28 February 2017

Keep Showerheads Unclogged with Soft Water

Are you finding it harder to get all of the soap out of your hair when showering? Does it feel like your shower is gradually losing water pressure? Not excited about the process of detaching and cleaning your showerhead? The source of your water pressure woes might actually be your water – specifically, your unsoftened water.

The Water Quality Association (WQA) conducted research on the benefits of the removal of water hardness (calcium and magnesium ions) from a water supply.  This study tested low flow showerheads fed with softened and unsoftened water under controlled laboratory conditions designed to accelerate water side scaling in the device.

Ten low flow showerheads were installed on the hot water supply coming from the ten instantaneous gas water heaters; five were tested on unsoftened water (hard water) and five were tested using softened water. These showerheads were tested for a total of seven days.  The unsoftened water was at approximately 26 grains per gallon, and the soft water was at approximately 0.55 grain per gallon.

At the end of the test, the showerheads using softened well water were performing nearly as well as the day they were installed.

However, the showerheads using unsoftened well water (hard water) had over three-fourths of their nozzles clogged at the end of the test. 

Low flow showerheads and faucets using unsoftened water clogged in less than seven days of accelerated life testing, whereas those units using softened water made it through the test without any problems.

Source:  https://www.wqa.org