soft water fill why or why not?

[AmICrazy]

Just wondering what the big deal is about filling your tub with soft water. If a person has extremely hard water from a well wouldn't it be better to fill using the water from the softener? I would think that mineral build up would be quite high using the well water. Just looking for advice and logic. TIA

[Steve]

Your reasoning is in the ballpark, but your still in left field a bit!

It's true that soft water can be added and adjusted to proper levels with a product that will increase hardness.

Soft water can also be scale forming and will tend to foam very easily.

The addition of very hard water can only be compensated by the addition of a stain & scale product to help reduce the precipitation of minerals. I suggest adding soft water and increasing the readings to the 150-200ppm range.

Steve

[Spatech_tuo]

Soft water can be corrosive and is a definite no-no by itself. Hard water is also an issue but a combination of 75% hard water and 25% soft water is used by many and can work well assuming there are no other issues to contend with. Consult with your dealer though as he should know the general makeup of the water in your area.

[Kulta]

Thank you for the great info at this site. Our city water here in N. Fl is extremely hard. We have a very small tub (130 gal) to which stain & scale remover 1 tsp is added 1 per week. Is this ok for long term? or could the tub be filled say 1/2 &1/2 hard & water from the softener to get an approx 225 ppm reading? Thanks!!!

[Steve]

If you are able to combine different source water to achieve a reading close to 200ppm, then that's the right answer! In short...whatever it takes!

Steve

[aaahhh]

I also have well water. I fill my spa with soft water because we have so much iorn in our water. When we purchased our spa I gave my dealer a soft and hard  water sample. They set me up on Soft Soak and I am very happy with it.  Yes I do have to add calcium hardness increaser to about 200ppm. If foam is a factor  I can raise it even higher with the water samples I bring in too my dealer. My foam problem comes more from guest and there bathing suits more than anything. Even though I constantly tell them not to wash there suits with soap. It does not seem to help. So we have been doing much less inviting into the spa because when they go home we have to deal with the foam.  :-/ :-/I think we may buy bathing suits for them to use and wash them our selfs. Even brand new never washed suits also cause foam. We changed our water two months ago and have only been in our spa in our birthday suits, Guess what no foam at all.

[Chas]

Some tub makers mention not adding soft water in the owner's booklet, other put it right in the warranty.

If you are going to add part soft water and part hard, keep in mind that the odd shape of most tubs puts the 'halfway' point at about ten inches from the top of the tub.

I live in Southern California, and some of my customers need to fill the tub with hard water, except for the last three inches. That comes out to roughly 20-25% for the HotSpring and Tiger River that I sell. It works fine that way.

If you add all soft water and then bring the hardness up with the addition of hardness increaser, you can be adding to the TDS level, and you also may have more salt than usual. It would be a good idea to test for these two items if you use the "add soft and raise it" technique.

One last item: some folks simply add all hard water and then put in soft as they need to refill the tub.