How Do Water Softeners Work?
How Do Water Softeners Work?
The typical water-softening system removes magnesium and calcium ions from the hard water and replaces them with sodium ions. Magnesium and calsium ions interfere with the action of your household soaps and detergents, but the sodium does not. The water softening process helps detergents to remove dirt and oils from dishes and clothing. It can also helps soaps to give a ‘slippery’ feel to your skin after you wash yourself with it. Usually the manufacturers of water softeners will recommend that you reduce the amount of detergents and soap you use after installing a water softener. The water softener unit is usually located in your household plumbing, where water enters the house so that it softens the water you are using for washing and drinking but not for irrigation. The unit will contain several cubic feet of porous plastic resin which is covered with molecules that attract and bind to positive ions that are dissolved in the water.
Usually, sodium positive ions coat the resin, however, as the water flows over the resin on its way to your washer or sink, the naturally occurring magnesium and calcium positive ions that exist in hard water stick to the resin. This then releases sodium ions into the water to maintain a balance of electrical charge on the resin. Gradually, most of the sodium ions get released into your household water, and the resin then becomes saturated with magnesium and calcium ions. More or less once a week, your water softening unit will need to renew the resin by rinsing it with a concentrated solution of sodium chloride (salt water), this usually occurs in the middle of the night. The high concentration of sodium ions in this salty water displaces the magnesium and calcium ions, the resin then becomes once again covered with sodium ions. The salty rinse water, magnesium and calcium ions are flushed down the drain, and the system resumes its normal operation. Each cubic foot of resin can effectively remove magnesium and calcium from about 12113 litres of hard water. This process usually adds more or less 750 milligrams of sodium to every 3 litres of water, which the U.S Food and Drug Administration considers to be in the ‘low sodium’ range for commercially sold beverages. For those who are concerned about their overall intake of sodium, resins that instead release potassium into water do exist, however, the potassium chloride salt used to renew the resin every few days is much more expensive than the ordinary sodium chloride salt.
If you are interested in water softeners or would like to learn more about the process, contact Ernest Electro or visit our website on www.ernestee.co.za