If you believe your water may be plagued by mineral deposits that make it hard, there's a sure way to tell. Check out the heads of any of your faucets to see if there is a grimy plaque-like buildup. If there is, your pipes are probably full of mineral deposits causing hard water. What's so bad about hard water?

For starters, it causes the minerals to flow through your house where it is dispatched out of your faucets or your appliances. It makes its way to your shower, your food and your dishes. Over time this build up can cause your skin to become itchy and overly dry. Your hair may have a filmy buildup you can't quite figure out. Your appliances that use the water, such as the water heater, dishwasher and your washing machine, may soon be plagued by the mineral build up, causing them to wear out faster and die much sooner than expected.

Hard water is also bad for the exterior of your house if it flows through your irrigation system. You may notice an orange color deposited on your driveway, sidewalks and even the side of your house — wherever the water from the sprinklers hits.

Hard water isn't necessarily hazardous to your health, but it may cause quite a few problems, not only for you, but for your home as well. Think of the minerals that must be caking the inside of the plumbing throughout your home. That doesn't bode well for the future of your pipes. How can you stop this from happening? You can't change the water source, so what can you do?

A water softener may be the answer to this problem. This small but hard-working piece of equipment uses ionizing properties to magnetically attract the minerals that plague your water system. Once the minerals are separated, the clean water is sent in through the pipes to your home while the mineral water is put through a filter and cleaning process to rid it of the offending minerals. The best types of water softeners on the market utilize sodium "grain" systems. The ionizing properties in salt help to attract the minerals and then neutralize them, leaving your water clean. You will notice a difference almost immediately with the quality of your water. Your skin will no longer feel dry, and your clothes will come out of the wash softer and cleaner.

Fleck is a company that specializes in making sure it has the top of the line water softening systems to fit any home's needs. Homes come in all shapes and sizes. Hard water doesn't discriminate; it can hit every home equally. You could live in the best neighborhood in the city, and your home may still be plagued with hard water.

When taking a look at water softeners to review, the Fleck 5600 SXT stood out. This may be because it is the number one home water softener on the market today. Let's take a closer look at some of the features that make this unit so unique.

Overview:

The basic features of the 5600SXT are:

• Illuminated LCD display for easy reading
• 48 hours of backup internal capacitor power, which keeps the cycles running for up to two days after a loss of power
• The display cycles between pertinent system information including: volume remaining, tank currently being used (only if more than one tank has been chosen), days to refill and regeneration and the date and time.
• Display will show you how many gallons of soft water are remaining before the system has to refill and regenerate
• System contains a small but powerful turbine meter to power the system quietly and efficiently (won't waste energy and in fact, will wind up saving you energy and water)
• Regeneration cycles including upflow and/or downflow indicator
• Four operation modes include delayed time, delayed meter regeneration, immediate regeneration or a time in the future regeneration
• Flow rate of a constant 20 GPM
• Capacity to contain backwash for tanks 12 inches in diameter for softener or 10 inches for filter
• Has the ability to handle double the backwash in certain circumstances

In large part, the reviews for the 5600 SXT are positive. Some users switched from using other water softening systems that either didn't use sodium or did and just weren't sufficient for their needs. A few negative comments spoke about the quality of the parts not being adequate to justify the price; however, these seemed like rare instances.