Exchange tanks are large tanks that produce soft water throughout the whole home, much like a softener you add salt to. These tanks are much like portable water softeners that are recharged in a different location. 

Exchange tanks are problematic in many ways.  

Costly: The exchange tanks are a bill that never goes away. If a homeowner used the money spent on exchange tanks, in approximately 3 years the amount spent would be equivalent to the price of a whole-house system. This exchange tank bill can be raised at any time and consistently is after the first year of service.  

Inconsistency: Rarely do exchange tanks last the full week in which they are designed to last. They exhaust very quickly and when they are regenerated there is no way to tell if they are full. Homeowners often comment on how much they dislike them. In places like Santa Clarita where you cannot legally use self-regenerating water softeners that add salt, some owners have hired their services because they have no other choice for soft water or mineral-free water that doesn’t cause hard water-related problems.  

Privacy and security: Exchange tanks are located in the garage and the company that provides the service has to have access to your home to make the exchange every week. The company, or more importantly whoever they hire, can enter your garage at any time. This is a concern of people who have valuables or documents stored in the garage.  

Environment: Just because they are exchanged doesn’t mean that the byproduct of soft water is still not dispelled because it is — it’s just dumped into our environment at another location instead of down the homeowner’s sewer drain. When they regenerate the tanks, the brine and chlorides in the tank are dumped right down the sewer drain and into our rivers, streams and oceans. The tanks also need to be transported. The amount of fuel and emissions that this delivery process produces and that these large trucks create are massive, however un-calculated by any agency at this time.