I live in a small twin (3 bed/1.5 bath) that I lease. When we moved in, we noticed the water was particularly hard (10 GPG) and it was causing dry skin after showers and other issues. We don’t use a lot of water and we don’t have much space (1,300 sq. ft.). I also don’t much prefer the saltiness of “softened” water. My landlord gave me the OK to install a simple filtration system. I’m looking for something cheap, compact and simple. I don’t need 0gpg either, if I can lower down to a 3-4 GPG I would be happy.

Seems simple right? I was thinking maybe a 400GPD RO system but they all come with faucets which makes me think they may not be usable to throw in-line on the water system.

Do you know of anything (under $1,000) I can do to clean up my water and make it just a little softer?

Good news, Mike! Recent developments in the water softener industry include water softeners that do not use salt as the primary treating agent. Reasons for the salt-free water softeners range from States like California putting a ban on them for environmental reasons to people (like yourself) simply not enjoying the taste and/or texture of the water produced by salt-based water softeners.

Eagle A1000AS Anti-Scale Saltless Water Conditioner

To the left you will see an example of a water softener that uses a special filtration media to remove calcium and magnesium from source water instead of salt. The unit also comes equipped with a sediment filter, solid carbon block filter for VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) and an Ultrafiltration Filter good for removing particles as small as .01 microns.

Mike, you mentioned reverse osmosis as a possible option and based upon what you said you wanted from the water treatment system, we don’t think that will work out as well as you’d like, though we do agree that reverse osmosis water filter do an excellent job of filtering water.

Reverse osmosis units do not connect up as inline filters as neatly and tidily as it sounds like you’d prefer. They require drains for ‘waste water’ that gets rejected by the membranes and flushed out during backwashing. Also, reverse osmosis water filters require power which means running a power line to the unit.

The Eagle A1000AS Anti-Scale Saltless Water Conditioner uses no power, requires no drain, uses no salt or environmentally harmful chemicals, and supposedly will help to remove existing calcium and magnesium deposits already clogging water lines.

Moral of the story?

Mike, we suggest having your water tested by a certified laboratory in your area or having a mail order service such as National Testing Laboratories perform a thorough analysis of your water. From the sounds of things, your faucets could possibly have more than just calcium and/or magnesium coming out of them and you will not know for sure until you test.

Also, even after installing a water filtration system, Mike, you will want to perform regular, or at least occasional, water testing for things like total hardness to make certain the filtration system you chose has not stopped working as expected. Products like the WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Strips make testing water hardness both easy and inexpensive.

At one time if you lived in an area and your water contained high levels of elements like calcium and magnesium your only option for water softening systems involved the use of salt-based water softening systems which worked well, but required periodic draining… which meant the discharging of brine water into the environment.

States such as California noticed the damage done to the environment by this unnatural adding of heavily salted water (brine water) and attempted to enact legislation to BAN the sale and use of salt based water softeners. Though not successful as of yet, efforts to get salt-based water conditioners banned continue to this day.

Do Alternative(s) to Salt-Based Water Softeners Exist?

In recent years a ‘new’ technology has emerged which makes it possible to soften water without the use a salt tank. This technology makes use of specially designed media which either absorb the calcium or convert it into a ‘harmless’ form which gets collected and backwashed out of the system at a later date.

Below you will find three examples of salt-free water softening systems:

When last we checked, FilterWater.Com offered FREE SHIPPING on all three units to locations w/in the Continental United States… and given that each unit easily weighs more than 100 pounds, well, that offer of free shipping sounds like a pretty decent deal!

Testing for Water Hardness?

Now you KNOW we can’t let this blog entry come to a close without telling you how you can test the hardness of your water.

Water Hardness Test Strips work well for on-the-spot testing of water hardness and typically cost less than $10 for a bottle of 50 strips.

As a general rule ‘water conditioners’ have pretty much always used salt as a means of removing excess hardness (calcium) from water. Homeowners and businesses experiencing problems with calcium wind up with scale deposits in water lines and crusty deposits on faucets and other bathroom fixtures. Scale in the lines lead to higher heating and energy costs as well as increased usage of cleaning agents/detergents and high repair costs for appliances damaged by constricted water flow.

Certain areas of the United States have put restrictions on the use of salt-based water conditioners because of environmental concerns. Water conditioning units that use salt require discharging and replacing of salt periodically and questions have come up regarding how to properly dispose of the salty wastewater.

Naturally when a problem like this arises, someone comes up with an answer:

Saltless Water Conditioner and Anti-Scale system Eagle A 2000-FG is a new break-through technolgy, designed to remove water hardness without a use of salt. The system is designed to convert calcium in water (which is a main element found in hard water) into calcite crystals of nanometer size, which no longer cause lime deposits. The calcium then is simply rinsed away.

The system also removes existing scale deposits from pipes and heat exchange surfaces, which is called descaling, and can further protect the system from future formation of scale. So, it can pay for itself in days!

Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner specifications:

+ In First stage, Water flows through a 20″ sediment filter cartridge that removes sediment, silt, sand and dirt. Also extends the life of the filter media and prevent damage.

+ In stage 2, water flows through an Eagle Anti-Scale media tank.

+ In stage 3, water flows through a 20″ solid carbon cartridge that removes volatile organic carbon compounds (VOC’s), insecticides, pesticides and industrial solvents ^*

+ In stage 4, water passes through a .01 micron Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. Ultrafiltration (UF) is an important purification technology used for the production of high-purity water. UF is effective for the removal of colloids, proteins, bacteria, viruses, parasites, protozoa and pyrogens (e.g., gram-negative bacterial endotoxins), other organic molecules larger than .01 micron, and most other water contaminants known today.

Wastes no water, uses no electricity

^* – if present in water ( source

Whether you live in an area that has banned water conditioners that use salt or not, it seems as though the Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner offers consumers an interesting option for salt-free water conditioning and filtration.

Below you will find links to replacement filters for the Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner.