Expert: Check your tap, despite city water softening

MORAINE — Weeks after the City of Miamisburg began softening its water for the first time, one expert says you still need to monitor what comes out of your taps.

>>Miamisburg starts producing soft water as part of $70 million overhaul

As part of a $70M overhaul of its water and sewer systems, the city began to gradually produce softer water to residents in October.

Just because the city is softening your water, doesn’t mean the water you’re using is completely soft, says a water conditioning business owner.

"The water pipe is exposed to hardness over time, and so, it might leave the plants at like, for instance [the] City of Dayton, it leaves the plant at nine grains. We test it out in the south suburbs where they sell water to at 12 grains, so it picks up a little bit of hardness in the pipe distribution system," Dan Entingh, owner of Enting Water Conditioning, told News Center 7's Sean Cudahy.

Miamisburg’s new system is supposed to drop hardness from 22 grains per gallon to seven, an improvement, but according to Entingh, not soft enough.

“It’s not totally soft. Is it livable? Yes.”

>>Some Miamisburg residents looking forward to transition to soft water

Entingh says hard water is not a health hazard, but a nuisance. Softer water won’t stick to plumbing fixtures or scale out, and is more desirable.

"It's not necessarily a necessity, but it's a luxury."