Softening water before it comes into the building

Research by Richard E. Gordon
Last updated: February 23, 2010
email: richard@gordonrichard.com

Right now our condo building brings hard water into the building. A few of the forty condos have their own soft-water treatment equipment.
- Could we install equipment that would soften the water at the point where it enters our building so that soft water could be supplied to all the Units?
  
  One site states that you should not have softened watered coming out of the kitchen sink. That would rule out a water softener that treats water just before it enters the building. Such a whole building water softener, I think, would soften all the water in each unit -- including kitchen sink water.
  
  "We recommend that where a water softener is to be installed, the supply of water to the kitchen tap is from the mains and not softened."
  
  An interesting possibility: Water magnetizers. Videos on magnetizers used at Hilton Hotels.
  
  I did a Google search on hotel water softeners. I thought if what works in hotels might work well in our building.
2. Note in the following quote that in "most" cases soft water is safe to drink. Doesn't that imply that in some cases, it is not safe to drink. Note to that soft water is not safe for preparing milk for babies. True, we live in a retirement community, but we may have grandchildren or even great grandchildren visiting, and their parents may need to use water from our kitchen sink tap to prepare milk for infants.
- 5.2 Is softened water safe to drink? From Lenntech Water Solutions
  Softened water still contains all the natural minerals that we need. It is only deprived off its calcium and magnesium contents, and some sodium is added during the softening process. That is why in most cases, softened water is perfectly safe to drink. It is advisable that softened water contains only up to 300mg/L of sodium.
  In areas with very high hardness the softened water must not be used for the preparation of baby-milk, due to the high sodium contant after the softening process has been carried out.