Eli5 why water companies can’t soften the water to a usable level?

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At least to a level that isn’t actively dangerous to the water pipes of the houses it enters? Maybe even to a level where it doesn’t ruin every water-using appliance in the house? Why does every single person in the Great Lakes area need to own their own individual water softener, if we have city water? I can understand that well users need them, why should everyone else?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

There are two answers here that are part of the answer and another answer I haven’t seen yet that is the biggest reason. That reason is that the companies don’t “ship” you hard water. Or rather, even if they did soften it, it would be hard by the time it got to you. This is because (as one answer pointed out) the water will leach metal out of the pipes in order to balance itself. Buy piping hard water, you prevent that corrosion. This will also make maintenance significantly cheaper, as well as making the pipes safer. Look at Flint, Michigan for an example of what improperly treated water will do to your plumbing system. The state replaced the source of the water and didn’t fix the chemicals in it, so lead leeched out. Quite honestly this is the most expensive part, simply the softening of the water is probably not prohibitively expensive, but the maintenance would be.

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