I am looking for a water softener but I do not want one that uses salt any recomondations?

Question

I want a water softener / water filter that does not use salt. prefer to rent any sugestions?

Answer 1

After reading your question, I looked up salt-free water softeners and found this site that discusses the 4 most common technologies for softening hard water:

http://www.watersoftenercomparison.net/

The water softeners that use salt are called ion-exchange softeners. They basically replace the hard mineral ions (particularly calcium and magnesium) with soft sodium ions. So, you end up with a lot of sodium in your water (not healthful) and you have to have a brine discharge, which makes ion-exchange water softeners illegal in some municipalities.

A catalytic media water softener uses a filter media made of some kind of material that causes the hard water ions to come together and form neutral (no ionic charge) molecules. This prevents scale build-up and gives a softening effect, because the neutral molecules do not stick to other materials like the ions do. This also reduces the surface tension of the water, resulting in that "wetter" feel of soft water, reduction or elimination of water spotting, and more efficient solubility of soaps, detergents, and shampoos. A whole-house system costs around $1200.

Reverse osmosis passes water through a membrane with microscopic holes in it that are so small, only water molecules can pass (the holes are too small for the larger mineral ions). However, this is a very slow process and the filtered water must be stored for later use. Also, this process results in a brine discharge and water waste, as only about 15% of the resulting pure water is retained (85% is discharged as brine). A whole-house system costs around $12,000.

The most intriguing method I read about is magnetic water softening. This is where you install a rig containing super-strong magnets around the incoming water pipes (PVC or copper pipes - can't be ferrous pipes). The resulting magnetic field acts oppositely on ions of opposite polarity (for example, it might attract the positive ions and repel the negative ions). This results in the ions traveling in opposite directions, which causes more ion collisions, which forms neutral molecules (similar to the catalytic media softener). A whole-house system costs less than $200.

Answer 2

I LOVE my Rayne system and it works with potassium. They do rent them, but I purchased mine because it had a lifetime warranty and it wasn't that expensive. They even have rent to own programs. It is all digital, easy to operate because once you set it, unless the power goes out, it does all of the work itself.

Answer 3

http://soft-water.com/