How Water is Softened

Do you ever wonder why your dishwasher leaves spots on your dishes or why you see a film on your shower door every time you shower? If you have wondered the answer to these questions, you have wondered about the hardness of water.

Affect Of Hardness Of Water

Even though water is a liquid it can be hard or soft. Chemicals and minerals will affect the hardness of water. Hard water can create the problems mentioned along with clogged pipes or dry skin.

The solution in a home’s water supply comes with the help of a water softener. This is an appliance that works with the water supply system to eliminate calcium and magnesium, two of the minerals that create hard water.

The first step to determining if you do have hard water would be to pay attention to how clean your dishes come out of the dishwasher or how much film is left behind when you shower. You may also notice that laundry soap and other detergents or soaps in the house just do not lather up well.

Contact Your Water Solution Company

Contact your water solution company. They will conduct a test to determine how hard the water is. They will then recommend a water softener for your home.

The way these appliances work is by trading the minerals in the hard water for sodium. This creates an ion exchange which weeds out the bad chemicals and leaves behind clean, fresh water.

A water softener works with a resin-filled tank. This tank is full of negative-charged beads, which differ from the water-hardening minerals. These have positive charges. These minerals adhere to the resin in the tank. When the sodium flushes through the tank it cancels the positive charges and softens the water. The softened water is what gets flushed through the home’s water supply through the pipes and plumbing.

Calcium And Magnesium Water Softener

Normally, the hard water will go into the mineral tank and the calcium and magnesium automatically stick to the resin in the tank. The resin is made up of tiny beads that then get replaced by sodium ion when they meet. The water softener reviews then goes through a regenerating cycle of three different phases.

The first is where water is backwashed. This is where the water reverses its flow to get the calcium and the magnesium from the system. Then it goes through a recharge phase. This is where sodium attaches to the resin beads and is carried from the brine tank to the mineral tank.

The calcium and magnesium are flushed away altogether while the softened water is sent to the supply. The system then repeats itself to provide clean, soft water.

Types Of Water Softeners

There are several types of water softeners. Some use an automatic regenerating system with an electric timer. Others use a computer that knows how much water passes the system so that it can switch on when the sodium has been depleted. A third type makes use of a mechanized water meter that detects the use of water and initiates a cycle to soften the water.