I should have put water softeners and counter tops. My water softener was bought in 2006. By the time I had problems with it - there was a power outage and the timer got messed up - and I just unplugged it and never started it again. That was about a year ago. My area is big on power outages so its an on-going problem. Anyway, another reason I did not bother to hook it up was that I was already having problems with calcium/lime deposits. I have dark colored Wilsonart standard laminate counter tops and the calcium/lime deposits showed up on them. I have now scrubbed the color off the counter tops behind the faucets. I even bought a large sheet of the laminate and had someone from Handy Man come out and replace a part of it. That's still o.k. but the other side is bad looking. I have been looking for new counter top material and got new estimates on replacing the entire kitchen counter top area. I do not want to spend money on Silastone or Granite for my cabinets. They are o.k. - got them replaced in 2003...but not that great. I am probably going for the Wilsonart Premium laminate. But I am afraid that after I get new ones I will still have the same problem with the hard water. (My county changed their recipe for water about two years ago - didn't used to be this bad). A new water softener is expensive -- it would add over a thousand to the total. My current one isn't that old -- but I will need help disconnecting it so I can clean it very well before actually using it again. And the bottom line is - it didn't help that much with the problem. One of my neighbors does not have a water softener and isn't having any problems. The other neighbor does have one -- he also has Silastone counter tops - and no problem with hard water. So -- it's hard to know what to do.
Any advice on how to handle this would be appreciated.