Have you ever considered the complexity of the pipes that run throughout the inside of your home? Every faucet, shower head, bath, toilet, ice maker, dishwasher, washing machine, water heater and humidification unit is connected to a delicate system of plumbing. Now imagine if one of these pipes bursts on the second floor of your home, inside the walls of the shower. Wouldn't that be a nightmare? Consider the damage a burst pipe inside the wall could do. Flooding, knocking down and replacing walls, calling a plumber in the middle of the night and dealing with the insurance company would be incredibly expensive both in both time and money. Luckily there is a way you can prevent many of these plumbing issues from ever happening. All it takes is a little planning ahead and some regular maintenance.

How Water Filtration Can Save You Money The water that enters your home travels a very long distance before it actually makes its way to your faucet. In fact, it may travel many hundreds of miles through rivers or seeping underground into limestone aquifers. During that journey, it passes through many rocks and minerals, which will often dissolve and remain in suspension until they finally dry and crystalize as deposits on your home appliances. They can also solidify inside of your plumbing, causing pipes to become brittle, leak, break and eventually flood your home if not detected.

Water Softeners Extend the Life of Appliances Using a softening system will get rid your water of the minerals and sediments before they ever make it into your home. Softening the hard water laden with impurities can also extend the life of kitchen appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers and water heaters. If you start to notice problems caused by hard water in your appliances, it usually already too late to repair. Sediment can get in the tiniest places in the inner plumbing and the only way to remove it is to break them out. This involves buying new parts, if they are still available, and being inconvenienced by being unable to use them. Imagine not having hot water for a shower in the dead of winter (when many plumbing issues happen) while waiting for the water heater to be fixed or replaced. That doesn't sound like much fun, does it?

Installing Additional Filtration Simply removing dissolved minerals with the use of softeners isn't the only way to improve water quality. Dangerous chemicals, agricultural waste and deadly organisms can be lurking in your city water. Softening will not take care of any of these problems so it's necessary to get a unit that contains additional filtration to take care of these issues. If you think the water the city gives you is good enough, guess again. The EPA sets minimum standards for water quality. While city water gets tested often throughout the day, only the most serious bacterial outbreaks are reported, if at all. If there is simply an elevated amount of impurities, the water utility will post an ad in the newspaper the next week long after you might have ingested something you didn't want to. The elderly and children are especially susceptible to these sorts of risks.

Conclusion Not only do water softeners save pipes and money, additional filtration ensures that you and your family can remain healthy for many years to come. The simple installation of both of these types of units is far easier than dealing with plumbing chaos many years down the line when the benefits of prevention are long gone. Consider these two devices for your next project.