Thread: Water Quality

Recently we upgraded our water softener. HUGE difference in shave. It feels like the blade glides sooo easy in comparison of what I had been use to. Lather builds up very fast too. Looking back at some discussions with some people having more success with a given brand of soap than others makes me wonder if the water quality had been considered?

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Recently we upgraded our water softener. HUGE difference in shave. It feels like the blade glides sooo easy in comparison of what I had been use to. Lather builds up very fast too. Looking back at some discussions with some people having more success with a given brand of soap than others makes me wonder if the water quality had been considered?

Water quality is a common thread.

It is easy to test, buy an jug of lathering water in
any market. Try water for steam irons, distilled water
and also try the least expensive 'jug' drinking water. If you
want it hot, microwave it in a heat safe kitchen
measuring cup. Microwave with a tooth pick or
clean chop stick in it so it does not super heat,
boil over and scald you.

Skip the expensive drinking waters they contain a lot
of dissolved solids. Mineral water contains even
more so skip them too. Unless you want to experiment.....
Some day I may even try some left over warm beer
Boddingtons foams up nicely I wonder if it would help a lather.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Water quality is a common thread.


Some day I may even try some left over warm beer
Boddingtons foams up nicely I wonder if it would help a lather.

ROFLOL, What is "left over" beer?
My water use to be just under 500 ppm before upgrade. All I can say is the new water system (RO) definately took my shave to a whole new level. Thank you so much for your "kitchen style" experimental suggestions, it put a big grin on this old Chemistry teacher's face

My lather and all has drastically improved since I got a water softener installed in my house. The only danger lies in the slippery part. Softened water with sodium chloride gives water that slippery feel. A RO doesn't soften your water but it filters and purifies the water making it drinkable.

I followed a tip my G-Brother gave me while shaving and that's to touch and rub your fingers over the alum block. It dries out your fingers and gives an excellent dry grip to A. hold the tang of your razor and B. pull your skin taut without your fingers feeling slippery at all. It does work perfect.

I actually tried some bottled (distilled) water to lather with a couple of weeks ago. Every year the local water company purges the system with large doses of chlorine for 30 days. They send out a heads up with the bill to forewarn customers. When the tap goes on you can smell it readily.

So I'm drinking bottled water for a month. Anyhow, my lather was far more easily whipped up and much nicer using the bottled water. I've only done it the one time and I'm back to the tap for shaving purposes heavy chlorine or not but if a person is having lather troubles bottled water may be a viable option.

Originally Posted by Maximilian

My lather and all has drastically improved since I got a water softener installed in my house. The only danger lies in the slippery part. Softened water with sodium chloride gives water that slippery feel. A RO doesn't soften your water but it filters and purifies the water making it drinkable.

perfect.

An RO system absolutely softens the water by taking out almost all of the ions and tds' and not simply replacing them with more soluble ones like sodium.

Originally Posted by Kingfish

An RO system absolutely softens the water by taking out almost all of the ions and tds' and not simply replacing them with more soluble ones like sodium.

R.O. water is softened through the reverse osmosis purification process; however hard water (above 7 grains of hardness) will shorten the life of the membrane. The harder the water, the shorter the life. If you incoming water is 15 grains hard, you may only get 2-3 years of life from your membrane.

Originally Posted by Maximilian

R.O. water is softened through the reverse osmosis purification process; however hard water (above 7 grains of hardness) will shorten the life of the membrane. The harder the water, the shorter the life. If you incoming water is 15 grains hard, you may only get 2-3 years of life from your membrane.

If you are talking about grains/gal (about double of the high side you mentioned), 500 ppm is way higher than that. Good thing I have it under a maintanance agreement!

Interesting. Usually hard water, as it relates to water softening is expressed as grains per gallon and that's how my water softener is set for recharge. Reverse Osmosis units though go by PPM of solids in the water. My RO has a sensor attached and when the PPM reaches a certain point it turns a red light on.

Yes I'm very fond of soft water. better for appliances, pipes, showering and shaving. I use KCl insterad of NaCl

Originally Posted by Kingfish

ROFLOL, What is "left over" beer?
My water use to be just under 500 ppm before upgrade. All I can say is the new water system (RO) definately took my shave to a whole new level. Thank you so much for your "kitchen style" experimental suggestions, it put a big grin on this old Chemistry teacher's face

Left over beer .... so far it is only a rumor, never seen in the wild.

The rumor is that it also works as slug and snail bait.