Four Ways To Save With Treated Water

Did you know that treated water can reduce monthly costs, energy usage, and the amount of detergent needed to thoroughly clean your household items? Hard water in particular is known for increasing the cost of many things throughout your home. Here are just a few examples of how a water softener in Lancaster can help you spend less in other areas. 

Save on Soaps

The Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) recently organized a study based on a series of experiments carried out by Scientific Services and Battelle to compare how various doses of laundry and dish detergent are affected by the hardness of water. When washed with soft water,  stained fabric in the experiment required about 50% of the detergent that was needed for hard water. This is because the hardness minerals, like calcium, cling to the detergent’s cleaning agents making them turn into solid substance (a.k.a. soap scum) instead of the soapy suds that eliminate dirt particles. 

That means for the average household spending more than $100 on just detergent each year, switching to treated water could save you up to $50 on laundry soap alone every year. Treated water can also save you money on shampoos and conditioners, body wash and hand soap, by using minimal amounts for full effectiveness.

Use Less Cleaning Supplies

The same goes for your cleaning supplies. Using soft water to clean anything can be very efficient. Softened water makes it easy for soaps to form suds since there are no minerals present getting in their way, therefore using small amounts of detergent or chemicals can be just as impactful when cleaning your tub or toilet. Just a few drops of dish soap can be added to a sink full of water and dirty dishes (Just like they do in the commercials!), instead of a long squeeze from the bottle over and over again. 

Another way soft water can save on cleaning supplies is minimum wear on things like mops and sponges. Just like they do to detergent and soaps, hard water minerals will stick to everything, wearing them out quickly. The mineral deposits build-up and make the material stiff and dingy, which also decreases their absorbency.

Keep New Clothes New

Hard water minerals will build up inside your clothes as they spin through your washing machine. Not only that, remember the solid soap scum that forms when the calcium comes in contact with detergent? That sticky clump also gets embedded in the fibers of your fabrics, leaving them gray, dingy, stiff, and scratchy when they’re dried. When clothes can’t bend like they’re meant to, the fabric ends up wearing down faster giving you thin spots or holes much faster.

Soft water will help make your clothes last. Washing clothes in soft water will help maintain their color, quality and softness for years. So, there is no need to replace your favorite shirt, socks, or jeans every six months due to extreme wearing that hard water can cause.