Green Nac & Cascadian the best duo to protect your family
SOFTENERS vs SALT FREE SOFTENERS
Hard water is the enemy. It ruins your home, appliances, plumbing, clothing, skin, etc. Studies have shown that people typically spent over 100K to remedy the destruction caused by hard water between 10-20 years of owning a home. All of this can be avoided with water purification. I have worked with UofA and ASU testing water “purification” systems and for the harsh Arizona water, we really only have 2 choices in water purification.
The best answer for clean and soft water is the Cascadian salt free water softening system. Everything that is in our water has a negative charge to it. This means that it attracts to everything. It attracts to your pipes, your appliances, your skin, your clothes and most importantly attracts to other molecules. If a single piece of calcium/sediment was able to flow without bonding with anything else it would be between 0-1 PPM. But because it is negatively charged they attract to each other and bond together. they bond together and that’s what creates hardness, calcium and sediment buildup on your fixtures, appliances, ruining your clothing & your skin. National average for hardness is 17PPM & Arizona suffers with 34–66 PPM. Cascadian destroys the molecular structure of the molecules, not allowing them to bond so that they pass between 0-1 which is soft water. It feels like you’re bathing in rain water because this process does not need to introduce salt. The slimy feeling you get with a conventional softener. It also has a “taste & odor busting” feature that eliminates chemicals creating tastes in the water. The 3rd feature and most impressive is the introduction of phosphate. Phosphate lines your piping with a layer of protection and this prevents anything from sticking to the pipes, fixtures & appliances. We add extra filtration by installing a pre-filter which traps all the garbage from the city and allows the Cascadian to do its job effectively.
Maintenance is simple, you just have to replace the Cascadian cartridge once a year & the pre-filter every 6-9 months depending on usage/people are in the home. You can purchase the filters online for both and we leave wrenches so that you can do the maintenance yourself or if you would prefer, just give us a call and we will tackle that for you. If you have a “softener loop” our installation price is $2650 to include both the Cascadian salt free water softener with the pre-filter set up, installation, materials, labor and taxes. If you don’t have a loop, we just have to see how your house is set up and we can create a loop very easily because this system does not require a drain or electrical so we can help to keep your costs minimal.
The 2nd option is the traditional water softener. It uses salt or potassium to soften the water. Our water is super hard here in Arizona and the cities typically combat it down to about 20 ppm. You want to be between 0-1 ppm as mentioned above. There’s a huge difference between the quality of softeners so you really need to ensure you get the right softener. The cheap ones at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Sears etc... are just that, cheap. They do half the job they should. This means you’ll still have water scaling and calcium/sediment deposits on all of your plumbing. It will feel somewhat “soft” due to the salt, but it won’t be perfectly soft. They typically last about 5-7 years before they start to leak & the resin will need to be changed out about every 10 years due to losing its ability to stay charged. Most of the softeners you find, are just bottom priced & basic built so that people will purchase them.
I do not skimp when I have softeners built. Our softeners can last 15+ years. We use better resin that collects more and lasts longer, full port ball valve bypass valve so they don’t restrict water pressure and they’re not noisy in operation. We use the clack digital head which monitors the amount of water you’re using and it rejuvenates as needed so that you never run out of soft water. The other benefit to this is it does not rejuvenate every night wasting salt and water, if it’s not needed.
California, Colorado and New Mexico have already banned softeners and we will be behind them shortly. As of now softeners are still allowed in Arizona. Scottsdale & fountain Hills are currently working on banning softeners due to the environmental impact, water wasting/usage and of course the salt that gums up are reclamation water filtration systems for golf courses, parks, etc…. It's like trying to clean ocean water with all the salt & that can get expensive for us, the end users.
They are being banned because they waste 45 minutes to an hour's worth of water during rejuvenation. The salt and potassium gums up our city’s filtration system for reclaiming the water to use in other applications. Of course the fees for that get sent to the end-user which is us. our softeners are designed to be more environmentally friendly but not 100% environmentally friendly.
A water softener installed in a pre-existing loop is $2650-$3600 depending on loop size, amount of people in the home & the amount of resin installed. Includes removal and disposal of existing softener (if applicable), tying into the existing softener loop, salt, softener setup, pressure leak test, taxes & labor.
If your home doesn’t have a loop, we can definitely take care of you. It will just be an additional cost once we determine where we can put it and what size plumbing we need to run. We will also need to run a drain line and you will need an electrician to put in an outlet if there isn’t one close by where we can create a loop.
Hopefully this helps understand the importance of water purification, of course any questions you may have please let me know and we will be glad to help you. Which system would make better sense for you and your family?
How do they work together?
Green NAC and Cascadian systems work together by combining two different salt-free technologies to provide comprehensive water treatment that prevents scale while removing chemical contaminants.
Green NAC (Nucleation Assisted Crystallization): This system acts as a water conditioner. It uses specialized ceramic beads to attract hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) and convert them into microscopic, inactive crystals. These crystals remain suspended in the water and flow through your plumbing rather than sticking to surfaces as scale.
- Cascadian Systems (ICS/PolyHalt): These systems typically utilize PolyHalt ion-bond technology or modular cartridges to treat water. When paired with Green NAC, they often serve as a multi-stage solution—such as the Bodyguard or Magna filterconfigurations—to remove chlorine, heavy metals, and other chemicals that could otherwise damage the NAC media or affect water quality.
GN&CASC PHOTO
Key Benefits of the Combined Setup
- No Salt or Chemicals: Neither system requires salt, meaning there is no brine discharge, making it safe for septic systems and the environment.
- Maintenance-Free Operation: These systems generally do not require electricity, control valves, or regular backwashing, reducing water waste to zero.
- Extended Equipment Life: The Green NAC prevents new scale from forming and can gradually help break down existing scale in pipes, while the Cascadian filters protect the NAC media from being fouled by contaminants like iron or manganese.
- Compact and Silent: Unlike traditional bulky softeners, these modular systems operate silently and have a smaller footprint.