Water Softeners Make Laundered Clothing Feel Softer and Last Longer
Water softeners are highly acclaimed for improving household water quality. Most notably, unlike its hard counterpart, soft water does not leave behind difficult-to-clean stains and residues on the surfaces it touches. In a home equipped with a water softener system, the dishes sparkle, fixtures shine, pipes remain unobstructed, and water-using appliances perform well for as long as their manufacturers intended. But, did you know that, when laundered in soft water, your favorite jeans, go-to shirts, workout wear, and the rest of your clothing will feel softer and last longer? Yes, water softeners can do all of that.
The reason that water softeners are able to provide so many household benefits has to do with the composition of hard water, which contains high concentrations of dissolved calcium and magnesium. These naturally occurring minerals, though harmless to human health, can cause headaches throughout the whole house wherever water is used – including the laundry room.
To address these issues, water softeners effectively eliminate hardness minerals by exchanging them for innocuous sodium or potassium ions. Here’s how this can help with your laundry:
- During a rinse cycle with hard water, the hardness minerals do not wash away.
- Instead, mineral deposits stubbornly cling to the laundered fabrics, making their fibers stiff and colors dull.
- The residue left behind on laundered clothing almost defeats the purpose of washing the clothes in the first place.
Another problem with washing clothes in hard water – a problem that water softeners can solve – has to do with its negative effect on the lathering ability of detergents. Essentially, detergent molecules that could be cleaning are instead wasted because they naturally bind to the calcium and magnesium molecules. As a result, there are fewer detergent molecules available to trap dirt in hard water. What’s more, the detergent molecules that bind with the hardness molecules form dreaded soap scum – the nemesis of every homeowner.
To learn more about water softeners, contact an authorized RainSoft dealer. RainSoft has been a leading manufacturer of water treatment systems since 1953, and we remain committed to providing homeowners throughout the world with state-of-the-art water softeners and other solutions designed to produce water of the highest quality possible.
