[Buzz123]

I have lived with and without a water softener long enough to say without a doubt it's better to have one. Hard water in the shower makes you itch. Soap doesn't rinse completely in hard water, but neither does it suds up very well. So a WS takes less soap and leaves your skin feeling better. Also, hard water ruins your clothes in the washing machine for the same reason.

I'm not into the technical aspects of whether we are putting too much salt in the Colorado, but I do know that Mexico has bitched about saline for decades even when there was less than 200,000 pop. in the Valley. But then we built the dam because California and Mexican farmers bitched about the flooding. I also know that with or without water softeners, saline in the Colorado is still a problem because it is in the earth that water from our admittedly infrequent rains carries into the lake. So even when no humans lived in the Las Vegas Valley, farmers downstream were getting too much salt from the Colorado River. It's desert. Live with it.

We consider the best deal to be both Sears RO filter and water softener, and that is usually the consensus around this town.

With a water softener, soft water doesn't go to the outside as in sprinklers, hose bibs, etc. Nor does it reach the cold water tap in the kitchen sink, so you can use either to water indoor plants. So the RO filter is a convenience for better tasting water from the sink. If you have a fairly new refrigerator that gives you filtered water from the front door then you might not need both. We find they are both useful.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by StaggerLee22

At less than .30 cents a gallon at Walmart, I cannot justify buying a 2 thousand dollar RO unit.
Plus, IMHO, the RO water STILL taste like doggie pooh.

We buy bottled water too, at about 100 times the cost of gasoline. But we like to keep it in the car. If we filled our own bottles from the RO filter I suppose it would be a lot cheaper.

The bad taste in city water comes from all the chlorine they put in it. I have heard that most bottled water is from regular water supplies and also has chlorine in it otherwise you might catch something.

[NoMoreRJ]

If I wanted to test the water in the house and my filtered water, where could I get this done? I thought I heard something like Sears will do this but how reliable are they? Anyone have experience with Sears or another vendor?

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

We buy bottled water too, at about 100 times the cost of gasoline. But we like to keep it in the car. If we filled our own bottles from the RO filter I suppose it would be a lot cheaper.

The bad taste in city water comes from all the chlorine they put in it. I have heard that most bottled water is from regular water supplies and also has chlorine in it otherwise you might catch something.

Also from the madly high mineral content. Mostly calcium. Stir a teaspoon of baking soda and a pinch of salt into bottled water and it's basically the same as Las Vegas water. (Of course, add some heavy metals and radioactive isotopes for more realism.)

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Also from the madly high mineral content. Mostly calcium. Stir a teaspoon of baking soda and a pinch of salt into bottled water and it's basically the same as Las Vegas water. (Of course, add some heavy metals and radioactive isotopes for more realism.)

If ya can't SEE it or CHEW it, it ain't Las Vegas Water

[DougStark]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Have people stopped to consider what is happening to our water supply with water softeners?

We salt our water. We pump the brine into the sewage system. Not all of the salt is removed from the wastewater, and it goes back to Lake Mead. Slowly, Lake Mead is becoming more saline -- evaporation and massive salt additions do their work. So the Colorado south of Lake Mead is becoming more saline.

I don't think this is sustainable.

Well said and correct.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by DougStark

Well said and correct.

This is a matter of dilution and flow. About 8 milliion acre feet flow into Lake Mead each year. It has a capacity of about 28 million acre feet. So it turns over about every 3.5 years. Every year you get perhaps 200,000 AF from Las Vegas which is diluted in 8 million acre feet of flow. So roughly diluted 40 times from a low level before flowing off to AZ and CA..

So basically wrong.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by StaggerLee22

At less than .30 cents a gallon at Walmart, I cannot justify buying a 2 thousand dollar RO unit.
Plus, IMHO, the RO water STILL taste like doggie pooh.

$2000 for an RO unit? A good under the counter unit should cost a fraction of that. I don't know what 'doggie pooh' tastes like, so I will take your word for that.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

$2000 for an RO unit? A good under the counter unit should cost a fraction of that. I don't know what 'doggie pooh' tastes like, so I will take your word for that.

He bought ten and ran them in series to get rid of the "doggie pooh" taste.

[Bulwara Road]

We put one in after moving here last year.

The hard water here caused me to break out in a rash, so we felt the need to put one in.

I was concerned slightly by the increase in sodium in our diets from putting the softner in, so we use Potassium Cloride instead of Sodium Cloride.

Doesn't really impact me much either way, as being Australian I hydrate mainly with beer!