Comments on: Drinking Softened Water

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:15:31 +0000

The trademark Brita uses exactly a mixture of ion exchange and charcoal and is widely used.

By: David Bradley

David Bradley — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:21:23 +0000

Just quickly Rick, drinking hard water has beneficial effects on reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease because of the relatively higher levels of calcium and magnesium ions. I am going to dig out studies on the putatively harmful effects of ion-exchanged water though. It was always something, as a chemist, that we were advised not to do…but like you say, evidence would be good.

By: Rick Clennett

Rick Clennett — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:43:42 +0000

I am not convinced that drinking water from an ion exchange softener is harmful. I have softened all of my water for over 30 years in this way to correct the extreme hardness from borehole water supplied by Severn Trent Water. There is a history of hypertension in my family and I have it, but my wife’s blood pressure is normal. I looked after elderly people for over ten years and none of them had any hypertension problems from drinking the softened water and definitely no premature deaths.
Can anyone post clinical test results to back up the allegations that drinking softened water is harmful? Until then, I will continue to drink it!

By: chemspy

chemspy — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:50:29 +0000

Alain, thanks for your detailed reponse. My concern wasn’t the aesthetics of his filtration setup but the fact that he’s drinking ion-exchanged water. It’s not for drinking, it has high levels of sodium and little calcium, long-term use could cause health problems.

By: Alain Mokbel

Alain Mokbel — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:02:59 +0000

I think we are avoiding the main issue here: what’s in the water?

How hard is his water? Is it necessary? Did he get his water tested? Where is the water coming from?

Water softener has for purpose to remove hardness ions, like Calcium and Magnesium, and replaces it with Sodium or Potassium.

Activated Carbon (or Charcoal) is used for more aesthetic reasons, such as removing the taste and smell of chlorine. But the main function of AC is to remove bacteria and viruses.

I seriously don’t think it’s a good idea to have 2 different filtration media in the same tank. You can have a softener and activated filters in series but you shouldn’t have both media in the same filter tank. It is simply NOT DONE.

My recommendation is to have 2 separate tanks for each filtration media and if possible, to have an automated backwash controller to help with maintenance.