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ring in your bathtub was also left on your skin. But now that you have soft
water, you'll feel soft, smooth and clean. The same holds true for rinsing
shampoo out of your hair.
Reduce or eliminate the use of fabric softeners.
Fabrics washed in hard water retain soap curd or residue making
them “crackle” when removed from the dryer or stiff if air–dried. Fabric
softeners are necessary with hard water to keep your clothing soft, but
with soft water, you can reduce your use of fabric softeners or eliminate
them altogether.
Take special precautions with automatic dishwashers.
Soft water, when combined with caustic phosphates in some dishwasher
detergents and very high temperatures in the dry cycle, can etch dishes
and glassware.To prevent this possibility:
• use the “no heat” dry cycle on your dishwasher;
• use the minimum amount of a good quality, low phosphate
dishwasher detergent needed to clean your dishes.This may be as
little as 20 percent of the amount recommended by the appliance
manufacturer or on the dishwasher soap box;
• wash good china and crystal by hand.
Special care for plants and fish.
Depending on your water hardness level,
amount of rainfall and how often you water,
you could use soft water for outside watering,
but why waste your soft water? Water your lawn,
shrubs and outside plants from an outside hard
water faucet or put your Kinetico water system in
by–pass before watering. See “By–pass” on page 14 for
instructions on by–passing your system. Many houseplants can be watered
with soft water, although some houseplants can be highly sensitive to the
elevated level of sodium ions in soft water.You may prefer to water house-
plants with hard water or water from a Kinetico reverse osmosis system.
Fish accustomed to hard water may have trouble with an abrupt change to
soft water. Make the change gradually over a period of seven to 14 days
by blending hard and soft water until the tank contains 100 percent soft
water. Once you begin using soft water, you should notice that your fish
tank stays cleaner longer.
Kinetico Water Conditioners and
Combination Systems
Now that your Kinetico water system is installed, you can enjoy all the
benefits of having soft water. If you are not accustomed to soft water, here
are some tips to follow to get the most benefit from your new system:
How to use soft water
Use pure soap products.
Most leading brands of laundry soaps, household cleaners and shampoos
contain large amounts of detergents.The harsh chemicals in these deter-
gents are necessary when using hard water, but you can reduce your use
or eliminate them altogether with soft water. We recommend you use
pure soap products; clear liquid soaps without dyes and perfumes. If you
continue to use your normal detergents, you should significantly reduce
the amount used.Your local, authorized Kinetico dealer can provide you
with more information and recommended detergent amounts.
Use less soap and household cleaners.
When using soap or cleaners with soft water, start by cutting the amount
of soap you normally use in half.You may even find you can use as little
as one–quarter the amount you were using before. Hardness minerals in
water interfere with soap's cleaning ability. Once they are removed, soap
can do its job better. Even though you'll use less soap, you'll get more suds
and cleaner results.
It's especially important to reduce the amount of laundry soap you use.
Washing clothes in soft water not only means you'll need less soap to get
your clothes clean, but also that the soap you do use will rinse out com-
pletely. Washing in soft water makes your clothes look whiter and
brighter, and they'll last longer too. It is very important not to let your
clothes sit in the washer after the cycle is complete. Detergent buildup
can stain your clothing. Again, Kinetico recommends that you use clear,
liquid soaps, without dyes or perfumes.
After bathing in soft water, your skin should feel “slippery.” It's not soap left
on your skin. What you're feeling is your own smooth skin without any
leftover soap curd or residue. When you bathed in hard water, you were
never able to rinse this residue off completely. The soap curd that left a
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