But, with the human need for water, the need for a water filter or a water softener is much more important. One question frequently crops up, though, especially when it comes to the time for a replacement; what’s the difference between a water softener vs water filter?
To those that aren’t already aware of the main differences between them or haven’t had the chance to learn what they do, the uses and systems for both a water filtration system vs water softener can be quite similar. So when it comes to getting a new one installed or replaced, knowing whether you need a water filter or a water softener can be difficult.
Fortunately, the similarities aren’t all that many, making the differences between your home or business’ water softener vs water filter just as simple. We’ve covered the main differences between the two and which one you should get if you’re looking for replacements or a new model. Then just call Clover Contracting to help you install it, no matter the day of the week or the time!
If you’ve ever heard of hard water before, either in one of your old science classes or while looking for new appliances or even a new home, chances are you already have some idea of what a water softener does.
The main function a water softener has is to remove any excess chemicals or minerals your home’s water supply might have. While hard water can be somewhat beneficial to you and your family, it can cause dirt and even damage to happen in your plumbing and other pipes.
Hard water, as mentioned, is a mixture of a few chemicals and minerals, mainly created when the water runs by mineral deposits. Since most of the hard water content is minerals, the water is entirely safe to drink and can even be beneficial to the human body even though there are quite a few different kinds of minerals in it.
Though scum and grime can happen in your pipes and around the drains in your home, it’s only created when the hard water comes into contact with soap and other similar materials. With how hard it is to predict the scum from forming, many houses in areas with hard water are either provided with or already have a water softener installed.
A water filter – sometimes referred to as a water filtration system – works in a similar, but different way to a water softener.
While a water softener’s use is to remove any excess minerals from the water, a water filter removes any contaminants, debris and any dissolved solids that might be in the water your house gets. This isn’t limited to just the minerals in the water.
Any harmful contaminants, like lead or bacteria, gets filtered out to ensure that the water is safe. Then, once it’s properly cleaned, the water’s distributed to your faucets and showerheads to be used.
Between a water softener vs water filter, the difference is quite clear. Even though both water softeners and water filters remove the fine debris from the water, they don’t clean the same way. Water softeners specifically clean out minerals, such as excess calcium and magnesium, and end up leaving the other potentially more harmful contaminants in it.
Water filters, on the other hand, do clean out the contaminants. Having a functioning and clean water filtration system ensures that the water that comes through your faucets is entirely safe to be used for drinking and cooking.
If you’re entirely sure that your residential area has hard water and you’re looking to get a new system installed or replace some of the parts in your current one, the question of which to prioritize between your water filter vs water softener can be difficult.
However, always invest in your water filter first, since it’s the most important system in your house or business. More often than not, buildings with water softeners also have a water filtration system somewhere inside it. But even if your building only has a water filter, your focus and priority should be on that system.
As we mentioned, many of the minerals in hard water aren’t toxic or deadly to you. Though they can cause soap scum and scale, you can always clean it up if it builds up to a point that you don’t like it. However, you can never know how truly clean the water you get is.
While your local purification plant does properly clean it of any potential hazards and contaminants, the water can always get recontaminated or get more debris as it’s moved to your home. So having a water filter system in place guarantees that those contaminants are removed.
If you’re considering whether or not to invest in a water softener on top of your existing water filter, though, do be aware of one main factor.
While water filters clean out the debris and contaminants, they also remove minerals out of water as well. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to get a softener. Scaling and soap scum can still happen if you have a water filter, since the system doesn’t remove the same level of minerals that a water softener does.
At the end of the day, always invest in your home or business’ water filter system. While both water filters and water softeners remove particles, a softener system only removes the calcium and magnesium. To get safe and clean water for daily cooking, cleaning and drinking, keep your water filter up to date with its maintenance and call Clover Contracting for help.
]]>Whether its due to frequent use wearing down the pipes’ linings, gradual wear and tear over a long time or even just a buildup of food scraps and dirt, these problems can end up putting a sudden stop on a family’s day to day life.
It’s one of the many reasons that people immediately get concerned when they hear their plumbing make odd noises. A gurgling kitchen sink can be a big source of alarm, especially if you aren’t sure what’s causing it in the first place. While some gurgling is actually a sign of normal draining, if it gets louder or more frequent, that’s the time you need to be concerned.
This article covers some of the most common ways to stop a bathroom or kitchen sink from gurgling and answers the question, “why is my sink gurgling?”. You can use these tips to prevent any more sink drain gurgling, but if you ever feel that you need professional help, you can call Clover Contracting at any time.
When it comes to hearing odd sounds coming out of your sinks, the most likely cause is your kitchen sink. This doesn’t mean, though, that your bathroom’s sink can’t be the cause. Regardless of whether you’re dealing with a gurgling kitchen sink or a bathroom sink, the main cause is slow draining water.
If your kitchen or bathroom sink’s partially clogged, the water that goes down the drain can cause a vacuum, occasionally letting out little bubbles of air through that sound like gurgles.
Depending on where you’re finding the sounds are coming from, the clog can be one of a few things. Clogs in the kitchen sink are typically food scraps and similar debris building up enough to reduce the flow of water while bathroom sink clogs are likely caused by hair and dirt.
In both cases, though, there are a few other causes. Both gurgling kitchen sinks and bathroom sinks can be caused by bad venting in your drains. You might also have a shallow drain in your bathroom, which can be solved easily with a sink strainer or getting a new taller stopper. There is also a chance that your sink’s P-trap is broken.
If you suspect that the main cause of the gurgling is a clog, you can try to loosen or clear it out by using a drain snake or a commercial cleaner.
However, if you’d rather avoid paying a lot for a bottle of drain cleaner, you can also try using a one to one combination of water and vinegar and a cup of baking soda. After letting it sit for five to ten minutes, pour some boiling water down the drain to loosen any lingering dirt and wash away the clog.
Another method is to use baking soda and salt. Much like baking soda and vinegar, the salt in this mixture also causes a chemical reaction that can clean out the clog from your plumbing. Mix together half a cup of salt and half a cup of baking soda before pouring it into the clogged drain. Let the mix sit for a minimum of 15 minutes before pouring boiling water into the drain.
If your kitchen sink is still gurgling and you’ve tried cleaning out any clogs, you may want to check the P-trap underneath the sink.
The P-trap is the U shaped pipe often directly underneath the sink that’s responsible for holding water to stop sewer smells from wafting out of the sink. If the trap is broken or not properly installed, a vacuum is created that makes the gurgling. Simply replacing or fixing the P-trap should stop the sounds.
In some cases the solution can also be quite simple. If the P-trap and the rest of the plumbing looks fine, you can try flushing the system. All you need to do for this is to turn the water onto hot and let it run down the drain for 15 minutes or so. This works especially well if there is a small clog further down into your plumbing that’s causing the sounds.
Typically, the most common cause for the gurgling sounds is a clog. However, since a lot of hair, dirt and soap goes into your bathroom sink’s drain, there’s a high chance that the entire clog won’t break down and wash away that easily.
Much like unclogging a gurgling kitchen sink, you can use baking soda, vinegar or salt for your bathroom sink’s drain. However, to really make sure that the drain goes away, it may be better to use a more caustic drain cleaner.
You can also try out other methods if you can’t pinpoint exactly where or what the cause of the gurgling is. One such way is to flush your home’s plumbing vent. This method might cost a bit more to do, since you will likely need a long enough sewer auger. You can also use water to clean out any potential blockages, though you will need a large amount of force behind the water.
Dealing with a gurgling sink can be fairly easy if you know what the potential causes are. Simple tasks like cleaning out a clog from the drain pipes or replacing your sink’s P-trap are quick and easy tasks.
However, if you can’t find the root cause of the gurgling sounds or you want to safely use something like a sewer auger, it’s a far better idea to call a professional plumber, like one of our team members at Clover Contracting.
Some methods of fixing the problem can be far more complicated, need specific training or might even need special equipment to clean out, so it’s a good idea to call out a team of reliable plumbers for help.
]]>One such way this can happen is when scale buildup forms inside the pipes.
Scale has been frequently related to water heaters and other equipment getting damaged and clogging up pipes and faucets.
It can even create discoloration in your shower’s tiles, effectively making scale buildup harder to clean.
Getting rid of these scale deposits before they actually cause damage to your pipes and faucets is incredibly important.
In order to help you efficiently clean any scale deposits that you might find around your home, we’ve put together this article as help. In areas like your shower and sinks, you can easily clean them out yourself. But when it comes to dealing with any scale buildup in your pipes, it’s a good idea to call Clover Contracting for help.
If you’ve ever cleaned up a tub or a pool, there’s a high chance you’ve come across scale buildup, or at the very least, the discoloration that comes before the buildup. Simply put, scale is what typically gets formed when soap and bits of dirt and other materials mix together with the minerals in water. Some of the water many homes are supplied with already has some degree of minerals in it, though not as much as there is in hard water.
As a result, quite a lot of scale build ups happen due to having hard water in your home’s location. The hard water itself often contains higher levels of calcium, carbonate, magnesium and other minerals. So, when your family simply uses the water, more soap and other materials are mixed together to form scale buildup in pipes and sinks.
While hard water is particularly good for the people in your family, it isn’t the best for your house and its fixtures. If you aren’t sure if you have hard water, check to see if you have white films over certain surfaces, like tiles, porcelain and any fiberglass or regular glass. You might also be able to find mineral deposits or stains around your bathroom faucets or your lighter colored dishes.
If you have water with a lot of minerals in it, your stains might vary in color as well. While calcium and magnesium are the most common minerals in hard water, you can also find manganese, iron and trace particles of brass and copper.
Any manganese stains tend to look dark, typically brown or black. Iron rich water can leave behind red or white slimy looking deposits while blue or green stains can mean that the slight acidity in the water is wearing away brass or copper pipes.
These deposits should be easy to clean, given that they’re noticed ahead of time. If you’re worried about how hard your water is, take into consideration the pros and cons. If you find that you end up cleaning these deposits off way more often than you gain the benefits, invest in a water softener
Scale deposits can be found anywhere, though they’re much easier to find in your bathroom. The lighter colors of the porcelain and other materials there are likely the first place you would notice any discolorations and would be cleaned first.
When it comes to cleaning any scale buildup from your bathroom’s sink, one of the best ideas is to use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. After giving the sink a quick clean to get rid of any lingering dirt with warm water and some soap, mix together one part vinegar with two parts baking soda. Rub the paste into the hard water scale stains and wait roughly five minutes before scrubbing at it with a soft sponge. Once the paste has been removed, dry the sink.
Much like with a porcelain sink, you can clean the scale deposits out of your toilet with a good amount of vinegar. Before you do start, however, make sure to use protective gloves and empty the bowl first. Once the water is low enough that the vinegar won’t get diluted right away, pour some undiluted vinegar over the deposits and leave it for a few hours to soften the scaling. Then simply scrub with a toilet brush and flush it away.
Much like removing scale buildup from toilets, the only ingredient you need is vinegar. In order to remove the scale, simply mix equal parts of water and white vinegar and spray it onto the deposits. Let it sit for about ten minutes before wiping it off and rinsing the door. You can also use this same mixture on your tiles or showerhead!
Depending on how deep the scale is in your home’s plumbing system, you may need to call a plumber. There are ways you can try to clean off the deposits if you think it’s higher up towards your drains.
Like cleaning your sink, all you need is baking soda, vinegar and hot water. To start, pour half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of vinegar into the opened drain. Cover the drain with a rag and let it sit for five minutes before boiling water and pouring it into the drain. If you want to clean the drain’s stopper, you can put some vinegar onto a soft sponge and wipe it down. The mixture should eat away any buildup that’s in the piping.
If you’re faced with any particularly stubborn scale deposits and no homemade mixture seems to solve the issue, you can always try a commercial cleaner instead. They frequently have stronger, more acidic chemicals in it, allowing it to eat away at the buildup. Of course, avoid using the commercial cleaners on any surface your food will come into contact with.
However, if scale buildup still seems to be an issue even after you’ve used both homemade and commercial cleaners, it’s time you call Clover Contracting for help.
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