WATER SOFTENING SYSTEMS

Water softeners eliminate heavy minerals like calcium, iron, and magnesium from your water supply, enhancing water quality throughout your home. They come in various types, including faucet-mounted, under-sink, and showerhead options. A water softener can prevent issues like leaky faucets, clogged pipes, and damage to appliances, while also improving the taste and smell of water, and reducing dry skin, dry hair, and soap residue. It's an ideal solution for homes with hard water, offering numerous benefits by reducing mineral deposits and scale buildup.

A water softener prevents heavy minerals from binding in your water, solving these issues. Softened water can

  • Save money in the long term
  • Provide cleaner hair and softer skin
  • Brighten and soften clothes
  • Clean dishes and glasses better
  • Reduce time spent cleaning
  • Make drinking water clearer and better tasting

How a Water Softener Works?

  • Many water softeners on the market operate based on the same principle: ion exchange.
  • This chemical process substitutes sodium (or sometimes potassium) for the minerals that cause water hardness.
  • In a conventional system, water flows through a tank containing resin beads saturated with sodium.
  • The resin beads exchange calcium and magnesium ions in the water with sodium ions.
  • As the minerals attach to the beads, the sodium previously on the beads is released into the water.
  • By the time the water exits the system, it is softened and no longer hard.
  • Over time, the resin bed accumulates the minerals removed from the hard water.
  • When this occurs, the water softener initiates a "regeneration" cycle.
  • During regeneration, sodium-rich water restores the resin beads to their original sodium-saturated state.
  • Once the cycle is complete, the softener resumes its regular operation, continuing to soften household water.
Untreated-and-Untreated-water

Types of Water Softeners

Water softeners work by either drawing heavy minerals out of the water using a process called ion exchange or by neutralizing these minerals so that they are unable to bind together and remain soluble in the water.

There are two main types of water softeners that do this, although in different ways:

  • Salt-based, including dual-tank systems
  • Salt-free, including magnetic systems