Every so often, I get questions regarding water softening solutions because the water hardness levels in many parts of the country are quite high. While there have been quite a few solutions for drinking water, there was no consistent solution available - till today - for a full house.
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So this video is made in collaboration with 3M to bring you awareness of their water softening products - they have not been installed in my home specifically.
Many of you can relate to this - there are many issues with hard water -
Some health issues include hair fall, skin irritation due to dryness and so on
You could also see scaling or permanent white marks on your bathroom floors and fixtures, on your vessels after wash, on kitchen fixtures, and your clothes looking faded.
In addition, hard water can harm and increase electricity consumption and maintenance cost of appliances like washing machines and geysers. Dishwashers can handle upto 900ppm as they do have a water softening unit in them, but anything above that - you need to soften the water.
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So what is the solution? You need to add water softeners that can help soften the water before using it for bathing, cleaning utensils, and washing.
If your water hardness level is less than 300ppm but you are still seeing scaling - you can install a 3M Scale Prevention System.
If your water hardness level is more than 300ppm, it is recommended to install a 3M Fully Automatic Water Softener for the full house.
Let’s talk about how these products work:
3M Scale prevention system has a filter cartridge that traps the visible and invisible sediments in water upto 5 microns using depth filtration. The system uses a unique sequestering technology to treat your water for hardness without using electricity and without wasting a single drop of water - unlike what you would see in RO water purifiers. Like mentioned before, it treats your water for hardness by encapsulating the calcium and magnesium ions present in water to prevent it from sticking to appliances, bathroom fixtures, skin and hair. As you can see, it’s fairly compact as well.
Coming to the 3M Fully automatic water softener - it uses Ion Exchange technology to replace hardness causing calcium and magnesium ions with Sodium ions. Sodium ions are not damaging to your appliances, hair , skin and hence don’t cause permanent damaging effects like irreversible scaling and hair fall issues. To do this, it uses a high efficiency, high performance food grade resin which has a long life and ensures up to 90% reduction in hardness. It also comes with a pre-filter to trap visible and invisible sediments in water to extend the life of the resin.
This water softener has a display that gives real time diagnostics and usage information like number of days since the system was installed, gallons of water used, current flow rate and so on.
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Where do you install these products?
For flats - both of these products can be installed at the main water inlet to your flat. If there are multiple inlets to the flat, 3M scale prevention systems can be installed at each inlet that requires water treatment. For example, if you only need water treatment for your kitchen and one of the bathrooms, you can install only in those places.
For individual houses and villas - it is recommended that they are installed before the water enters the overhead tank so that the water pressure for consumption is not impacted and you store only treated water in the overhead tank. If you install it after the overhead tank, a booster pump will be required to maintain the water pressure.
3M always recommends a site visit by their trained personnel to check the water quality, plumbing arrangements and water pressure and recommend the right product for your use. I would insist on booking a home visit from 3M Home water Solution website before finalizing the product.
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Will you see a drop in TDS once you install these products?
No, the TDS level of water will not reduce after using these products as the main issues due to hard water we discussed earlier is caused due to the presence of Calcium and Magnesium ions and the 3M products help to reduce or treat these harmful hardness causing agents in the water. 3M Fully automatic water softener reduces hardness value of water by up to 90%.
While installing, the 3M service professional can demonstrate the reduction with a hardness kit they bring. The reduction of these ions can be noticed by reduction in permanent white marks on your bathroom fixtures or better soap lather formation. Over continuous usage, the effects on hair fall and skin can be noticed. In both the systems, you can also notice that the output water is clearer as both the products remove visible and invisible sediment particles up to 5 microns from your water.
The 3M scale prevention system on the other hand will not show any reduction in before and after hardness values as it does not remove the hardness causing agents in water , but makes them inactive so that they lose their damaging capabilities. You are however expected to feel a noticeable improvement in the water quality. The 3M scale prevention systems treats your water while ensuring zero water wastage and without using any electricity
In both the systems, you can also notice that the output water is clearer as both the products remove visible and invisible sediment particles up to 5 microns from your water.
BUY 3M WATER SOFTENING PRODUCTS
A common question regarding water softening products is about its maintenance. Let’s now talk about maintenance of the 3M products.
Both products are easy to install and maintain. Installation should be done by a certified 3M professional but ongoing maintenance can be done by yourself.
For the 3M Scale prevention system, to extend the life of the cartridge, you will need to clean the cartridge every 20-30 days and the cartridge needs replacement every 6-8 months - depending on your daily usage and input water quality. Replacement cartridge costs around 4K.
For the 3M Fully automatic water softener, salt is a key consumable for softening the water and needs to be refilled or topped up once consumed. You need to use non-iodized, crystal salt or salt tablets which are readily available in the market for this, please do not use the regular table salt which we consume. This water softener has a high-capacity salt storage of 60kgs to minimize the frequency of refilling. To extend the life of the cartridge, the prefilter cartridge needs to be cleaned every 20 days to 30 days and the cartridge needs to be replaced every 6-8 months depending on the quality of input water and daily water consumption. The replacement cartridge costs around 3K.
Given the quality of water in many parts of the country, the 3M water softening products are a good solution to make water usable without causing harm to health and appliances. You can request a home visit on the 3M website and get your water tested while getting expert suggestion on the recommended product that will solve your water problems.
I hope this gave you some visibility into the products available to fix hard water and scaling problems in your area.
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