Do you have a water softener, or are you considering getting one? Understanding how they work can help you understand the importance of these crucial systems.
Waters that contain a lot of calcium or magnesium,
which you cannot see because it is dissolved in the liquid, are called hard waters. Many areas naturally have hard waters, and a water softener is the solution many businesses and homeowners turn to as they try to fix this problem. If you have one in your home or business, it may help you to understand a little more about how they work.
The minerals that could be flowing through your pipes can lead to a lot of problems. One of the most obvious is the scale that develops inside pipes, on the outside of plumbing fixtures, and anything else the waters regularly come in contact with. This buildup can create a lot of problems, hindering flow, creating unsightly stains, and potentially clogging the system completely.
Hard waters can also damage your belongings. It can dull your clothes, leave spots on your dishes, and damage your shower curtains or doors. You will notice that it leaves your skin feeling dry and itchy, and your hair may even lose some of its shine and fullness due to a buildup of minerals.
So this is why you need a water softener if you have a hardness problem. But how do these systems work? How do they remove the minerals from the fluids in your home to give you waters that do not create these problems? These are valid questions, especially if you are sitting on the fence trying to decide if you should install one or not.
Inside a water softener, the calcium and magnesium ions in your home's waters are replaced with sodium ions. Sodium is a mineral that will not build up in pipes, react with your soap, dull your clothing, or create the other problems common with hard waters. So, you are basically swapping out one or two minerals for another, less damaging one.
This works because the system runs the waters through a container filled with a medium covered in sodium ions. This may be a small bed of plastic beads or a chemical mix known as zeolite. A natural chemical reaction occurs in which the sodium switches places with the calcium and magnesium. Over time, the medium the waters flow through will have no more salt left, and you will need to add something to them to regenerate the sodium levels.
To do this, you will need to load your water softener with salt. The salt is used by the machine to create a strong brine solution. This solution is flushed through the zeolite or beads where it pulls out the calcium and magnesium and replaces the salt. The brine is then flushed out through a drain pipe, leaving behind a regenerated system. This cycle happens without your knowledge, and the only attention you typically need to give the system is the occasional replacement of the salt once it is used up by the unit. And with that, you benefit from waters that are free from damaging minerals, keeping your home and skin happier, cleaner, and healthier.
