Why Do Fairbanks, AK Homes Urgently Need Water Softener Installation?
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Why Do Fairbanks Homes Urgently Need Water Softener Installation?
In all of Alaska, Fairbanks has the hardest water. At a level of 142 PPM, its water has a destructive amount of calcium and magnesium. Homeowners in this city see the importance of quality water softener installation.
If you are a new homeowner, you can avoid massive losses by installing a water softener. Prospector Plumbing offers installations that fit your household needs.
Is Hard Water a Health Risk?
Hard water may not be a health risk, but it could lead to the discoloration of teeth. While you can use hard water and prevent teeth discoloration with proper dental care, hard water has other effects that could harm your welfare and finances.
If you’re not careful, hard water can cause your water heater to explode, so it’s best to err on the side of caution.

What Are the Signs of a Hard Water Supply?
Hard water contains high levels of minerals that cause rusting in your pipes and plumbing appliances. Hard water could even block pipes as calcium sediments build up on the inner surfaces.
You can tell your water supply is hard when:
- The water tastes salty. Hard water is not poisonous, but it tastes terrible. You may need to keep buying bottled drinking water.
- You observe white mineral spots. Hard water leaves white spots on utensils. If you boil such water, you’re likely to see white mineral suspensions forming.
- Soap doesn’t lather in the water. Soap doesn’t lather well with hard water. The minerals saturate the water, and the soap mostly forms scum.
- Clothes harden after washing. Hard water is not a fabric softener. It can make the fabric of your clothes feel uncomfortably rigid.
- Washing dries your skin and hair. Hard water is terrible for your hair and skin. Your beauty products are likely to backfire when used with such water.
- The test confirms it. You can always get a test kit if you want to know the concentration of minerals in your water supply.
- Your water heater loses efficiency and starts making popping sounds.

Can Hard Water Really Cause an Explosion?
It’s rare, but hard water can cause water heaters to explode. Residents in Fairbanks are at more significant risk due to the 142 PPM water hardness. So, how do water heater explosions occur?
Water heaters burst due to an intense build-up of pressure. When calcium insulates the heating coil, pressure builds. If you don’t flush the sediments, the pressure could escape in an explosion.
It helps to clear away the calcium sediments whenever your heater starts making popping sounds. You can always call on your favorite plumber in Fairbanks to flush water heaters.
However, the lasting solution includes installing a water softener. This prevents sediments from accumulating in your boiler.
Top 6 Benefits of Water Softener Installation
Water softeners remove hard minerals and make your water user-friendly. Make sure your entire supply goes through the water softener. You don’t want the hard water flowing into your pipes and appliances.
Water softener installation may also reduce household costs in the following ways:
1. The Amount of Soap You Use Will Reduce
Soaps and detergents don’t easily lather in hard water. Most of your soap gets wasted by forming soap scum. Softening the water will reduce waste. Your clothes will also feel softer and last longer.
2. Your Pipes and Faucets Last longer
3. You’ll Need Fewer Beauty Products
4. Your Water Heater Will Last Longer
5. Your Utensils Won’t Keep Staining
6. Dish Washers and Coffee Makers Will Last longer
Should There Be Water in Your Brine Tank?
There’s a reason why Prospector Plumbing doesn’t recommend DIY soft water installations. Most DIY installations fill the brine tank with excess water.
Never fill your brine tank with water. You need to contact us whenever the brine tank water level goes above the indicated brine line.
Your water softener loses effectiveness when there’s more water than the marked level. Always check the brine tank as you continue using your installation.
Best Plumber Fairbanks: How Much Do Water Softener Installations Cost?
Every household presents different complexities during installation. Water softeners serve entire households, so we always install them at the main water inlet.
Your house could need a small, medium, or large brine tank for the water softener. It depends on:
- The size of your house
- The installation of the main water inlet
- How much water your household consumes
Thus, water softener installation costs differ among households. Homeowners can always call for a free estimate. You can also contact us online via our website.
Water softeners immediately start working after installation is complete. Our plumbers always bring a test kit to make sure your house has access to soft water. We can even taste it to make sure you should be buying drinking water for your household.

THERE’S A REASON WE HAVE
5 STAR REVIEWS!
I had a problem with the furnace at my rental property not producing heat, so I called this company. They showed up promptly and their tech assessed the problem, and told me I needed to have certain parts replaced. Now I wasn’t at my rental property at the time to confirm the issue, I simply relied on their technician’s advice.
Hours later, the tech had his parts and did the repair… only to realize what he thought was the problem, was not in fact the problem, MY NEST THERMOSTAT WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME! The tech then realized that was something he should’ve checked from the beginning and apologized for his inaccurate diagnostic, and left. I then had to charge my Nest thermostat and my furnace started producing heat!!!
Now this company is attempting to charge me $952, FOR MY THERMOSTAT BEING DEAD! The tech that came to my home is clearly incompetent, as if he knew how to do his job correctly, the thermostat (of which was located directly above his head at the furnace) would have been checked before anything else.
Now the manager is being completely unreasonable with adjusting my invoice to reflect what work SHOULD HAVE been done (a call out fee and parts) and also will not give me a breakdown of the charges for the work performed, just a total, and is continuously harassing myself and my husband for full payment.
This should company understand that what they are doing is not right, and they need to make it right. Do yourself a favor and call a company that actually cares about their customers and has technicians that actually do their job correctly from the beginning.
He is very knowledgeable and explained the necessary repair with me
Thank you. I will certainly use your company for future service
Totally awesome job!! Thank you !!
Have been a customer for 3 or 4 years
Will continue to be loyal!!
I greatly appreciate the service and I would highly recommend them!
After leaving what I felt was a fair and honest review about my experience, I was contacted by their customer support team who was genuinely interested in hearing my side and seeing what they could do better as a company. He was very professional, and went above and beyond to make sure that my total experience with the company met my expectations.
*****
Their tech, Ryland, gave my system 2000 a tuneup. He was knowledgeable and professional and made sure he answered all my questions.
I did have some snags with the company that were unexpected. I had selected Prospector Plumbing due to their high rating despite their comparatively high price. We set up an appointment for the 8-10:00 timeframe, and I drove home from work to start waiting at 8:00. After not hearing anything by 10:20, I called their receptionist, who said they would reach out to the driver. When they called back, they said they were at least another hour out, and I decided to reschedule the appointment. They were apologetic and offered a 5% discount on my service.
On the morning of my second appointment, I got a text at 8:40 introducing my driver and saying he was on the way. He arrived at 9:00 and started on the boiler. He did a thorough job, and I had no problems with his work.
When it came time to pay for the $600 annual plan (cheaper than the stand-alone tuneup cost), the tech said the 5% off wouldn’t apply. When they offered the discount, there was no mention that it wouldn’t apply to the annual plan. Since the annual plan is cheaper than a stand-alone tuneup, it is expected that people just get the annual plan, which is what the receptionist had recommended. This would have made a difference whether I just went with another company or gave them another chance with a second appointment.
Ryland, if you’re reading this, I would totally hire you to come back and work on my boiler again, but my experience with the “company” side was less than I expected for the price point.
We have been happy with Prospector for work on our propane range, home boiler, and garage Toyo boiler. Morgan and Andrew did excellent work.
We have lived in Fairbanks for over 30 years and Prospector Plumbing had refreshingly excellent service, excellent communication, and a good value fixing our shower leak. (Excellent service is rare in Fairbanks) Also used them for boiler tuneup ($380). Most recently our boiler shutdown due to recirculating pump failure. As promised, they were on site the next morning to fix the problem.
We had another Fairbanks company quote much higher for our toyo boiler repairs.
When we moved up from the lower 48 we didn’t know a thing about boiler heating systems or heating oil. I read a lot about them on Google to gain some understanding but they’re totally foreign to our family. The boiler in our house we bought was older and had been “piece mailed” together a few times and we knew it was one of the first major things we would handle after getting settled. We did a lot of research on the natural gas vs oil topic and ultimately chose to convert the entire house to natural gas.
We called a few companies out to get a feel for the companies, get quotes, ask questions, etc. It’s not that the other companies weren’t nice or knowledgeable but there is a very obvious difference in the level of care and passion that Nick and Prospector Plumbing bring to the table. Like a night and day difference. We had some locals tells us we should work with a different company because they would “be cheaper” but no matter how you do it, this was a HUGE project that wasn’t going to be “cheap”.
Once we met Nick it was a done deal. We knew we were converting to natural gas and we knew we wanted to put every appliance we could on natural gas — we figured it made the most sense to get all the work done up front and hopefully reduce the electric bill some, minimize our carbon footprint, and in the long run save a ton on heating oil. Like I said, a huge project.
Considering the cost of this project was like buying a new car or small truck I had about billion questions and Nick never lost his patience with us and was more than willing to educate us and answer ALL of the questions. Nick must have come to our house 5 or 6 times to rework quotes every time we had questions, other thoughts, and provided us about every possible way to complete the project, and even suggested several ways we could save money if we wanted to not do certain things. The transparency and honesty was refreshing.
Nick Ely is an absolute fantastic human being and is worth his weight gold to Prospector and I hope they realize the value he brings to the company and what an asset he is.
To summarize, the work in total took about 10 working days (which is what we had estimated), the quality and craftsmanship of the work is phenomenal and we are truly appreciative off all the hard work that was put in and will be a lifelong customer to Prospector because of the great service we had. I would 11/10 recommend anyone to use this company services!
The only thing we regret was not taking the time to paint the garage while everything was removed ha!
Natalie on the phone was clear and helpful. She was able to schedule me within a day during a busy time.
Morgan is the best boiler technician I’ve ever had in the 33 years in this house. He was able to troubleshoot the problem and fix it in a workmanlike fashion. He explain what he did clearly and patiently. He answered questions I had about other parts of the piping and hardware in the boiler room.
This is the first time that I have employed Prospector, and I expect that they will be my primary outfit for boiler and plumbing problems in the future.
We will be using Prospector in the future when the need arises. Great to find a company that has quality performance and a follow through attitude. Refreshing!
Everyone at the office is friendly and helpful as well, so Prospector is the only plumbing and heating service for me.
THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVICE

FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
