An electric water softener is a device which reduces and monitors the hardness of water that we use everyday. The hardness of water is measured by computing the amount of sediments that are dissolved in the water. One grain of hardness equates to about one seven thousandth of a pound. In general, water that has three point five or more grains per one gallon is regarded as hard water. If it contains more than ten point five grains per gallon, it is regarded as extremely hard. Hard water causes many problems which otherwise would not be encountered if soft water is used.

An electric water softener increases the quality of the water. It also takes away the unsightly water spots which hard water can cause on sinks, faucets, shower doors and other items that are washed with hard water. As more hard water is used, more residues from it are accumulated making them harder to remove. Dishes that are washed with soft water are cleaner, because there are less soap spots and water marks. These can usually be removed by treating them with a solution of water and white vinegar, but they will keep coming back because water and vinegar is not a permanent solution to the problem. In addition, hard water creates problems for washing your clothes. Soft water makes clothes brighter, cleaner and softer, making them last longer and look better. Furthermore, energy consumption around the house is lessened since the build up of hard water scale is reduced on water heaters.

Traditionally, an electric water softener works to soften hard water by changing its composition through a process called ion exchange. The method does not allow high concentrations of salt or sodium to be introduced into the water. There are many electric water softeners that are in the market and the choice will depend on your personal requirements. There are water softener models which you can purchase for as low as six hundred and fifty pounds sterling and as high as one thousand five hundred pounds.

Installing an electric water softener is rather expensive because it requires its own plumbing modifications, as well as a set of problems that is unique to the device. As compared to a water descaler, a water softener also requires more space because it is considerably larger in size. This can create some problems when the time comes to fill it up with salt, because there is less room to manoeuvre if you have a confined space. The salt which you will use in your electric water softener can cost you between fifty pounds to a hundred and fifty pounds. It might also be well to point out that the soft water produced from the device is not suitable to drink for babies as well as some adults. This will require you to have set up an additional drinking water supply which will involve additional cost. In addition, the waste matter produced by the water softener is not friendly to the environment.

Joshua Hind is the author of this article on Water Descaler.

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By Hannah Pauline

Dangerous Hardness Ions

Water is everywhere. Nothing can happen without it and nothing can live. We commonly say about pure water and impure one. This recording to the possibility of drinking it or not. But except the rain there is no such thing as clean water. There is one important class of impurity: hardness.

Hard water is the type in which we have dissolved minerals of magnesium and calcium. And water that comes to our houses probably always has it. It's kind of a natural process: rain is falling and getting into the rivers and finally to our houses. But while it sleeps trough the ground it is slightly possible that it picks up minerals from the rocks like limestone, chalk. And that is the reason of hard water at home.

As it may seem natural to have that kind of water at home it may cause different problems. For example when you are wondering why your bills for heating increased the limescale might be the answer. The minerals, during the heating process, form a visible scale in pipes. As a result, the scale is clogging them and the efficiency of heat that it is needed to make water hot is increasing. That is why bills may get much higher. Whole process may also damage other appliances which are using heated water as for example kettles and dishwashers, and shorten their lives. Not speaking about smaller issues caused by hard water as sticky hair or harsh clothes.

We have two categories of hard water - temporary hard and permanent. The first one is water which hardness can be removed by boiling it. It's caused by combination of ions and bicarbonate ions in the water. And boiling promotes the formation of carbonate from the bicarbonate and precipitates calcium carbonate out of solution, leaving water that is softer upon cooling. Second type is much harder to soft and this is the one which deposits limescale and causes all the bad effects that were described above. To make permanent hard water soft you can't boil it. Heating permanent hard water increasing the problem. You need a good water treatment.

The most popular solution is using water softener. It might be one that works by replacing the calcium and magnesium in the water with sodium. Or an electronic limescale remover, that may remove lime scale problem. The truth is that all are less expensive than ignoring the problem. Prevention might be much cheaper than removing the effects. In that case the only thing left is to think about the best solution for you to deactivate dangerous 'hardness ions'.

Article By Idalia Luczak