Diamond Crystal vs Morton Water Softener Salt Compared
Morton and Diamond Crystal are two names you’re probably familiar with if you buy salt for your water softener.
These two brands offer a range of salt crystals, pellets, and bars, as well as water softener salt alternatives (potassium chloride) and non-softener salts (like table salt and kosher salt).
In this guide, we’ll be comparing and reviewing Diamond Crystal vs Morton water softener salt, helping you to decide which brand is best for your needs.
📖 TL;DR Diamond Crystal Vs Morton: Which is Better?
- Based on what we know about both brands, it’s difficult to definitively say that Diamond Crystal or Morton is universally superior for water softener salt.
- Both brands are well-regarded and offer high-purity salt products that cater to most people’s needs for residential water softening.
- The best water softener salt brand for you will likely come down to your own situation and personal preferences, as well as pricing and local availability.
- Generally, you’ll need to consider factors such as salt purity, the type of salt (e.g., pellets, crystals, solar salt), pricing, and compatibility with your specific water softener system when you’re deciding between the two.
⚖️ Comparison Chart
💡 Salt Comparison
Diamond Crystal Salt
Diamond Crystal offers a range of water softener salt products designed to address various water softening needs. Some of these softening salts include traditional salt pellets, solar salt crystals, and potassium chloride pellets. We’ve discussed the full range of Diamond Crystal water softening salts later in this review.
Diamond Crystal’s salt products are known for their high purity (they usually exceed 99.6–99.8% sodium chloride), making them a great choice for effective water softening. The brand also offers softener salts with added rust-removing additives to protect water softening systems from iron-laced water supplies.
In all, the Diamond Crystal brand is well-known for its superior softening salt quality and performance, making it the go-to choice for thousands of water softener users in the US.
Morton Salt
Morton offers a similarly comprehensive selection of water softener salt products. including traditional salt pellets, potassium chloride pellets for folks looking for a sodium-free option, and solar salt crystals.
As with Diamond Crystal, most of Morton’s salt products are high purity, typically exceeding 99.8% sodium chloride (depending on the salt type), so you can benefit from effective water softening and minimal impurity buildup in your softener tanks.
Comparing Morton’s offerings to Diamond Crystal, there aren’t many differences. What we did notice is that Morton’s products often come with the brand’s patented Clean and Protect additives, which help to reduce buildup in water softener tanks, prevent bridging, and keep the softener performing efficiently throughout its lifespan.
In summary, Morton is another brand that’s renowned for its quality water softener salts for a range of applications.
🧫 What Water Softeners Are They Suitable For?
Both Diamond Crystal and Morton water softener salts are designed to be used in most types of salt-based ion exchange water softeners.
So, if your water softener has a brine tank and needs regular salt top-ups, you should be able to use most types of Morton and Diamond Crystal salt for this purpose.
Some water softeners may require specific salt types. For instance, all-in-one softeners (sometimes called single-tank softeners or cabinet-style softeners) typically require salt pellets to prevent clogging in the tank, which rules out the salt crystals sold by Morton and Diamond Crystal. Always check your user manual to see if there are specific salt types that you should use in your water softener.
🚦 Performance Comparison
Diamond Crystal Salt
The performance of Diamond Crystal softener salt varies depending on the exact type of salt you choose. However, looking broadly at the brand’s range of offerings, here’s what you can expect from these salts performance-wise.
The Diamond Crystal Salt Pellets are high-purity salt in pellet form, typically containing over 99.8% sodium chloride. The high purity of this salt type means that it dissolves well in water and effectively removes hardness minerals during ion exchange, which means you can enjoy the intended softening outcome: greatly reduced scale buildup in pipes and appliances. There are a few types of Diamond Crystal salt pellets available, including Iron Fighter pellets, offering specific performance and softener protection benefits for water with a low iron content.
The Diamond Crystal Solar Salt Crystals are made through a natural evaporation process. These have a slightly lower purity (99.6%), but this is still a good percentage and should minimize debris buildup in the brine tank — any softener salt containing 99.6% — 99.9% sodium chloride is considered the highest purity and the best available.
If you decide to use Diamond Crystal Potassium Chloride Pellets to avoid sodium softening, these pellets offer the same performance advantages as the softener salt range, but you’ll need to increase your water softener’s hardness setting by about 20% to achieve the same results. They’re made from 99.1% pure potassium chloride.
Diamond Crystal also sells block salt, which is made from 99.8% pure salt and has the same high purity benefits as the other salts in the brand’s range. However, block salt isn’t recommended for all water softeners because its density and shape make it difficult to fully submerge in the tank — check your user manual to be sure.
Morton Salt
Morton water softener salt has very similar performance benefits, with the added benefits of the brand’s patented Clean And Protect additives.
Morton’s Clean And Protect pellets have a higher purity than Diamond Crystal’s comparable product: up to 99.65% sodium chloride. That means you’ll get the intended performance from these salt pellets with very minimal (if any) impurity buildup in the brine tank and pipes. Like Diamond Crystal, Morton offers a variation of its pellet salt with rust defense, preventing iron and rust deposits in the softener system when treating iron-laced water supplies.
The Morton Salt Crystals are a good choice for people who prefer natural salt, although we couldn’t find any information on the salt’s exact purity, so we can’t judge its performance based on this important feature.
Also like Diamond Crystal, Morton sells potassium chloride pellets for folks who want the same benefits of salt softening, without the sodium (the pellets are 99% sodium-free). Again, your softener’s user manual might advise adjusting the hardness setting to accommodate the slightly less efficient potassium chloride pellets. This is a blanket recommendation regardless of the brand of potassium you use.
Morton’s version of conventional block salt is its “salt bars”, which have ridges to make them easy to grip but are otherwise the same as normal block salt. Again, we couldn’t find the purity rating for this salt type (and we have to question why Morton hasn’t shared this information).
💲 Types & Upfront Cost
Diamond Crystal Salt Types
Diamond Crystal currently sells the following water softener salt types in 25, 40, and 50-pound bags, as well as some larger bags for certain products:
- Bright & Soft Water Softener Salt Pellets
- Solar Naturals Water Softener Salt Crystals
- Sun Gems Water Softener Salt Crystals
- Iron Fighter Water Softener Salt Pellets
- Sun Gems Iron Fighter Water Softener Salt Crystals
- Potassium Chloride
- Bright & Soft Water Softener Salt Block
- Iron Fighter Water Softener Salt Block
- Hardi-Cube Water Softener Salt
- Hardi-Cube Red Out Water Softener Salt With Iron Fighter Formula
With 10 different salt types to choose from, it’s safe to say you should find the type of salt that’s best suited to your situation. The price per 40-pound bag ranges from around $7 to 30 on average, depending on the softener salt you choose. The more basic salt offerings, like the Bright & Soft Water Softener Salt Pellets and the Solar Naturals Water Softener Salt Crystals, are more affordable than those with extra capabilities, like the Iron Fighter Water Softener Salt Pellets.
Morton Salt Types
Morton offers a slightly smaller range of water softener salt types in 25, 40, and 44-pound bags, including:
- Pure And Natural Salt Crystals
- Clean And Protect Salt Pellets
- Clean And Protect Plus Rust Defense Salt Pellets
- Potassium Chloride Pellets
- Waves Clean And Protect Bars
- Waves Clean And Protect Plus Rust Defense Bars
The average price range of Morton Water Softener Salt in 40-pound bags is $7-$25, depending on the salt type you go for. Again, the standard salt offerings are cheaper than the salt with additional capabilities, like iron and rust protection.
source: Kenmore Water Softener Installation, Youtube, Uploaded by EcoPureHome
📆 Maintenance Frequency & Annual Costs
Diamond Crystal Salt
Diamond Crystal recommends using around two 40-pound bags of salt every 1–3 months in your softener. This is a pretty average maintenance frequency for a salt-based softener. As with any brand of salt, the rate at which your softener uses salt depends on your water hardness and daily water usage.
Let’s say you use two 40-pound bags every 2 months. Based on the above pricing, your average annual spend on salt will be about $84-$360, depending on the type of salt you buy and the deal you can get (for instance, you can buy bigger bags or bulk-buy batches of salt at a lower cost per pound).
Morton Salt
Morton’s maintenance recommendations are exactly the same: top up the salt tak with around two 40-pound bags of salt every 2 months. Again, the exact frequency of top-ups depends on how much water you use per day, and your water hardness.
If your circumstances require you to use two 40-pound bags of salt every 2 months, you’ll spend around $84-$300 per year on Morton salt, depending on the type of salt you buy and the price you pay per pound (as with Diamond Crystal, you can spend less per pound on a larger order).
💬 Customer Reviews & Complaints
Diamond Crystal Salt
Diamond Crystal softener salt is generally positively reviewed by customers on sites like Walmart and Amazon.
Customers say that the salt is good value and does what it’s intended to do in water softener systems. The average star rating for Diamond Crystal salt on Amazon is 4.4–4.6 out of 5. A few customers said you can get the best deals when buying on Home Depot and Walmart.
Morton Salt
Morton water softener salt has similarly positive reviews on the online marketplaces that sell the brand’s product.
Customers were generally pleased with Morton’s different salt offerings, saying that the salt “works great” and is “working fine”. The average Amazon star rating for Morton salt is 4.4–4.8.
☑️ Pros and Cons of Diamond Crystal Vs Morton Water Softener Salt
👍Diamond Crystal Salt — Pros
- Clear product information provided — One of Diamond Crystal’s benefits compared to Morton is that the manufacturer clearly provides the important information about its salt products, including its purity percentage, which is more difficult to find on Morton products.
- High purity rating — Perhaps the reason why Diamond Crystal is so upfront about its salt purity level is that the brand’s range of salts are all almost 100% pure, reducing the maintenance and tank cleaning required for your water softener.
- More salt forms available — Another benefit of Diamond Crystal softening salt is that there are more salt forms available. So, if you have specific requirements or you just like having lots of options, you should find what you’re looking for with this salt brand.
👎 Diamond Crystal Salt — Cons
- Slightly more expensive — We noticed that some of Diamond Crystal’s salt products are around 10–20% more expensive on marketplaces and in big box stores compared to Morton’s softener salts. This was especially the case for the specially formulated rust prevention salts.
👍Morton Salt — Pros
- Formulated to extend softener lifespan — A performance benefit of Morton water softener salt is that it’s formulated with Morton’s patented Clean and Protect additives to help support the water softening process and extend the system’s lifespan by preventing unwanted deposits in the tanks. As far as we can tell, Diamond Crystal salts don’t have these same protective benefits.
- Cheaper salt offerings — Morton just beats Diamond Crystal when it comes to salt pricing. Morton’s salt and potassium chloride costs slightly less on average than Diamond Crystal’s, and you can find better deals when buying Morton water softener salt in bulk.
👎 Morton Salt — Cons
- Not as many salt types — Morton’s range of salt for water softeners is more basic and limited, so you’ll have less to choose from for your water softening system.
- Lacking important product information — We could only find the salt purity for one type of Morton water softener salt — not ideal when most people use this information when deciding whether or not to go for a specific salt type.
❔ Should I buy Diamond Crystal Or Morton Water Softener Salt?
In all, to conclude this Diamond Crystal vs Morton Water Softener Salt comparison, it’s difficult to advise on whether you should buy Diamond Crystal or Morton Water Softener salt because the brands’ offerings are so similar.
Both Morton and Diamond Crystal offer high-purity softener alt pellets, crystals, and block salt. They also sell potassium chloride for folks who want to enjoy the benefits of water softening without increasing their sodium chloride intake. The brands’ products are very similarly priced, too, although Morton water softener salt is slightly cheaper, so you may prefer it for cost reasons.
In all, you should expect the same superior performance from either Diamond Crystal or Morton water softener salts because both brands are known for their high-quality, high-purity salts. Diamond Crystal might have the edge in your eyes because the brand is upfront about the exact purity of its different salt products, while this information isn’t readily available online for most Morton products. You might also prefer Diamond Crystal because its salt offerings are more varied, and a particular type of less generic salt might be ideal for your situation.
Related:
- Water Softener Salt vs Potassium Regen Comparison
- Water Softener Pellets vs Crystals Comparison
