There’s a tendency during early spring for water in some parts of the country to have more calcium and magnesium than usual due to snow melt.

In other areas, such as Florida, water always seems to have high concentrations of calcium and magnesium because of limestone or other minerals there.

No matter what the cause of this hard water, carpet cleaners and water experts agree that softened water has numerous benefits in terms of equipment, chemical usage and overall appearance of clean carpets.

Soft sell

One benefit of using softened water in carpet cleaning is that less detergent is required, according to Scott Warrington, president of Scott Cleans, Inc., Winchester, TN.

A reverse osmosis system compatible with truckmounts.

“It’s pretty amazing, the reduction in chemical use and, therefore, in residue,” he said.

While reduction of chemical use by 30 to 45 percent is typical among cleaners using softened water, Warrington knows one cleaner in New York who reduced his chemical use by 75 percent with soft water.

“How much benefit depends on how hard the water is in your part of the country,” Warrington said.

If water is already soft, there may be no additional benefits of buying a water softener; on the other hand, the savings may well be worth the price of a water softener to a carpet cleaner in a region with hard water.

Fortunately, the water in Winchester is already soft, so Warrington doesn’t need water softeners for cleaning carpets. Instead, he’s looking to add purified water to his business.

That would mean carrying purified water on the truck, and Warrington doesn’t want that extra weight on his van. Using purified water only for fire damage cleanup may be his best option, he said.

Still, cleaning with softened water leaves less residue than hard water, but purified water leaves no residue, Warrington said.

Extend your equipment

Carpet cleaners don’t just save money on chemicals by using softened water, they’ll also preserve their equipment, according to Mark Schipper, owner of Pelican Carpet Cleaning Services and Pelican Emergency Services, Naples, FL.

He described the state of Florida as “basically a big piece of limestone between the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico,” with water in the southwest region of the state coming from limestone aquifers.

Without a water softener, Schipper would need to descale his truckmount every week and remove scaling where solution lines plug into the truckmount and around filters for water and the chemical injection system.

By installing a water softener the day he bought his truckmount five years ago, Schipper hasn’t had to descale it once. All he does is hook up a brine tank to the truckmount every 40 hours for about an hour-and-a-half to flush it out.

The chemical savings from soft water are significant. Schipper said he uses half as much chemical as he did before installing the water softener on his truckmount.

Schipper usually carries a couple hundred gallons of fresh water with him when he cleans carpets, but if necessary, he can run the homeowner’s water through his water softener and into the truckmount.

No magic

Dan Roszel, president of Halcyon Hurricane, Melbourne, FL, had 20 years experience in water treatment before getting into carpet cleaning, so he certainly appreciates how softened water benefits chemical usage.

Detergent will drop into solution more readily, and carpet cleaners should get better performance from them and their machine by using soft water.

“There’s no magic, there’s technology,” he said. “Water softeners affect how cleaning agents go into solution or drop out.”

Water softeners become important especially in rural areas, where cleaners are pulling off well water, Roszel said.

Cleaners should decide whether they want to have a water softener on their vehicle for use on-site or install one in their garage for use before they head out.

Either way, a water softener should catch small amounts of iron, as well as the calcium that determine hardness.

“Decide your objectives, and know what you need to fix.”

Clean and bright

Softened water and chemical savings won’t mean much unless carpets look cleaner, but that’s another benefit of using soft water: cleaner carpets.

“Soft water leaves cleaner, brighter carpets and upholstery, and more lustrous fabrics,” said Paul Brown, owner of Certified Cleaning and Restoration, Santa Rosa, CA.

Brown uses a deionized water softener, which strips off all of the positive and negative charges from water uses.

“It temporarily puts water in a neutral state,” he said “Water is always hungry for relationships. It’s looking for things to go in solution with.”

By rinsing with deionized water, Brown is able to pick up more mineral contents in carpet without adding anything to water.

“A water softener is worth the money, you see the results,” he said. “You notice it most on light-colored carpets.”

Special agent

DSC Products, Inc., Muskegon, WI, makes Versene 100, a chelating agent that softens water and chemically keeps hard metal (calcium and magnesium) ions from falling out of solution.

This allows a cleaner to efficiently get spray down on a carpet and pick it up without leaving it behind, according to K. Mark Kling, DSC’s vice president of sales and marketing.

If hard metals aren’t chelated, they leave behind heavier oxides, magnesium carbonates, calcium carbonates, in other words, residue.

The chelating agent is made from liquid or powder and is in the extraction formula that goes through the truckmount’s chemical feed.

“Having a water softening system on board is an excellent idea because everybody’s teaching low residue,” Kling said.