While most Americans can trust that their tap water is safe to drink, there's no guarantee that you'll enjoy the taste of it. Its flavor depends on several factors including where your tap water is sourced and how your local municipality purifies and stores your water. Fortunately, you can improve the taste and cleanliness of your water with a water filtration system and/or a water softener in your home. Although some people assume those terms are synonymous, they are not. Water filtration systems and water softeners work differently. Here are a few of the major advantages and disadvantages of each.

Water Softener

PROS

Reliable Taste

Water softeners are designed to remove two minerals from your water supply: magnesium and calcium. These are both naturally occurring minerals and the two most common minerals in water. They aren't added to your water; they are picked up when water moves through soil and rock. However, these minerals occur at different levels depending on the source of your water and its mineral content. One of the greatest advantages of having a water softener installed in your home is an improvement in the reliability of your water's flavor. By removing these minerals, you can trust that your water will taste the same from day to day.

Easier Cleaning

The removal of magnesium and calcium also makes cleaning easier because these minerals tend to get left behind as mineral deposits on surfaces in your home. Those hard water stains on your shower glass are calcium and magnesium. Without those deposits, you use less water, fewer cleaning products, and way less elbow grease.  

CONS

Limited Filtering

One of the biggest drawbacks of having only a water softener in your home is that your softener is filtering only minerals. They won't filter any other contaminants like chlorine or lead.

Water Filtration

PROS

Clean and Pure

Unlike water softeners, water filters are designed to target contaminants in the water, not minerals. They use different filtering processes to remove products like lead, chlorine, lithium, and boron from your drinking water. With a water filter, you can trust that every drop of water in your glass is free of contaminants and safe to drink.

Better Tasting

By removing chemicals that are common in drinking water like chlorine — a chemical used to purify water — a filtration system also massively improves the taste of your water.

CONS

Won't Soften

Because water filters don't target minerals, they won't soften your water. The two systems use completely different processes. For homeowners that want reliably clean water that's also softened, you would need both a filtration and a softening system.

To learn more about both systems, reach out to a local plumber.