Can you drink softened water? Is it safe?

As specialists in water filtration, we are often asked these two questions “can you drink softened water?” and “is it safe to drink softened water?”.  We like easy answers to simple questions like that, and in this case the answer is “yes, in most cases”.

Important note: what follows in this article is our best advice and information as water filtration experts. We are not health professionals; if you have any doubts you should consult your GP or other medically qualified person.

Let’s get some understanding of how water is softened and why it may not be good to drink it for some people.

What is softened water?

In simple terms soft water is water that has low concentrations of dissolved minerals – mainly calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and magnesium carbonate (MgCO3), that’s below 100 milligrams per litre (mg/l).

Water above that level may be slightly hard (100 - 150 mg/l), moderately hard (150 – 200 mg/l), hard (200 – 300 mg/l), or even very hard (300 mg/l and above).

Softened water is hard water that has the hard minerals, also known as hard ions, replaced with sodium ions, in a process called “ion exchange”.

Note that the sodium in softened water is not salt (sodium chloride, NaCL) so your water won’t taste salty if you install a water softener.

The chemical introduced in water softening is sodium bicarbonate and it’s not a 1:1 ratio, in fact it’s closer to around 40%.

So, if you have hard water of 200 mg/l you can expect around 80 mg/l of sodium to be introduced.

If you’re in a very hard water area with 350 mg/l it’s 140 mg/l of sodium introduced.

Now that we know that we can consider this further.

Is it safe to drink softened water?

For most people you can drink water from a water softener safely.

Adults sodium tolerance in drinking water

The UK’s drinking water regulations and the World Health Organisation (WHO) state that the maximum safe level of sodium in drinking water is 200 mg/l (or 200 parts per million – ppm).

That’s based on WHO recommended maximum daily sodium intake of 2000 mg per day from all sources, which includes meals, snacks, supplements, and drinks.

Having said that the NHS and British Heart Foundation say that the maximum daily limit is 6g of salt per day for adults (that’s 6000 mg/day!) which seems a bit high if the sodium content is 40%.

Bearing that in mind it’s probably best to err on the side of caution and limit your intake to 4g of salt per day at most.

Taking these figures into consideration, drinking softened water may be safe for healthy adults, but what about other people?

Children sodium tolerance in drinking water

Tolerance for sodium increases with the age of children:

Age	Sodium	Salt
Babies	< 0.4g	< 1g
1 - 3	0.8g	2g
4 - 6	1.2g	3g
7 - 10	2g	5g
11 and older	2.5g	6g

 

As you can see from the table, you need to be much more vigilant with your children’s intake of salt and sodium to safeguard their health. It is probably best if children don’t drink softened water at all.

Health effects of sodium

Sodium in your diet affects your health by increasing blood pressure.

While that may be fine for healthy adults who are reasonably active, it’s a big risk for some – it could even be life-threatening some.

But what are the risks involved in drinking softened water?

Given that sodium increases blood pressure, if you suffer from high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, you’ll already be aware of what follows.

If not, then it may surprise you to learn that high blood pressure significantly increases the chances of developing heart disease.

And then add to that:

• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Heart failure
• Peripheral arterial disease
• Aortic aneurisms
• Kidney disease
• Vascular dementia

Why can’t you drink softened water?

Think of this in terms of the health effects of softened water for at risk people.

If you have normal blood pressure, it’s likely that it’s perfectly safe to drink softened water.

However, if your blood pressure is already high, or of you have slightly elevated blood pressure then you really don’t want to add to the problem.

So, it’s definitely not recommended to consume water with extra sodium added in by a water softener.

Can dogs drink softened water?

Water from a water softener is perfectly safe for most dogs, and other pets.

Older animals are probably best not to have the increased sodium.

However, hard water is likely to be a higher risk to dogs due to kidney problems it can cause.

The same is true for cats and the best advice is to give your pets filtered soft water which reduces most chemicals that might have adverse health effects.

The side effects of drinking softened are not severe for most people, but you still may want to prevent limescale, but without using a water softener.

Salt free water softeners

Strictly speaking salt free water softeners aren’t water softeners, but they do prevent or minimise the formation of hard scale.

They can also be combined very cost effectively with other filters that will improve water quality overall.

Salt free systems tend to be lower maintenance, have a lower purchase price, and be very much cheaper to install.

The latest technology employs a system called template assisted crystallisation (TAC) or media assisted crystallisation (MAC).

For whole house applications Watts’ OneFlow+ mains water filter system is a simple all-in-one solution that maintains a great flow rate while treating hard water and filtering out chemicals.

Or if you’re happy with the taste of your water and only want to treat the limescale problem then a superb option that is also able to be fitted in a kitchen under sink cupboard is the OneFlow Hard Water Filter 30LPM .

With this post we hope you are now more informed about drinking softened water. When it comes to treating limescale or softening water, everyone has different needs, requirements, and expectations so we really encourage you to contact us here on our helpdesk or call 01352 838281 to talk to us about your individual circumstances.

 

 Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians