Water Softeners for City Water -or- City Water Softeners

Do a search on the internet for "Water Softeners for City Water" or "City Water Softeners" and you'll find 43,900 web pages out there that design water treatment systems for city water. The main difference between city water (community well, municipal water) and a personal well water supply is that the city water is treated with chlorine among other things. These water softener systems are designed to remove or make inert, the chlorine in city water. Chlorine itself is not all that harmful, but when reacting with the myriad of other elements in your water, it can become quite harmful indeed.

But the purpose of this article is not to discuss the pros and cons of chlorine water treatment, but to point out a growing trend with water treatment supply companies both online and local that are misleading the consumer into purchasing equipment that does not perform as promised. I'm specifically referring to those water softeners that dealers and distributors are adding granular activated carbon to.

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) is the ideal media for making chlorine inert and harmless. A granular activated whole-house carbon filter is what is recommended when using a chlorinator on a private well or for city water. It can change the chemical make-up of chlorine and remove its smell. A carbon filter also removes other sulfer-based odors and is a required pre-treatment for most reverse osmsosis systems. A whole-house carbon filter in 1 cu/ft size for a family of 4 and moderate chlorination should function properly for a year or more before the carbon needs to be changed. And this is what brings me to my point.

Various companies (who shall remain nameless) are selling people water softeners that they claim are designed to remove chlorine from drinking water and soften their water at the same time because of the addition of a small amount of granular activated carbon inside the softener's mineral tank. In other words, if the household they are selling to requires a 1.0 cu/ft water softener based on the number of people using water and the amount of hardness, they are being sold a 1.5 cu/ft system to accommodate the addition of 0.5 cu/ft of GAC. It is therefore claimed that this system is saving the customer a great deal of money because he/she is not required to purchase a separate carbon filter.

There are a couple of problems with this reasoning. First of all, most households that require a 1.0 cu/ft softener are probably going to need a 1.0 cu/ft carbon filter to effectively remove the chlorine. Anything smaller will greatly reduce the effective life of the carbon media. So is the answer to put 1.0 cu/ft of resin and 1.0 cu/ft of carbon into a 2.0 cu/ft container? Nope. The main problem with adding GAC to softener resin is that the softener resin will out-live the GAC by a factor of at least four. If your ion exchange resin lasts 8 years before it needs changing (typical), then the GAC will need changing in two years at best. This means that you will need to separate your resin beads from your carbon and replace the carbon. Most people will simply throw out the entire contents and start over with new resin as well as new GAC. And all this is assuming that you are getting equal amounts of carbon and resin. Most of the systems I have seen on the web boast a cubic foot of ion exchange resin and a quarter cubic foot of carbon. 0.25 cu/ft of carbon is not even going to last one year before it becomes ineffective. What a terrible financial burden for the homeowner to have to go through every 10 months or so. A cubic foot of ion exchange resin is $129.00 and a quarter cubic foot of GAC is $65.00, for a total of $194.00 plus shipping! So where is the savings?

When the GAC depletes and becomes ineffective, most homeowners will not even notice unless they test for chlorine. The water treatment system will continue to soften water and remove calcium minerals and such but the carbon laying on the bottom of the tank will be taking up space.

I am certain that the concept of a multi-purpose water treatment appliance is attractive, but if it becomes a financial burden less than a year after purchase what is the point? If carbon is required to remove the effects of chlorine, then a carbon filter should be purchased. Yes, they are expensive. Nearly as much as a water conditioner, but in just a few years it is well worth the investment. I sincerely hope that water treatment companies will realize this soon and stop marketing "Water Softeners for City Water".