Water softener help in Elkhorn: planning a first softener

Water Softener Omaha is an independent referral service, not an installer or plumber. When you send the form, your details are passed to an independent local water treatment pro, who can contact you and quote the work. Asking is free and you never have to buy.

First, find your hardness

This site has not checked which utility serves each part of Elkhorn, so it gives no Elkhorn figure. Look at your water bill. If it comes from the Metropolitan Utilities District, M.U.D. says it lime-softens its water to about 170 mg/L, the same as 10 grains per gallon, and calls that soft enough for all home uses. On the U.S. Geological Survey’s general scale, 121 to 180 mg/L is graded hard. If your bill comes from someone else, ask that provider for its annual water quality report. If the house is on a private well, test it: the EPA says the owner is responsible for the water, and the page on water testing in Omaha explains what to test.

Deciding whether you want one

A softener is a choice about scale, soap and spotting rather than about safety. Water utilities commonly say hard water does not pose a health risk. What a softener changes is the tan or white film on fixtures, spots on glasses and the amount of soap it takes to lather. On M.U.D. water, M.U.D. itself says the water deposits small amounts of tan calcium carbonate on pipes and fixtures. If that film is what you want gone, a softener is the equipment for it.

Before you decide, weigh what a softener asks of you: the salt it uses, a drain for its rinse water, an outlet for its valve, and the sodium it adds to the water in exchange for the hardness, which M.U.D. notes. On a sodium-restricted diet, ask your doctor.

Where a first softener can go

A whole-house softener goes on the main water line after it enters the house, so the water heater and the taps get softened water. It needs room for a resin tank and a brine tank side by side, a drain and an outlet. In a house that has never had one, the main question is whether those three meet near the main line, or whether some plumbing is needed to bring them together. That question shapes the quote more than anything else, so it helps to know where your main shutoff and floor drain are before the pro visits.

Questions for a first install

• What hardness figure did you size it from, and did you test my tap?
• Is the unit certified to NSF/ANSI 44, the standard for residential ion exchange softeners?
• Where will it go, and what plumbing does that spot need?
• Will any tap stay on hard water, such as an outdoor spigot?
• Which licenses and permits does the job need where I live?
• What does the written quote include: bypass, drain line, fittings, first salt?

The page on water softener installation in Omaha goes through the parts of an install and how sizing works. If you also want filtered drinking water, the water treatment in Omaha page sets out filters and reverse osmosis.

After a first install

A first softener comes with a few new habits. Keep the brine tank supplied with the salt the maker names, and look inside it now and then for a hard crust that can bridge over the water. Learn where the bypass valve is and how to set it, so you can take the softener out of the line for outdoor watering or plumbing work, and put it back afterwards. Keep the manual, the quote and the settings together near the unit. If scale starts to come back, check the salt and the bypass before anything else, and test the softened water against a tap that skips it.

Questions people ask