When doing research for a new or replacement water softener you might come across the words, grain capacity. What it means can be a little confusing, so we wanted to break it down and help you understand.

So, what is grain capacity? Grain capacity is how many grains the water softener can remove from hard water before it needs to go through a regeneration. Meaning, the water softener can take minerals out of hard water such as calcium and magnesium to make the water soft, before it is saturated, and the media needs to be cleaned.

When looking at different water softener sizes it is important to understand household size, raw water makeup and water quality expectations. These items will help with the sizing of your water softener and ensuring that it is properly sized for your home and family usage. Having an ideally sized water softener ensures that it regenerates when needed. The more a system regenerates the harder it is on the media bed and control valve. Think of the engine (control valve) and tires (media bed) on your car. The more often you turn on your car and drive many miles, over time it puts stress on your engine and wear on your tires causing for replacement or a new car sooner than someone who doesn’t use their car as frequently.

 Our experts stay on top of the city hardness levels and if on well water they come out to complete an analysis of the raw water. When you have Iron present in the water it’s important to have a pretreatment system in place, such as an iron filter before your water softener. If not, the water treatment will be damaged from iron and will need to be serviced or replaced more often.

Getting a water treatment system sized properly from the beginning will ensure that you have an efficient system that will last providing quality soft water for all you and your family members to enjoy. We are here to help with any sizing questions, call or email to have one of our experts help today!