Did I Ruin my Utah Water Softener?

Today I had a very-worried-for-no-reason homeowner in Bountiful call me who had accidentally put salt into her water softener instead of the Potassium that she had been using since the day we installed her Utah water softener.  This homeowner was worried that she had destroyed her water softener, but she was greatly relieved to find out that she had done no damage to her water softener whatsoever.  All water softener owners should know that any water softener that uses salt (Sodium Chloride) can also use Potassium (Potassium Chloride) and the opposite is true as well.

Let me take a moment and explain why:

The hardness in your water are simply dissolved positively charged ions named Calcium and Magnesium.  The Sodium part of Salt (Salt is NaCl2 or Sodium Chloride) is also a positively charged ion was well when it is dissolved in water along with Potassium Chloride (KCL).  All a water softener does is remove the hardness in the water (Calcium and Magnesium) and it replaces it with the positively charged ions in either Salt or Potassium, whichever you decide to use.

Homeowners should also understand that they can switch back and forth between Salt or Potassium as much as they would like to with no real changes to the water softener itself or its programming.  I have heard of some of our competitors charging a homeowner $800 to “convert” their water softener from Salt to Potassium which is a total scam and homeowners should be aware of it.

The only thing that homeowners should be aware of is that if they have been using Salt and they want to switch to Potassium so they can drink the water, the effect of the Potassium will not have an effect on the water unless the brine tank was completely empty of salt and it will also require the water softener to regenerate at least 1 time before the water softener will pull the Potassium into the system.

Again, if we can be of service, please do not hesitate to call us at the number below.

 

Sam Nielsen

Royal Water Systems

855-763-863