipes that\u00a0lowers water pressure and leads to clogs.<\/li>\n<li>It stains laundry and dishes and leads to faded clothing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But worst of all the problems with hard water is what it does to water-using appliances. The water heater is the most vulnerable. Hard water and a water heater are a bad mixture\u2014and it usually ends tragically for the water heater.<\/p>\n<p>We recommend you call a <a href=\"\/service-areas\/apopka-plumbing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plumber in Apopka, FL<\/a> if you have hard water in your home. A plumber can install the best solution\u2014a whole-house water softener. This fixes all the problems we mentioned above, and it may save your water heater from an early replacement.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Why Hard Water Water Is Dismal for a Water Heater<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wqa.org\/learn-about-water\/perceptible-issues\/scale-deposits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hard water<\/a> is water that contains a high mineral count of magnesium, gypsum, and\/or calcium. These minerals aren\u2019t harmful to consume. In fact, they\u2019re in most of the food you eat daily. But in high concentrations in water, they leave behind limescale. This is where the trouble with a water heater starts.<\/p>\n<p>The temperature inside a water heater tank allows for the formation of limescale from hard water. The limescale settles along the tank floor. This sediment layer lowers the energy efficiency of a gas water heater, since this is the place where heat from the burners is transferred into the tank. An insulating layer of sediment makes this more difficult, forcing the water heater to run longer and drain more power. Flushing the tank fixes this, but it\u2019s only a stopgap measure. The buildup will start again unless the hard water problem is stopped at the source.<\/p>\n<h2>Gas and Electric Water Heaters Suffer<\/h2>\n<p>Electric water heaters don\u2019t fare any better. The limescale builds up on the heating elements, causing a similar drop in energy efficiency. Electric water heaters already cost more to run than gas models, and hard water can make them even costlier.<\/p>\n<p>Hard water troubles don\u2019t end with declining efficiency. Limescale buildup along the walls of a water heater\u2019s tank prevents heat from naturally escaping to the outside. This sounds like something you\u2019d want\u2014but a water heater is balanced to account for standing heat loss. If more heat is trapped, the water in the tank overheats and damages the system. The tank can be de-scaled, but just like flushing, this is temporary and the trouble will soon restart.<\/p>\n<h2>What about\u00a0Tankless Water Heaters?<\/h2>\n<p>Even within tankless water heaters, the problems are similar: scale buildup along the heat exchanger slows down the movement of heat, and efficiency suffers. Worse, the minerals deposits can close off the narrow flow passages through the tankless system, causing water pressure in the house to plummet.<\/p>\n<h2>Installing a Water Softener<\/h2>\n<p>A water softener swaps hard water minerals for sodium. When a professional plumber <a href=\"\/water-treatment-systems\/water-treatment-system-installation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">installs a whole-house water softener<\/a> onto the main coming into your plumbing, you\u2019ll have your hard water troubles eliminated. Your water heater will thank you with energy-efficient performance and a long service life. Talk to our water treatment experts today to <a href=\"\/water-treatment-systems\/water-treatment-system-installation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">arrange for water testing<\/a> to find out if you need a water softener.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. \u2013 <a href=\"\/contact\/schedule-service#content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Proudly Serving Central Florida Since 1975<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hard water is bad news for a home in many ways, but one of the worst is what it does to your water heater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[330],"tags":[205,309,273,331],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.modernpi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}