You can’t filter out ions of calcium like that. A huge reverse osmosis system for the entire home would be prohibitively expensive. I used to live in an area with very hard water and everyone had water softeners. You only need to buy the salt every few months and it’s not too bad. RO filters were only connected to a tap on the side of the sink in the kitchen - those membranes aren’t cheap.
RO also puts about four times as much water down the drain as it filters. A whole house RO filter is extremely wasteful. You don’t need to be filtering every toilet flush.
You are technically right that the water heater softens the water a bit by precipitating the minerals around the heating element and thereby removing them from the water. But that is energy inefficient and expensive, since you normally don’t use a water heater to soften your water but rather to get warm water. So putting another system in front of the heater that softens it first is better than replacing the heat element every so often.
You really need to invest in a system that softens your water.
Or just a good filter system.
You can’t filter out ions of calcium like that. A huge reverse osmosis system for the entire home would be prohibitively expensive. I used to live in an area with very hard water and everyone had water softeners. You only need to buy the salt every few months and it’s not too bad. RO filters were only connected to a tap on the side of the sink in the kitchen - those membranes aren’t cheap.
RO also puts about four times as much water down the drain as it filters. A whole house RO filter is extremely wasteful. You don’t need to be filtering every toilet flush.
Isn’t that exactly what a water heater does?
A water heater heats your water.
away with your fancy mumbo jumbo and wizard speak this here board is for regular talk
TIL
You are technically right that the water heater softens the water a bit by precipitating the minerals around the heating element and thereby removing them from the water. But that is energy inefficient and expensive, since you normally don’t use a water heater to soften your water but rather to get warm water. So putting another system in front of the heater that softens it first is better than replacing the heat element every so often.