A water softener is a whole-household filtration system that removes hardness-causing calcium and magnesium minerals from your water through a process called ion exchange. A water softener recognizes one of the most widespread and devastating water problems: hard water. Hard water wreaks havoc in the modern home. Scale accumulates in your pipes, causing them to clog and reduce water pressure. Scale adequately shortens the lifespan of appliances such as dishwashers and ice machines. Hard water destroys hot water equipment. The higher the temperature, the more calcium and magnesium will harden into solid deposits within your hot water heater. If you live in a hard water area, it may look like your water heater is popping popcorn. The reason behind is that the scale has fixed itself to the heating element. As the heater temperature rises and the tank expands, the crusted calcified rock deposits on the heating elements begin to break and stretch. The hard water-induced scale is the culprit for that popcorn popping sound.
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Components of water softener:
A water softener contains three components which are a control valve, a mineral tank, and a brine tank. All three work to extract minerals from hard water, monitor water flow, and periodically clean the system through the regeneration process.
- Mineral tank: The mineral tank is the chamber where hard water is softened. The water supply line fills the hard water into the tank. Water seeps through the bed of resin beads, depositing calcium and magnesium ions that harden the water. The water softens out of the tank and flows through your pipes to your home appliances.
- Control valve: The control valve is the part of the softener that measures the amount of water flowing from the mineral tank to your home. It has a meter that calculates the amount of water entering the mineral tank. The resin beads exchange their sodium ions for hardness ions when the hard water flows through the mineral tank
- Birne tank: The brine tank assists the water softening system in regeneration. It is a small tank that sits adjacent to the mineral tank. The brine tank contains a highly concentrated solution of salt (or sometimes potassium) to restore the positive charge of the resin beads. Salt is added to the brine tank in the form of pellets or blocks.
What is it that water softeners remove?
Water softeners initially remove calcium and magnesium ions from hard water. Calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) are the two minerals causing water hardness. The ion exchange process will attract and eliminate any positively charged ions (also known as cations). It may also contain other minerals such as iron and manganese.
If you’re living with low pressure from scale-ridden pipes, dry hair, stiff laundry, and endless appliance repair bills, you need a water softener. Hard water is not a problem that will go away on its own and the cost of hard water will only keep rising. With water softeners, appliances will inevitably fail before their expected lifespan.
