Choosing a Water Softener

Water, long acknowledged as the purest of elements, has become a little scary in the last few decades. Most people don’t feel comfortable drinking straight from the tap any longer. One of the most popular solutions for many homes is a water softener. But how do you know how to choose the right water softener?Step 1 – Test your WaterYour first step should be to figure out just how hard your water is. Water softeners work by removing elements like calcium and magnesium, so you need to know just how much of these elements you’re dealing with and how powerful a system you’ll need.If you’ve noticed that you have a hard time lathering soap or shampoo, you most likely have hard water. You can purchase a water testing kit and run the test yourself or hire a professional to come by and assess your water.Step 2 – How much water do you use?Once you have an idea of the hardness of your water, calculate your household usage in gallons. The average American can use as much as 50 to 80 gallons of water in a single day! Even when considering that some gallons are ‘shared’ (cooking, laundry), a household of 4 can still use 300 gallons in one day.Step 3 – How much time do you have?Lastly, you should consider how much time you have in your schedule to devote to the cleaning, running and maintenance of your water softening system. There is a wide range in usability and automation when it comes to water softeners. If you’re a very busy person without much time on your hands, you won’t want a unit that needs to be monitored constantly or thoroughly cleaned regularly. You should choose one that fits in well with your schedule and lifestyle.Step 4 – Choose a water softener!With all of this information on hand, you’ll be ready to start looking at units. If your water has high levels of calcium or magnesium, you’ll need to consider larger, more powerful units.The ‘strength’ of a water softener is measured in how many ‘grains’ the unit can remove from a gallon. Calculating how many grains your household needs cleaned is easy:  multiply the number of people in your home by the number of gallons they use and then multiply this by the hardness (or amount of grains) calculated by your water test… Using average consumption and the average grain of water in the United States,  the calculation for a 3-person household would look like this:3 people x 100 gallons each x 10 grains = 3000 grains a dayA household with these results would get by well with a smaller, 24,000 to 32,000 grain water softener. Units can run as high as 100,000+ grains for larger households or harder water.It’s as easy as that! By following these few simple steps, you’ll be on your way to the kind of water you and your family deserve.

Written for the owner of http://environmentalprotech.com/This article can be reproduced in whole or in part, providing this byline is included along with a followable link to http://environmentalprotech.com/
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What You Should Know Before Buying Polywood Outdoor Furniture – by PatioFurnitureMax.Com

Every homeowner wishes to have a backyard with a beautiful view. A well decorated backyard creates a heaven for the homeowner to relax especially after a stressful week at work. Hosting parties and other fun activities are some good ideas to let others appreciate your beautiful backyard. Nice outdoor furniture can complement a beautiful backyard. However owners need to have some basic knowledge to choose one that will go well with other decor.With the various material used to make outdoor furniture, one of the popular material is the poly-wood or poly lumber. This material in outdoor furniture is taking the United States by storm because of its eco-friendly quality. This material is of good caliber and a durable substitution for lumber because it uses high density polymer plastics which are recycled. Today, many homeowners are buying polywood outdoor furniture because of its advantages:

It is completely made out of recycled materials. This is good especially to those people who are patronizing reused materials. This means no trees were cut and plastics were not thrown in the garbage bins because they are being utilized.
Even though it is made out of plastic, it is still comfortable and flexible.
Maintenance of poly wood outdoor furniture is very low. The family won’t have to consider replacing the furniture year after year and they don’t have to buy products which are used for maintaining the furniture such as wax, aerosol sprays and the like. When cleaning the poly wood, you just use pour 1/3 bleach solution in 2/3 water.
To address the stains, you just use a brush in rubbing it off and use the bleach mixture.
It is UV protected. Yes, pieces of poly wood outdoor furniture are resistant to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Unlike other patio furniture wherein you worry about it rusting or getting damaged because of the changing weather and hot temperatures, poly wood furniture can withstand all that. So you don’t have to keep this furniture during summer time or even winter.
There are many designs to choose such as tables and chairs, benches, porch swings and even an outdoor bar furniture. Just like other wood products, it can be of much use however, the poly wood outdoor furniture is a much durable material.
It offers a pretty good warranty. For residential purposes, it gives a warranty of five years whereas for commercial use, it offers a year of warranty from the moment it is purchased. This shows that the companies are confident about the quality of the product.
Poly wood outdoor furniture has stainless steel coating which has ‘xylan’ on it. This prevents the materials from damages.

Now that you know all these, there is no doubt that a polywood outdoor furniture is a must have in every backyard. If you want to buy the furniture, these are available at your local home improvement store. You can also look for various designs available online.

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