Culligan Water Softeners
in Sterling Heights, MI

No. A properly functioning water softener will never make your water taste salty. The small amount of sodium added to the water will never create a salty taste.

Hard water usually manifests itself in several ways. It leaves white residue behind wherever water evaporates. When hardness reacts with soaps and detergents, it leaves a sticky soap scum behind, and in hot water heating systems it leaves behind a hard scale. With regional GLWA water averaging about 106 ppm, Sterling Heights homeowners often notice a chalky ring around faucet bases, spotting on glassware and soap that doesn’t lather as well as it should.

Sterling Heights’ report doesn’t publish a hardness number, and GLWA’s regional supply averages about 106 ppm. Since there is no city-specific figure to program from, Culligan starts with a test at your own tap, then sets the softener for your measured hardness and your household’s water use. That keeps the system from regenerating more often than needed.

A water softener works through a process known as “ion exchange,” which means that as it removes calcium and magnesium (elements that make water “hard”), it replaces those ions on a one for one basis, usually with sodium. This means that the amount of sodium added to the water is directly proportional to how hard your water is. In most instances the amount being added is so small that it is not a significant contributor to the amount of sodium in your diet.

Sterling Heights water starts out low in sodium; the most recent report lists 5.3 ppm. A softener adds sodium in proportion to the hardness it removes, and with moderately hard water that amount stays small. Households watching sodium can run the softener on potassium chloride or add a reverse osmosis system at the kitchen sink for drinking and cooking water.

Much of Sterling Heights was built from the 1960s onward, and many homes now have high-efficiency water heaters, tankless units and modern dishwashers. Those appliances have narrow passages and heating surfaces where scale builds quickly, so soft water helps them last and run efficiently, even in homes with newer plumbing.

Yes, if your hard water has been building up scale in your appliances, once you install a softener it will begin to remove that built-up scale. It will take a long time to remove it, but it will remove it.

Unfortunately, no. A water softener is designed to remove hardness (calcium and magnesium) from water. They can sometimes remove a limited amount of iron and manganese if you happen to have these problems as well. But if you are looking for great water for drinking and cooking, you should probably consider a reverse osmosis system for that purpose.

Other than salt or potassium chloride, there are no other chemicals that a water softener uses. On the contrary, using a water softener reduces the amount of cleaning supplies and detergents that you need to put down the drain trying to keep your home and family clean. Using a water softener is very environmentally friendly.

Once a softener is installed, it will begin to soften your water immediately, However, if you have a tank-type hot water heater, it may take a few days to use up that hard water, until you feel the full effects of soft water.

Most good softeners today, recharge based on how many gallons of water you use, and how hard your water is to start with. However, most of our customers today are adding salt once or twice a year, on average.

Yes. Culligan offers water softener rental in Sterling Heights, with installation, maintenance and service handled by our local team. Renting works well if you lease your home, recently moved, or want soft water without buying a system outright.