Sunday, July 22, 2012

Kenmore elite hybrid water softener

Soft Water in the Kitchen
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com


As a chef I spend a lot of time choosing the right vegetables, picking the right meats and carefully combining herbs, spices and seasonings to make the best foods I possibly can. I’m always working towards making better food. And I have realized that I’ve been overlooking the most important and most abundant ingredient, common in all food - water.

Water could be described as a clear, odorless, non-reactive liquid (unless you drop an electric toaster into it). So, how could water make such a difference as an ingredient? Because not all water is created the same - better put, not all water contains the same stuff.

The combination of contents in your water varies largely depending on which part of the world you live in. You may find anything ranging from dissolved rocks (calcium and magnesium), to traces of pharmaceutical drugs, and birth control hormones, to radioactive barium particles, to chlorine and other smelly additives. The combinations are endless, and the realization that these things are in my water make me a little hesitant to bathe in it, let alone cook with it. I also wonder how these contents could actually affect my dishes. Could they alter the consistency and taste? Common sense tells me, yes.

Today I embarked on a very exciting experiment. I installed a Kenmore elite hybrid water softener in my house. This is an appliance that attaches to the main water line of your home and turns “hard water” into “soft water” by removing dissolved solids like calcium, iron, and magnesium.

Because it is hybrid, this particular unit also works to reduce potentially radioactive particles (barium and radium), and dramatically lessens smells and tastes in the tap water caused by chlorine and similarly added chemicals.

Here in Clearwater, Florida, they have a habit of adding large amounts of chlorine to disinfect the county water system. And for several weeks during the year I am forced to cook with what smells and tastes like pool water! We also have a high amount of dissolved rock in the water, making a crusty mess of sinks, shower heads, and faucets.

Unfortunately, water softeners are not install-it-yourself appliances (unless you’re good at plumbing). It took a professional plumber several hours to connect this system to my main water line and run a drain pipe from the softener to my drain line. The unit will expel a salty brine of all the stuff it removes from my tap water several times per week, leaving me with fresh, soft water.

I am very excited to have this appliance in my home and am looking forward to seeing how this affects my household water usage and most importantly, my cooking.  Removing dissolved rocks, chlorine and radiation from my soups, sauces, and foods makes me hopeful that I can improve my cooking on a very basic level. I will update you in a few weeks and let you know the results of the Kenmore elite water softener.

Until then, I wish you happy cooking!

12 comments:

  1. great...
    Using water softeners to increase quality of water is good chooice. more healthy life with free contaminant fresh water.

    Cheerr...
    water softeners reviews

    ReplyDelete
  2. You have finished a surprising job with you website.
    water treatment

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post! I am sure this is going to aware a lot of people about the water softeners and water purifiers.
    portable water filter bottle

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with the comments above. This is really a great and helpful post. This helps people to be aware about water softeners.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post! I am actually getting ready to across this information, is very helpful my friend. Also great blog here with all of the valuable information you have. Keep up the good work you are doing here. Nuvo water softener reviews

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post and tons of great information! water softeners tampa are definitely the key to healthy clean water!

    ReplyDelete
  7. this is an awesome blog about water softeners . this can be used to filter the water. thanks for sharing such an important article with us. all the best. keep on posting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is indeed a great post. This will really help homeowners. Thanks for sharing this to us and keep posting.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My mother has kidney problems and so we always use filtered water for cooking. We definitely tasted the difference in the food when we switched. Even just boiling pasta, you can tell the difference between the water.

    Elisa Jed | http://waterproflorida.net/water-softeners/

    ReplyDelete
  10. How is this working for you 3 years later? I'm interested in one for my home.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, can you post a follow up on that unit. I'm looking at buying this same model. Any issues?

    ReplyDelete