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Redwood Falls, Minn. —
You’re soon going to notice a nice side effect from the new Redwood Falls Water Treatment Facility—now producing water for a faucet near you.
Redwood Falls’ notoriously hard water won’t have to be run through your water softener so much. That will extend the life of your water softener, and reduce the amount of salt you need to buy...if you handle it right.
“Last fall, we asked the mayor for a meeting between the city and all the water treatment dealers and plumbers to discuss the timelines and specifics for the new water,” said Sarah Stewart-Dwire, of Magic Water. “The water treatment dealers will need time to reset all the softeners across town.”
When the new water treatment facility was designed, the engineers had to find a delicate balance.
For water to be considered ‘soft,’ it needs to have zero grains of hardness (magnesium and calcium) per gallon.
“When the city is done, the new water will still have 13 grains of hardness. In the industry, anything over 10 grains is still considered extremely hard,” said Steward-Dwire.
However, having the water be too pure, such as that which comes from a reverse osmosis process, can actually be bad for the city’s pipes.
Water is a natural solvent—if it is too soft, it will dissolve the minerals in the pipes, and knock contaminants into the water supply.
“If the softness goes below 13 grains, the water becomes too aggressive,” said Stewart-Dwire. “Redwood’s water was at 52 grains of hardness, so getting it down to 13 is a huge difference, but people will still need a softener.”
“If you don’t soften your water, you’ll still get spots on your dishes,” said Cook.
At this point, all the water companies are waiting for the city to finalize its tests.
“We’re waiting for the city to tell us what the final hardness numbers are going to be,” said Mike Johanneck, of Ecowater Systems. “If we jump the gun, the hardness will be twice as bad as before.”
“People have been asking us to adjust their softeners, but we’re not going to do it until the city has stabilized the new water,” said Stewart-Dwire. “People need to be patient; if we adjust their softeners now, they’ll get harder water later.”
At the same time, “if you don’t have your softener adjusted, you’re just wasting water,” said Mike Cook, of Culligan.
You’re soon going to notice a nice side effect from the new Redwood Falls Water Treatment Facility—now producing water for a faucet near you.
Redwood Falls’ notoriously hard water won’t have to be run through your water softener so much. That will extend the life of your water softener, and reduce the amount of salt you need to buy...if you handle it right.
“Last fall, we asked the mayor for a meeting between the city and all the water treatment dealers and plumbers to discuss the timelines and specifics for the new water,” said Sarah Stewart-Dwire, of Magic Water. “The water treatment dealers will need time to reset all the softeners across town.”
When the new water treatment facility was designed, the engineers had to find a delicate balance.
For water to be considered ‘soft,’ it needs to have zero grains of hardness (magnesium and calcium) per gallon.
“When the city is done, the new water will still have 13 grains of hardness. In the industry, anything over 10 grains is still considered extremely hard,” said Steward-Dwire.
However, having the water be too pure, such as that which comes from a reverse osmosis process, can actually be bad for the city’s pipes.
Water is a natural solvent—if it is too soft, it will dissolve the minerals in the pipes, and knock contaminants into the water supply.
“If the softness goes below 13 grains, the water becomes too aggressive,” said Stewart-Dwire. “Redwood’s water was at 52 grains of hardness, so getting it down to 13 is a huge difference, but people will still need a softener.”
“If you don’t soften your water, you’ll still get spots on your dishes,” said Cook.
At this point, all the water companies are waiting for the city to finalize its tests.
“We’re waiting for the city to tell us what the final hardness numbers are going to be,” said Mike Johanneck, of Ecowater Systems. “If we jump the gun, the hardness will be twice as bad as before.”
“People have been asking us to adjust their softeners, but we’re not going to do it until the city has stabilized the new water,” said Stewart-Dwire. “People need to be patient; if we adjust their softeners now, they’ll get harder water later.”
At the same time, “if you don’t have your softener adjusted, you’re just wasting water,” said Mike Cook, of Culligan.
Changing the meters will take time, and the various companies are getting ready for the rush.
“It’s going to keep us busy. We’ll have to make a lot of trips,” said Cook. “We’re planning on having our regular delivery man take of it on his regular rounds.”
“Softeners today are much more efficient. Older ones, that reset on a timed schedule, won’t be as efficient if they’re not adjusted,” said Stewart-Dwire. “If it’s a timed meter that runs every other day, it may only need to run every four or five days instead.”
“If you have a metered softener, we’ll have to adjust it to run probably about three times as much water,” said Cook. “Metered softeners go on gallons, so instead of running every 500 gallons, it might go to every 1,500 gallons.”
“There aren’t many mechanical units any more. All of the softeners we sell these days are digitally programmed units, and only take about 10 seconds to adjust,” said Johanneck. “We can walk many of our clients through it on the phone.”
Johanneck said many of his clients have already been asking about how the new water treatment plant may affect them.
“It’s already been affecting our sales. With the new water, we can sell smaller softeners. Lots of people have been waiting until the new water comes before replacing their old units.”
However, if you have a large unit, you won’t be losing anything—it will just run more efficiently.
“People will notice they need less salt, because their softeners will regenerate less often,” said Stewart-Dwire.
“The Environmental Protection Agency has been concerned about the amount of chlorides released into our streams,” said Johanneck. “The new water treatment facility should help out a lot with that.”
“The city’s goal is to reduce the sulfates and secondary contaminants into the water system,” said Stewart-Dwire.
“If people are curious about their new water, they can bring it in for free testing,” said Johanneck. “We’re curious about it ourselves.”
