What is the Difference between a Water Conditioner vs a Water Softener?

Brunt Dana
4 min readMar 3, 2021

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What is the Difference between a Water Conditioner vs a Water Softener?

Conditioner is just a generic word for a machine that modifies an element. A water conditioner has the task of improving some water condition. Most water conditioners have in common that they can get rid of chlorine, which means healthier and more palatable water. When we talk about a water softener we also talk about a conditioner with the particular task of softening hard water. Water is hard when we find diluted ions of calcium and magnesium in the plumbing system. Hard water may leave a coat on your kitchen utensils, plaque and tartar on your white goods, and make you use more detergent than you would like to. In this article you will find out more about water conditioners and water softeners.

Conditioner is just a generic word for a machine that modifies an element. A water conditioner has the task of improving some water condition. Most water conditioners have in common that they can get rid of chlorine, which means healthier and more palatable water. When we talk about a water softener we also talk about a conditioner with the particular task of softening hard water. Water is hard when we find diluted ions of calcium and magnesium in the plumbing system. Hard water may leave a coat on your kitchen utensils, plaque and tartar on your white goods, and make you use more detergent than you would like to. In this article you will find out more about water conditioners and water softeners.

Types of Water Conditioners

Carbon Filter

Activated carbon separates some elements that are diluted in water by “catching” them, specially organic elements which can be absorbed by carbon. The best quality of a carbon filter is to get rid of disgusting smells and tastes, like sulfur in well water or chlorine in pipe systems, from the water you and your family drink. This mechanism just changes the quality of water. They won’t remove hard minerals like calcium or magnesium. You can usually find carbon filtering systems in the water filter pitchers you buy Walmart or the dispenser of your fridge.

Simple Space Age Conditioners

Electromagnetic water conditioners consist in wires or magnets surrounding the plumbing system to make a molecular maelstrom in the flow. The molecular maelstrom makes carbonate salts that form lime deposits throughout your pipeline to mix as small pieces in the stream, hence minimizing the amount of calcium and magnesium ions which mix with soap to create tartar.

They’re not cheap, and the effectiveness of these systems has never been backed by science. Besides, since the magnetic force acts only through direct contact, it is not able to clean gallons of water at once, and this quality of water will remain for only 2 days after processing.

Catalytic Media

Catalytic media conditioners work through a physical procedure named Template Assisted Crystallization. They are salt-free and don’t use ions to extract hard elements like other salt-processing softeners. The state of the mineral becomes a compressed crystal that won’t stick to the objects. This process isn’t really a water softener; it’s a mere conditioner.

The Process of a Water Softener

A water softener works by clearing water from those elements that cause water to harden, usually calcium or magnesium, using a system named ion exchange. Salt-based models use a resinous filter where the water goes through, catching heavy elements and giving in exchange sodium molecules. If the resinous filter gets saturated, the clearing system starts with a sequence of recursive washes clean caught elements and wash them away of the filter. Sodium molecules are also renewed and the softener keeps working

What is a Water Refiner good for?

To have the best of both conditioners and softeners, you can buy a full tap water refiner. This mechanism consists in a comprehensive process to get rid of disgusting flavors and smells along with heavy minerals from the whole water pipeline of your home. This is a four-force system that combines several elements and technology to fight your water issues:

Ion Exchange Process — gets metals and other hard elements out.

Highly Micro-porous Grain Activated Carbon Filter — minimizes chlorine, ugly flavor, and smell.

Bacteriostat 55 — disables bacteria incubation and removes hard elements.

Garnet Filter Process — allows sediment clearing and equal water supply.

Since you have the basic information about water conditioners, softeners, and refiners, make an order now with Guardian Water Services to get a free water refiner sample. You can take a look at the elements this water refiner eliminates from your home pipeline for neat, palatable water to drink.

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