Water softener

Is there any threat to paint finish using water that goes through a water sofesoft that uses salt?

 

I would think if anything the softener would help with not having water spots on the paint if it dries on. But that is just a guess.

 

Right but most of them basically swap the calcium, etc with diluted sodium

 

Technically yes.
Salt = rust.

However its uncommon for the water supply going outside the house to run through the softener first.
Are you sure your water softener is set up like this?
If you are can you fix it by hooking the softener up down the line?

It is incredibly expensive to be softening outside water if you use external water for car washing, pressure washer, grass, and gardens.

Mostly softened water is not good for plants and grass. Just like salt water for people it causes dehydration.
Of course its not in high concentrations but its still not preferable.

I’m not sure its going to be a huge issue but I would fix the softener hook up if possible/economical. Mostly its just expensive in salt.

 

well i don't have it in yet i still have to plum the thing in. BUT i was asking because the way the pipes are, i am going to either repipe the house or just deal with one of the outside spickets going through the softener. I guess i could just put it on bypass when i'm using that one.

 

Why do you need a softener for? Just curious. Where I live the water is really hard and if it dries on your paint you'll have water spots that etch into the paint. I've even seen my truck get a haze to it per persay by drying after wash, it's like a white gray film on my truck just from wiping it down while drying.

 

If you have more than one spigot I would just not use that one for anything. If that’s your only one or going to be the one you need for the cars I think it would be worth the PITA to bypass it if you can.

Or buy very long hoses lol

 

water softeners are installed after the water meter, so conditioned water run through the whole house. You could intall a valve and new supply line before the softener to an outside spigot but that would defeat one of the purposes of a whole house water softener.

 

Why not use a rinseless wash such as Optimum No Rinse! Has it's own built in water softener.

 

I do use a rinseless wash sometimes but I have to add tap water to dilute the rinseless concentrate and then I'm right back where I started and I'm not paying for distilled water. I moved about 15 mins from where I used to live and never had this problem untill I moved to the new place.

 

Optimum claims there rinseless will soften the water. I run my make up water thru a RODI filter and into a 30gl Brute trash barrel. It was originally used for make up water when I had a coral reef tank so I'm not sure how much it counter acts hard water. So I have no problems with water spotting.
Were you using a different rinseless product or is there claim BS?

 

Not at all. If I were building my house again I would install car wash faucets off of the softwater conditioner in the house. A good SW conditioner will have 2 or more rinse cycles and remove almost 100% of the salt residue after a recharge. Even at that, running a dishwasher or washing machine once after a SW recharge will flush out any residual brine water. Using SW will reduce water spotting due to lack of Ca and Mg in hard water.

BTW, using a true SW conditioner with resin beads that extract Ca and Mg is the ONLY way to soften the water. The other exception is a horribly expensive reverse osmosis systems. Adding a chemicals or running water through a magnet is just snake oil. You have to REMOVE the Ca and Mg not just "change" it's properties.

 

I actually ran a spickt specially for washing the truck and car from the water softener really helps with less spotting.

 

I have hard ass water too. Our municipal water in my area is well fed. I purchased a CR-Spotless de-ionizer to run all my rinse water to keep a spot free final. It costs alot for the initial set up but worth it when you wash your truck every two weeks...

 

Soft Water is absolutely essential for detergents to work at there best. Should be no residual salt after the slow rinse/ fast rinse regen. cycles in your soft water.

 

In the summer I use a CR Spotless deionizer and in the winter I collect rain water from three downspouts on the house, two on my out building and two on the garage and store it in a 300 gallon water tank which I repurposed from my retired mobile auto detailing trailer. I run the water with a 1 hp pump through a sediment filter and it's free distilled water for almost 8 month out of the year

 

Another in the "uses soft water" crowd. I added a spigot at the front of the garage from my softener. If I leave soft water droplets on the windshield and windows, they dry and leave a little white powder. But, it wipes off easily with a MF towel. The hard water (i.e. calcium/magnesium) deposits do not remove easily with a MF towel, but do come off with an acidic cleaner since acid dissolve Ca based deposits. (vinegar)

The hard water in Phx (where I live) has very high chlorides (in the summer, does quite the number on concrete), which do increase the corrosivity of the water. The softened water still has good pH if the softener is working properly - side note - DI filters when saturated and then with continued use, will dump chlorides into your water and increase the corrosivity of the water to mile steel. (so always check your water TDS and conductivity coming out of your filters, if you use DI resin bed filters)

I would be interested in the pH of your water Slick Taco - just as a curiosity - to compare with some of the estimates given online. Naturally soft water tends to be a little more aggressive to metals than the Ix softened water. But it does work fantastic with soaps!

A good little read (if you're a nerd like me)

http://www.ukwta.org/assets/NewFolder/Softened-water-is-not-more-corrosive-Rev2-1.pdf

Most corrosivity studies talk about the Langelier Saturation Index, which TLDR, indexes a bunch of characteristics to estimate if water will scale, be neutral, or remove scale (think Flint, MI water issues) and expose the metal in the pipes (and leach copper or worse lead).

There are a number of studies out there, but most deal with the leaching of copper or lead. Some of the state Dept of Roads (CO, IA, WA) have addressed the corrosivity of road salts (CaCl2, MgCl, NaCl) but most concern 300 and 400 series stainless steels, not mild steel or HSLA steels which are in our vehicles. We have a accelerated weathering machine at work, and I've been wanting to do a little experiment with Phx water and softened water, but haven't had the downtime on our machine to "play" a bit.