"Robert Gammon" wrote in message
t...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Robert Gammon" wrote in message
oups.com...


Lets be perfectly clear about this. Water softeners work by replacing
calcium, magnesium and other metals in carbonate groups with either
sodium or potassium.They do not remove minerals from water. The
only processes that I know about that we can do as consumers to REMOVE
minerals are either Distillation,or Reverse Osmosis.

The amount of sodium (or potassium) added to water is trivial. Drinking
64oz a day of this stuff, 7 days a week will add less Sodium to your
diet in a month than eating ONE of ANY fast food joint's quarter pound
hamburger with cheese


I don't care about the dietary aspect, but I have a question. At a
friend's house, the water at the 2nd floor faucet has a definite salty
taste that's NOT present at the 1st floor faucets. All pipes are copper -
relatively new house. Why would this be?


Water softeners treat the ENTIRE water supply of the house. They are
installed at a point shortly after the cold water line enters the house.
Sodium Carbonate, the mineral present in water after passing thru a water
softener. Look it up on wikipedia, sodium carbonate has a cooling alkaline
taste, no HINT of saltiness.

The salty taste in second story faucets is a plumbing problem for the
second story. Someone messed up the plumbing to the second story. Only God
knows what this is now, They need to talk to a plumber and get the
plumber to check it out to see what is wrong.

Sounds right. The guy who installed the upstairs plumbing was an idiot. In
the tub, the faucet's on one end and the overflow drain is on the other. No
way to get comfortable. Useless, in other words.