What is the cheapest way to soften bathing water and can I add salt to bathwater to replace calcium?

Answer 1

Adding salt to your bath water will NOT make it soft. While traditional water softeners do use salt to operate, they are NOT making the water softer by adding salt to the water. Instead they are adding just the sodium ions from the salt and removing Calcium and magnesium ions from the hard water to make soft water. You cannot make your bath soft by just adding sodium either - the only way to make it soft is to (somehow) remove the calcium and magnesium from the water and the most economical way to do that is with a traditional water softener. Note that there are newer devices and resins that work differently from a traditional water softener. These are sometimes called "salt free softeners" - but this name is technically not accurate. While they do not use salt - they also do not remove hardness from the water so they are not actually softening the water. Some manufactures claim that while the Calcium and Magnesium are still in the water their devices cause the water to act as if it were actually soft - and some of their customers agree it works (and some do not). These newer devices and technologies continue to improve and be researched. In 2009, there is a large study being conducted by the water quality association (wqa.org) and Battelle labs to investigate some of these types of systems and to hopefully offer more insight into the scientifically provable aspects of these so-called salt free softeners.