What Size Water Softener For Family Of 2
Throughout roughly 85% of the United States, h2o softeners are an essential household appliance. Knowing how to size a h2o softener can mean the difference betwixt ending upward with a unit that meets your needs and one that falls brusk.
At American Dwelling Water and Air, we have more than 30 years of experience installing water softeners in Phoenix. As such, we've put together this guide to help you lot make the best decision for your home.
How To Size A Water Softener: Why Should Yous Care, Anyway?

Many consumers are tempted to forgo proper consideration of their water softener tank size. They simply search for the lowest-priced unit of measurement, which is usually on the smaller size. This isn't a wise decision, though.
Before nosotros explore why that is, here's a brief warning. Some of the information in this guide gets a bit technical. If you're merely looking for a crude estimate to help you predict how much your softener will cost, jump to the "What Size Water Softener for a Family unit of 4?" section.
Undersized H2o Softener Problems
A water softener that'due south besides small won't produce enough soft water for your household. As such, across a certain level of usage (or if you open up too many faucets at once) the unit will exist bypassed and difficult water will make its way through your plumbing. This, of class, negates all of the wonderful h2o softener benefits you were counting on.
Additionally, a water softener that is as well modest will require more frequent regeneration (read here to learn more about platonic regeneration cycles). Regeneration occurs when your h2o softener flushes its resin chaplet to go rid of congenital-up minerals.
In many modern systems, this regeneration process occurs based on demand; the more minerals that build upward in the beads, the more frequently it will regenerate. Excessively-frequent regeneration affects the life of these resin chaplet and your water softener as a whole.
As you know, these systems aren't exactly inexpensive, and then you want to avoid this.
Oversized H2o Softener Problems
An oversized water softener isn't necessarily as bad equally an undersized one, save for the fact that you volition pay more money for it upfront. Regeneration volition occur less frequently and the unit will utilize salt more than efficiently. When regeneration does happen, it volition, of form, employ more h2o and salt but this may be negated by the fact that the cycles occur less frequently.
Even if you exercise purchase an oversized h2o softener, you need to be enlightened of what the manufacturer-provided capacity figures actually mean. Otherwise, you won't be able to properly estimate how much y'all need to spend on salt.
What Size Water Softener Should I Get? – Things To Consider
Let'south respond this question past exploring it from a couple of different angles: your available options and what factors you lot demand to consider before making a decision.
Available H2o Softener Tank Sizes & Capacities
At American Home Water and Air, we sell water softeners in the post-obit capacities:
- 32,000 GR
- 48,000 GR
- 56,000 GR
- 64,000 GR
Check out our water softener pricing page for more information on the costs of these units.
The "GR" in those figures stands for "grains." This is one of the common metrics h2o softener manufacturers use to communicate buyers of the system's capacity.
A cardinal function of learning how to properly size a water softener is knowing what these measurements actually translate to in the existent world.
I "grain" equates to i/7000th of a pound-worth of minerals that the softener is capable of removing from your water. To achieve the full capacity indicated past a softener's GR effigy, you need to utilise a specific amount of common salt per regeneration bicycle, which is commonly outlined in the possessor's manual.
Y'all can operate the system using lesser amounts of table salt but you won't achieve the capacity denoted by the unit's GR figure if you do and so. This may be completely fine depending on your needs. The key is to strike a remainder betwixt saving coin (using less salt) and getting acceptable amounts of soft water for your domicile.
As for the size of the tank, units possessing the chapters range mentioned above (32,000 GR – 64,000 GR) typically range in size from 9" in diameter and 48" in height to 12" in diameter and 52" in elevation.
If y'all take an existing softener that y'all're looking to replace, the unit's measurements are normally on a sticker stock-still to the side.
Your Area'due south Water Hardness

USGS
As mentioned earlier, 85% of the water in the United States is hard. Exactly how hard the water is can differ from region to region, though, as you tin can see from the map above. Yous need to test your h2o hardness in order to accurately determine how to size a h2o softener for your abode.
Water hardness falls into the following categories:
- Soft: 10-50 ppm
- Slightly Difficult: l-100 ppm
- Hard: 100-200 ppm
- Very Hard: 200 ppm and above
The "ppm" represents "parts per million," which denotes how heavy the water's calcium content is.
Another metric for measuring water hardness is grains per gallon. This bears the following categories:
- Soft: 0-3 gpg
- Slightly Difficult: 3-7 gpg
- Hard: seven-11 gpg
- Very Hard: 11 gpg and to a higher place
If you have extremely hard water (i.e. you live in one of the 'red' areas on the map to a higher place), a college-capacity water softener will likely exist in order. If y'all live in these 'red' areas, you might be wondering "is information technology safe to drink soft water?", generally the answer is yes, only there are some caveats worth mentioning. This also emphasizes the importance of getting the right water softener size for your domicile.
Your Water Usage
Another central component of how to make up one's mind what size water softener y'all demand is, of course, your water usage. In fact, ane very quick method for determining the size focuses on this metric.
It involves calculating your daily water use and then multiplying that number past your water hardness measurement in grains per gallon. This will assist you lot determine how many grains of minerals your softener needs to remove per day.
You can then take that figure and compare it to the capacity figures we mentioned above. As a general rule of pollex, water softeners need to regenerate at least once weekly.
What Size Water Softener For A Family unit Of Four?
Is your head spinning? We become information technology. Knowing how to make up one's mind what size water softener you need involves agreement some fairly complicated metrics that can be hard for people outside of the industry to conceptualize.
In this section, we'll take a more than basic approach. If you take the typical American family of iv, a 32,000 GR softener will be adequate, provided your h2o hardness isn't farthermost.
If it is farthermost, go in touch with your local water softener company (that's American Dwelling Water and Air if y'all live in Phoenix). A professional will be able to properly advise you equally to whether you lot need a 48,000 GR unit of measurement or one with an even greater capacity.
What Size Water Softener Should I Go? – Conclusion
In this post, we explored (in corking item) the question of "how do you size a water softener?" How to make up one's mind the size of h2o softener needed depends on several factors, including:
- your water hardness
- your water consumption
- how both of those measurements correspond to the available water softener tank sizes and capacities
If you're still wondering "how do I size my h2o softener?" and scratching your head, nosotros encourage you to give your local h2o softener installer (American Home Water and Air in Phoenix, Arizona) a telephone call. We also do air duct cleaning and air conditioning services, find out the cost of air duct cleaning in Glendale here. Professionals deal with the metrics mentioned in this slice every day and can accurately pinpoint the right softener size for you with ease!
Nonetheless, nosotros hope this article has helped yous get a more informed shopper. If similar this article, check out this next article on "Air Duct Cleaning: Pros and Cons".
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Source: https://americanhomewater.com/how-to-size-a-water-softener-properly-foolproof-guidelines/
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