An evaporative cooler is an excellent system to have in a dry climate. If you live in an area where it’s often humid, it could struggle due to the moisture in the air. But if your hometown is typically dry, you can benefit from a swamp cooler, an economical choice—though it may require more maintenance than other systems over the years.
If you have a swamp cooler, you’ll have to clean out the system at the beginning of the season and replace pads once they appear to be clogged. And the pads become clogged due to mineral deposits, which build up on the swamp cooler pads if you have “hard water”—a high level of mineral deposits in your water supply. So a water softener should be able to help with this issue…right?
We Recommend Against Softened Water
When homeowners ask us if they can pair a water softener with their evaporative coolers, we typically say no. Changing the pads is simply a fact of swamp cooler ownership, and softened water can actually make the issue worse.
How a Water Softener Works
A water softener takes away the minerals in hard water by absorbing them into a brine solution, but the minerals must be replaced with something else—salt. While there is no longer calcium or minerals in your water supply (which can damage plumbing), there will be more sodium.
Sodium Harms a Swamp Cooler
The sodium in soft water can also do a number on the swamp cooler, reducing its lifespan because the sodium can cause corrosion to progress quickly. If you do have a water softener already in place, it’s important to stay up-to-date on maintenance and have technicians inspect the unit from time to time.
Looking for evaporative cooler service in Bloomfield, NM? Don’t waste your time with the run-around. Give Robbins Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. a call and let us do it right the first time!