Water softeners are designed to provide excellent soft water with as little upkeep as possible. However, due to the very nature of how they work, all water softeners need their salt replaced eventually.
You won’t be surprised to hear that the salt you put in your softeners is different from the salt you sprinkle on your food – although not by much! You must choose premium-quality water softener salt to keep your product performing at its best long-term.
What Kind of Salt Do Softeners Use?
Sodium chloride, commonly known as salt, is something we use in various ways across the home, from cooking to cleaning and even de-icing. However, while it’s the same mineral each time, how it’s prepared is different.
The best water softeners commonly use what’s called food-grade, pure dried vacuum (PDV) salt, similar to that used by major food manufacturers.
PDV salt is made by evaporating brine in controlled conditions underneath a vacuum. This costly process creates a sodium chloride with over 99% purity, which is much purer than household applications.
Purity matters for softeners because any additional substances will remain in the softener after the salt has been used, causing a build-up of debris that eventually needs to be cleaned.
Not all water softener salt is food-grade PDV salt; off-white salt is generally of a poorer quality. How the salt is formed can vary, too. The most common designs are:
- Tablet Salt – small pellets usually sold in 10-30kg bags.
- Block Salt – 4kg blocks of salt usually sold in easy-to-carry bags of two.
- Curved Salt – Block salt designed to fit into specific softener models.
Which Salt Should I Use in My Water Softener?
What form of water softener salt you should use will often depend on which shape and size fits your product, as outlined by your manufacturer. All Kinetico water softeners are designed to accommodate block and tablet salt, for example.
By far the most commonly used forms of water softener salts are tablets and blocks. Curved salt is only used when certain models require a block salt with a specific shape.
Assuming there is no difference in the purity of each salt and each is used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, there will be no difference in quality between using tablet salt and block salt.
Despite that, many customers prefer using blocks over tablets. Block salt tends to be easier to insert (it slots in like a cartridge) and can often last longer without needing to be replaced or topped up compared to using tablets.
The Advantages of Kinetico Water Softener Salt
Because having the right water softener salt is important to the long-term output of your water softener, we produce our own range of premium block salt.
Our high-quality salt blocks are made to 99.9% purity, eliminating any risk of sand or grit build-up in your softener and guaranteeing efficient, premium performance.
Kinetico’s water softener blocks are designed to fit almost all block salt water softeners from Kinetico and other popular manufacturers. So, if you’re looking for a reliable, quality softener salt to give you peace of mind, take a look at the Kinetico range today.
