Best Water Softeners in Canada | 2022 Buyer’s Guide

When selecting your water softener, first consider its grain capacity or the maximum number of grains of water hardness it can remove. You may calculate this value by multiplying the number of people in your home by the gallons of water they are going to use on a daily basis. Then multiply the result by the grains of hardness in your home's water. Typically, a 4-person family needs a 33,000-grain water softener, and a family of 8 needs a 40,000-grain unit. Secondly, look at extra features such as contaminant filtration and iron removal capabilities. Unlike budget-oriented water softeners, high-end ones can also remove chlorine, odors, and filter sediment.

There is an essential difference between water softeners and filtration systems. The former requires the addition of salt to the water and leaves the water with sodium in it. Unlike RO systems, a water softener does not filter water, at least not to the extent necessary to produce drinking water.

More importantly, a water softener adds more than 90 mg of sodium to every liter of water. Given that your water already has a certain amount of sodium, this makes such water unsafe to drink, especially if you are on a low-sodium diet. That is why we recommend the iSpring RCC7P 5-Stage Reverse Osmosis Filtration System with an ultimate water softener.

Best Trusted 5-Stage Filtration System with Pump and Ultimate Water Softener

Products of this brand are among the best-selling water filtration units in the USA. All their systems undergo rigorous testing, are WQA certified and tested by a third party to meet NSF/ANSI standards. With a capacity of 75 gallons, this unit produces purified, healthy drinking water, removing almost all hardness and contaminants.

The unit protects against more than 1,000 types of contaminants, such as asbestos, lead, chlorine, sodium, fluoride, mercury, and many more. Moreover, it has the ability to boost the water pressure for better performance, which is particularly helpful for households with water pressure below 40 PSI.

The unit comes with an electric booster pump that ensures reliable reverse osmosis performance in different water pressure conditions. This multilayer system includes three pre-filters that eliminate larger contaminants and keep the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane safe from chlorine and other chemicals. The RO filter gets rid of the smallest possible contaminants, even those as small as 0.0001 microns.

It has a 5-stage filtration process. At the first stage, the device removes rust, dust, sand, sediments, and all sorts of debris. The second stage involves eliminating chlorine, cloudiness, odors, and tastes, while the third stage targets harmful chemicals and chloramine. At the fourth stage, the unit produces purified, bottle-quality water, and the fifth stage is meant to get rid of any residual odours and tastes.

The iSpring RCC7P is leak-proof and easy to install. It needs to be mounted under the sink, just make sure that it is not further than 15 ft from the tap. After we installed it, there were no leaks, the booster pump worked quietly, and the unit produced better-flavored water as compared to many other competitive products on the market. The system comes with filter cartridges, a storage tank, and a brushed nickel faucet. With a weight of 14 kg, it measures 37 cm x 43 cm x 13 cm.

For even more natural taste, you may go with the 6-stage iSpring RCC7P-AK Reverse Osmosis Filtration System. The shortcoming of a 5-stage water softening system is that it eliminates both harmful and beneficial minerals. As a result, the water gets acidic, with a pH of 7.0 or below. The benefit of the sixth stage is that it restores a natural alkaline balance, improving the taste of the produced water. Of course, the sixth stage will cost you extra money but it is really worth it. The water tastes amazing, the TDS (total dissolved solids) drops to about 60, and the water pH is just perfect!

Best-Selling Water Softeners in Canada | Comparison Table

Depending on your municipal water source, the water you drink everyday can either be classified as hard or soft. Hard water contains minerals dissolved in groundwater, like limestone, heavy metals, and other remnants. Over time, these minerals can build up on your dishes, pipes, and in your own body.

Water softeners help to remove minerals, which helps to reduce long term costs associated with hard water use. Softeners use a process known as ion exchange, which replaces positively-charged minerals with weakly charged sodium ions. Water softeners decrease dishwashing and laundering costs, in addition to preventing the transmission water-borne diseases and medical issues.