Why Water Softeners Need Salt

Many people have water softeners in their homes. Many of you that do don't understand how a softener works. Sure, it allows you to use less detergent in the laundry and your soap lathers much better in the shower, but how does it work?

Hardness in water is actually calcium. Hardness is also a few trace minerals like magnesium and iron, but the majority of this hardness is calcium. Calcium, when dissolved in water forms what's called a cation. That is, it takes on a positive charge.

All this calcium is what makes soap harder to lather, which makes it undesirable in your water for cleaning purposes. Many people who live in areas with very hard water will install a water softener to take out all the hardness.

A water softener is simply a vessel filled with thousands and thousands of little beads called an ion exchange resin. The resin will remove the calcium from the water in a process called ion exchange. This process can remove the calcium in your water only by substituting another element in its place. In this case, the element is sodium.

The salt you add to your softener is actually sodium chloride. When introduced into water, it dissolves into two compounds: A positively charged sodium atom and a negatively charged chloride atom. As the water passes through this resin, the resin takes a calcium ion and gives up a sodium ion.

The end result is a concentration of sodium ions in your water in place of the calcium ions, and sodium ions do not contribute to hardness in your water.

Eventually the resin becomes depleted of all of it's sodium ions so it must be replenished. This is what happens when your softener system goes into backwash. If flushes out all the calcium to drain and replenishes all of the sodium lost to the ion exchange process.

This is why your softener needs salt and why you must keep replacing it.

It's a good method for making nice soft water for cleaning. But remember, the calcium is replaced with sodium on a 1:1 basis. This may mean that you end up with a large amount of sodium in your water which is not good for people with hypertension and heart disease. If you do install a softener, it is in your best interest to have the plumber bypass the lines to your kitchen sink so you can use this water for drinking and cooking without high concentrations of sodium.




Article  By Mike Mandell

What Exactly Are Water Softeners?

It transforms hard water into the so-called soft water. Reducing its mineral contents does the transformation. Hard water mainly contains calcium and magnesium metal, and sometimes bicarbonates and sulfates. Soft water, on the other hand, is the type of water with none or little content of the mentioned minerals.

A Process is used in decreasing the calcium, magnesium, and in some cases manganese and ferrous iron dissolved in hard water. The fact is softener is a system for transforming chemically hard water into a soft water.

Softeners replace the calcium and magnesium contents in hard water by sodium. Sodium does not accumulate in pipes and also does not react to soap. This means hard water effects are eliminated. The principle of the softener system is easy to understand. Hard water is allowed to enter the water softener. It contains a layer of plastic beads and in some instances, the material used is called Zeolite. The layer of materials inside the water softener is soaked with sodium ions. Sodium is exchanged with the contents of the hard water, calcium, and magnesium. When water comes out of the softener, the water is said to be of the soft water type.

At a point in time, the plastic beads or Zeolite layer will be saturated with calcium and magnesium ions only. Regeneration process follows where in water is mixed with high sodium content producing strong brine. Sodium ions again replace calcium and magnesium ions, which eventually are washed down the drain.

The ordinary cooking salt is cheap. The salt or sodium chloride is the source of sodium for water softeners. Large quantity of salt costs little. It is a good source for sodium used in water softener. Utilized in a water softener system are a number of cylindrical tanks and large square containers. The tanks are used as storage of already treated water and the container is for the salt used in the process. The number of tanks depends on the output and the system itself.

When it is installed for domestic or household purpose, the softener system is situated at the main entrance of the house plumbing system. In this manner of installation, all the water entering the house is already treated.

There are two main types of water softener systems. One is the electric single tank softener. This type, besides being costly, is a system with some setbacks. Soft water supply may run out since the system uses a single tank. It also may cause inconvenience because this type needs high pressure. Night hours bring high pressure. Noise caused by running motors is not welcome at these hours.

The hydraulic twin tank softener is the other softener type. This type ensures a continued supply of soft water for the household. The two tanks do the softening and regeneration processes alternatively. This way, there will be no chance of running out of soft water supply.

Salt containers should be refilled regularly. Most softeners do not have salt level indicator,  it is a wise decision to check salt level periodically to avoid contamination of water tanks. The softeners operate continuously even without salt, which may result in tank contamination.

Salt-based water softener systems are not effective one hundred per cent. Only 75 per cent of the calcium and magnesium water content is removed. The salt-based softener also releases to the environment huge amount of lime brine.

A newly developed softener system is digital. The Soo~Soft Digital Electronic Water Softening System is a revolutionary innovation in water softening procedures. It is environmentally friendly and as effective as a salt-type water softener.

Article By David Urmann and Nayan Choure