Can you believe it? Water softeners do not make spot free water

Hard water minerals, mostly calcium and magnesium, will leave white colored spots on surfaces where water is left to evaporate. If you buy a water softener to because you don't want to have white spots anymore you will be disappointed.  If you have hard water a water softener won't prevent white spots. This happens regardless of whether your softener uses ion bonding or ion exchange technology.

You might be asking yourself why water softeners don't produce spot free water? Or, maybe you're asking yourself why you'd buy a water softener if they don't stop spotting?

Let's take a look at why the two softening technologies do not make spot free water in a little more in depth.

Let's start by clarifying what we mean by "spots" or "white spots". The spots we are talking about here are those that form when standing water evaporates.

First, Ion Bond Softeners:

The white spots left behind are the hard water minerals bound with PolyHalt®. This spot is the PolyHalt® / hardness complex that simply wipes up with little effort. The ion bond softening process changes the way hardness minerals behave preventing them from being able to "stick" to surfaces.

Now, Ion Exchange Softeners:

Ion exchange softeners (aka salt-based softeners) exchange salt for hardness minerals in the water. The white spots left behind are salt. Just like ion bond softening the spots simply wipe up and minerals do not stick to surfaces.

Because softeners leave white spots you might be wondering why soften your water. As you can see, when it comes to white spots, the real benefits of softened water are the reduced effort required to clean up the spots and keep your home looking its best.

Good To Know

There is no spot free water treatment for drinking water. Spot free water has to have gone through a treatment process that totally removes all ions from the water. The water is "de-ionized". De-ionized water is not good for you or your home.

Every water treatment technology has it's own pros and cons, discover what to expect when softening with  PolyHalt®