How Does a Water Softener Work

“Hard water” is the term for water that contains high amounts of certain minerals like magnesium and calcium. These minerals get into ground water from soil and rock. These minerals cause plumbing problems by building up as scale on the insides of pipes and especially water heaters. The chalky scale deposits left by hard water can effectively destroy a water heater over time. The buildup will gradually reduce the unit’s ability to heat water over time until eventually it fails and has to be replaced. Another effect of hard water is that it also keeps soap from lathering and cleaning effectively. The common ways of dealing with hard water are with the use of chemicals for “softening” the water and with filtration. So How Does a Water Softener Work?

Health concerns with hard water

One of the minerals that often gets increased in the diet when treating hard water is sodium. Sodium can get into to water in a high enough concentration that people who are on low or no sodium diets can be affected by its presence. Apart from this, hard water itself is not thought to cause any health problems, even though it may give water a distinctive and unpleasant taste.

Chemical water softeners

Because the minerals in hard water affect the properties of detergents, in many cases an additive will be necessary to get laundry clean. The minerals may cause the colors in clothes to become dull and the fabrics to become rough, this is due to the soap not washing away the dirt and instead leaving a residue in the fabric. One common laundry additive used counteract this effect is borax, which is made from boron. An alternative to borax is sodium carbonate, which is commonly called washing soda.

Mechanical water softeners

A mechanical water softener is attached to the plumbing system of a home where it treats all the water that comes into the home. It will use the process of ion exchange to remove the minerals that make the water hard and it will usually replace those minerals with something else, like sodium, for example. The water softener has a mineral tank that contains small beads made of polystyrene or resin. The water coming into the building will pass through this tank. These beads carry a negative charge whereas magnesium and calcium ions both carry positive charges which causes the minerals to stick to them. A couple times a week the magnesium and calcium are washed off the beads with a brine solution made with sodium that gets made in a separate part of the water softener. The sodium ions replace the magnesium and calcium ions because there are more of them. The magnesium and calcium go down the drain and the beads are then rinsed to remove the sodium. The sodium used in water softeners is sodium chloride, common table salt and it will have to be replaced from time to time.

Mechanical water softeners have an electrical system and computers, in some cases, to manage the operation of the system.Knowing How Does a Water Softener Work will help with healthy water.