The Salt Free Water Softener Experiment

Well, its in!  Reid and Greg (see photo below of installation team) made the trip to Kitchener and installed the salt free water softener in about an hour.  They were here for about 2 hours and in that time we caught up on family life, had some coffees and then switched to beer when Tony decided it was prudent to lug the old brine tank up the stairs......WITH the salt and water still inside!  Yikes.

I saw the media, it was surprisingly small, tiny little beads that clumped together.  The whole setup is really simple, a concept I like very much - no moving parts means nothing to break! 

I took some photos of the basement faucets, toilet and kettle (all with evidence of scale) while we were down there and I'll post the photos of the upstairs toilet, kettle, etc. that I took earlier this week.  I also measured the flow of our showerhead because it feels as though it has much lower flow than when we moved in two years ago - it was 1 GAL/35 seconds which is equivalent to 6.6 L/min.  I'll take measurements once a week and post the results to see if we see any improvement in flow from scale removed from the showerhead.

Upstairs Photos

Left: Toilet - check out the scale - this is disguisting considering the photo was taken AFTER I cleaned the toilet.  To remove this scale I need to empty the water from the toilet, soak in CLR and scrub for at least 5-10 minutes.

Right:  Tub Faucet - waterspots have to be removed using a vinegar/water solution.  Reid warned me that these may still occur.....but we'll see, I'm hopeful they'll be less prevalent!

Below:  Inside of my kettle after about 3 months of use.