Benefits of softening water for eczema sufferers - Kinetico

With a true heritage in the water treatment industry and more than 40 years of experience, Kinetico has used its knowledge and expertise to offer customers a wide range of products that provide different water treatment solutions.With a true heritage in the water treatment industry and more than 40 years of experience, Kinetico has used its knowledge and expertise to offer customers a wide range of products that provide different water treatment solutions.

Kinetico can provide a ‘whole house’ solution to treat the water in your home whether that’s a softener to prevent limescale build up, or a filtration system to take out the impurities from your drinking water. Many of our customers have both products installed in their home ensuring the water they bathe with, drink with, cook with and clean with is, simply...the best!

We have all heard of hard water, but what exactly is it?

Whether your water supply consists of hard or soft water is determined by the geology of the ground that the rain in your region falls upon. Pure rainwater is naturally soft, but the chalk and limestone regions of the south and east of England surrender calcium and magnesium into the natural water supply to create hard water.

The granite areas of the north and west do not contain the same minerals and so the water remains ‘soft’. And with the development of water distribution networks, some parts of the UK which have historically been soft water areas, are now beginning to experience hard water.

As hard water is heated (e.g. in washing machines, showers, kettles etc), the Calcium and Magnesium separate out and form a crust on surfaces they come into contact with. This is what we know as limescale.The scale contained in hard water can cause damage and expense in the home...

Limescale build-up in heating systems causes a loss in heating efficiency, wasting energy. Showers, washing machines and immersion heaters become damaged and inefficient more quickly. Limescale quickly builds up on taps, sinks and other fittings becoming unsightly and making cleaning difficult.

Hard water can aggravate skin conditions such as eczema.

Kinetico water softeners revert hard water back to the natural composition of soft water, removing the substances that cause the damaging limescale build-ups throughout your home.

Kinetico commissioned talkeczema – one of the UK’s largest eczema support groups - to conduct an independent product trial and survey.

A Kinetico water softener was installed in the homes of selected talkeczema members for a 3 month period. The participants completed a questionnaire at the end of each month.

Comments from participants:

“Since using a water softener her skin does feel smoother and I have to use less cream. Also at the moment less reaction when in contact with the water.”

“Even my husband has said how moisturized his skin feels after showering. I have even managed to reduce the amount of emollient that I apply each day to my daughter.”

“I cannot believe the difference the softener has made, I am no longer getting dry flaky patches on my face. And there is the added bonus of not having to use so much detergent in my wash etc, so that’s got to better for my skin too.”
Commenting on these results, Julie Van Onselen, Independent Dermatology Nurse, said,

“These results show the people who participated in this survey felt the addition of a water softener benefitted and improved the severity of their eczema. The most positive result is that people with eczema felt their skin was less itchy and smoother. The vicious scratch-itch cycle is often the hardest symptom to deal with, dry skin is itchy skin and itchy skin is scratched, which leads to damage and often a “flare-up” of eczema.”

Therefore, if skin is less itchy, scratching and skin damage will reduce and eczema “flares” will reduce.

Kinetico has helped many eczema sufferers over the years

Dylan Flanagan-Crawford, aged 3 years. 

Dylan used to suffer very badly from eczema. It was so terrible he had to wear special suits 24 hours a day and his skin was raw from his constant scratching. Despite being prescribed many different creams by his GP nothing seemed to work.

After some online research, Dylan’s mother contacted Kinetico and had a water softener installed. The transformation was remarkable. Within a few weeks Dylan’s eczema dramatically improved - and eventually vanished. Now he leads an active life, loves playing football and doesn’t have to worry about bathtime.

“My son has had eczema since he was 4 weeks old - very, very severe. We had our Kinetico water softener installed about 18 months ago. He’s a different child now - it’s a miracle! And we know it’s down to the softener as we went without it for 2 weeks when we were flooded. 

His skin became dry, cracked, sore and the itch so intense he was reliving the nightmare again. Why don’t specialists tell sufferers about the benefits these devices can have? It truly is a light at the end of what can seem a very dark tunnel.” Mrs K Ward, Worcestershire

People with eczema might find their skin improves when they install a water softener or move to a soft water region.

This is because hard water contains high levels of calcium and magnesium, which can potentially irritate the skin.

Another reason is that households in hard water areas tend to use more soap and detergent when washing clothes and bathing - products we know inflame the skin of eczema sufferers.

Water softeners have an ‘ion exchange’ system which removes the calcium and magnesium salts from the water, thus completely eliminating the hardness.

How does an ion-exchange water softener work?

Water hardness is mainly due to calcium (and sometimes magnesium) in the water supply. To soften the water an ‘ion-exchange’ softener removes the calcium and magnesium almost completely.

The softener contains tiny beads of ‘ion-exchange resin’. These beads of resin are preloaded with sodium and as the water passes through the beads, the calcium and magnesium in the water supply swap places with the sodium. Calcium and magnesium remain on the resin, while sodium goes into the softened water. As sodium does not cause hardness, the water becomes softened.

Other water softener benefits

Softened water has all the benefits of naturally soft water, including:

Smoother skin and silkier hair.
Clothes feeling softer and looking brighter.
Preventing limescale in water heaters, central heating system, etc.
Saving fuel by increasing boiler efficiency.
Reducing boiler maintenance costs.
Reducing soap and detergent usage and cost.
Reducing scum on sanitary-ware.
Reducing cleaning frequency.
Reducing environmental impact by lowering carbon dioxide emissions and soap/detergent discharge to waste.

Kinetico are a world-leading manufacturer of high quality domestic & commercial water treatment products. For more information please visit www.kinetico.co.uk