Why Do You Need a Softener and a Filter?
Published June 8, 2011 | 
Jaspal writes:
We bought a house, it had water softner installed. My wife called kinetico and get installed the Kintico K5 water purifier under the sink in kitchen. She asked technician to chek if the water softner is OK. He said it is fine and after installing he also told her that the water softner also has whole house water filter system that needs service too. My wife asked why we need two filters one for whole house and one in kitchen. he gave explanation that whole house system just filetrs the water, K5 will purify the water. Are these not doind the same job. Please reply.
Hello Jaspal Thanks for writing. A water softener does indeed do the whole house, but it is very common that a second, point of use ‘under the sink’ system is installed as well. This is because a water softener will not necessarily make the water drinkable. A softener takes the calcium, or hardness out of the water so soap works better with using less, less or no scum and scale are formed. A water softener also adds sodium, which is not necessarily good for your health.
This is why a point of use system is put in the kitchen, to remove the sodium and other impurities so you can use it for drinking and cooking. It is much less expensive to do it this way.
I hope I’ve answered your question, please let me know if you need further clarification.
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How is Hardness Related to Alkalinity?
Published June 2, 2011 | Ed asks:
Hi, I have a question about alkalinity and hardness. How are these two related to
each other? Why is hardness needed in an environment and lastly what is normal
water’s ppm of alkalinity? Thank you sorry for so many questions.
Hi Ed, thanks for the question.
#1 – Hardness consists of a few things – calcium, magnesium, iron and
other trace elements, but mostly calcium. These are dissolved, positively
charged ions. Generally speaking, a positive will look for it’s negative
“partner” and usually that’s negatively charged bicarbonate.
When measuring hardness, the amount can be expressed in mg/L calcium
carbonate as this is what many tests measure.
Alkalinity is simply a measure of the amount of bicarbonates in the water.
Bicarbonates can attach themselves to other positively charged ions in the
water such as sodium, but then do not count towards hardness. This is why
alkalinity can be related to hardness but there can actually be a higher
level of alkalinity than hardness.
#2 – Hardness is not ‘needed’ per say. Calcium and other atom are
dissolved into water as it passed through the ground coming into contact
with the mineral. The human body does need many of these minerals and
much of them comes from the water we drink, so hardness is ‘needed’ in
that way.
#3 – Alkalinity can vary from source to source. It is usually much higher
in many groundwater sources than some large surface water sources such as
lakes. There is no “normal” level.
I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
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