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What Is Water Softening


What Is Water Softening ?


Hard Water vs. Soft Water

There’s more in your home’s water than just H2O. Water quality differs depending on where you live and whether you’re getting water from a municipality or a private well. Both sources are known to contain hardness minerals.
Minerals in water are what makes certain water considered “hard.” Calcium and magnesium are the most common minerals found in water. Typically, minerals get there because groundwater will dissolve rock like limestone, or metals, like iron and the remnants travel with the water until it is in your home.
Those dissolved solids can cause a scaly buildup on everything from dishes, to pipes, to the heating elements of your appliances, to your own body. Soap scum and clogged, corroded plumbing are usually the result of hard water.
Water softeners remove those hard minerals making it easier to clean your home and your laundry, while prolonging the life of appliances that use water.

Do You Need a Water Softener?

Some people think water softeners are a luxury. Others think they’re only necessary if you have a private well with extremely hard water. That’s not quite right.  If you do have a well, you will probably need a water softener, and possibly other types of filtration to improve the water quality.
However, even people living in the city can have hard water coming from the tap. Municipalities are required to treat the water for impurities, but they do not remove hardness minerals because they are not harmful to your health.
The modern home depends on soft water. High efficiency appliances can not run as designed when they suffer from hard water build up. Dishwashers and washing machines could end up with a much shorter lifespan because of hard water. 

How Hard Water Becomes Soft – The Ion Exchange Process

So how do water softeners get the minerals out? This is where the incredible science of residential water treatment comes into play!
Water softeners use a process called ion exchange to remove things like calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese – replacing them with sodium ions.
Ions are atoms or molecules that carry either a positive or negative charge because there’s an imbalance between electrons and protons. Cations have a positive charge and anions have a negative charge.
Calcium (Ca+2), magnesium (Mg+2), iron (Fe+3), and sodium (Na+) are all positively charged cations. However, sodium has a much weaker charge, which allows for the exchange.

The Ion Exchange Process in Water Softening

The media our water softeners use are either ion-exchange resin beads or zeolite, which is a special inorganic mineral that comes in the form of tiny crystals.
Each resin bead or zeolite crystal is negatively charged and has space to hold on to positive ions. The fresh media starts by holding on to the weaker charged sodium ions. As hard water passes through your water softener tank, the stronger charged calcium or magnesium are pulled to the media like a magnet. Since the hardness minerals have a higher positive charge than the sodium, they will knock the sodium ions off and take their place.
All the hardness minerals stay trapped inside the water softener tank while the H2O, with a few sodium ions, disperse throughout your home for use. No more scaly build up!



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