Does a water softer shorten the life of your water heater?

[13jerry]

does a water softer shorten the life of your water heater

[Terry]

It is a prime example why you need
a water softener in the mid west .....

the fellow did not have a water softener , this heater was 10 years old
and they had 7 people living in the home when it finally started leaking in the garage........

usually you use about 300 per year to heat your water,
my guess is he probably used 3 times that much to keep this pig heating water...

he was still not interested in doing anything about it...
the water softener would literally pay for itself in gas savings pretty quickly
Master Plumber Mark

[ferd]

Have had a softner and the same water heater for the last 35 years. If anything, I would think that a softner would help a water heater.

[hj]

A water softener converts the "nonsoluble" calcium ions into sodium ions which are soluble so they do not build up in the water heater. This implies that a heater with soft water will outlast on without a softener.

[big2bird]

I am considering a water softener because the water here is hard as concrete. What are the drawbacks? I have heard it can cause copper plumbing corrosion. ARE there any drawbacks?

[ditttohead]

I am considering a water softener because the water here is hard as concrete. What are the drawbacks? I have heard it can cause copper plumbing corrosion. ARE there any drawbacks?

The pluses and minuses would take volumes to go over, but in general, the positives greatly outwiegh the negatives. Here is a quick read on the positives of softened water (true, not "anti-sclae, magic electronic wires, or magnets). http://wqa.org/pdf/pressreleases/battelleresults.pdf

As to the hot water heater issue, as a licenesed boiler technician, we recommend turning off (bupassing) the softener for most water heaters, boiler, steam boilers (not counting steam boilers in excess of 400 PSI, superheated steam etc) for a few days once a year. This simply puts a mm thick layer of protective scale over the surfaces of the system including the sacrificial anode without affecting energy efficiency etc. Again, this is a long a tedious discussion, but in general... soft water good, hard water bad, and running hard water on a very rare occassion for short amounts of time will have little negative affect...

I am not going to argue this point, just adding my 2 cents that for most systems, softening is beneficial so long as they are operated at high efficiency.