Water is a vital aspect of our lives. Not only do we need it in our diet to survive but we also use it in many activities in our homes. Water is excellent in carrying things, whether they suspended in the water or they are dissolved in the water. Water allows dish soap to dissolve in it so you can wash your dishes. Same applies to doing laundry.
The solution is the problem
When water passes through something, it picks up soluble bits of whatever is there. This can mean that water can become contaminated but in most cases it means that the water carries minerals. The most important minerals are Calcium and Magnesium. These minerals are what make the water hard.
Washing soaps lose some effectiveness in hard water. The soap clings to the minerals in the water instead of dissolving completely. More soap is now required that it isn’t dissolving in the water properly.
The same applies when doing the laundry. The soap can work its way into your clothes, clinging to some of the dirt, resulting in your laundry not being 100% clean.
The soap deposits do not dissolve in the water and they can leave marks on your clothes, your ar, your dishes, etc.
The minerals in the water can have an effect on your plumbing system whereby it can clog the pipes. Taps can get blocked.
The Fix
You need to get rid of the calcium and magnesium if you want this problem to go away. You can do this by installing a water softener.
A common water softener is installed into your homes water supply. It is a mechanical appliance and it replaces the calcium and oxygen with sodium. This is called ion exchange.
Inside the water softener, there are polystyrene beads known as zeolite. These beads carry a negative charge.
The calcium and magnesium will cling to the beads because they are positively charged and the beads are negatively charged. The sodium ions also have positive charges but they are not as charged as the calcium or magnesium ions.
Basically what happens is that, when the hard water moves into the water softener, the calcium and magnesium ions cling to the beads which force the sodium off the beads and into the water. Once the beads have absorbed all the calcium and magnesium that they can, a 3 phase regeneration cycle is activated. Backwash, recharge, and flushing. Dirt is flushed out the tank, a brine solution is pumped into the beads, releasing the calcium and sodium from the beads. The calcium and sodium is then sent down the drain.
If you want your clean dishes or laundry to be properly clean, then you need a water softener. At Ernest Electro Engineering, we stock and fit the best water softeners for the best results.
