Posts Tagged ‘Softeners’

3 Critical Things to Consider Before Buying a Water Softener

3 Critical Things to Consider Before Buying a Water Softener

When considering which water softener to purchase there are some important factors to consider including some significant health issues. This is because water softeners actually use sodium to alter the water. As we all know, sodium is a major cause of increased blood pressure and other serious health problems.

Sodium is an essential mineral because it’s necessary for fluid and electrolyte balance in your body. However, consuming too much salt (also known as sodium chloride) may lead to high blood pressure, a condition called hypertension.

How Do Water Softeners Work:

Water softeners or whole house water treatment systems use a process called ion exchange to remove minerals from a water supply before it enters the home. This involves passing the water through a tank filled with resin beads that are coated with ions of either sodium or potassium chloride.

In simple terms, the sodium or potassium ions in the water softener swap places with the calcium or magnesium ions (which are the hard minerals that cause hard water stains and limescale) in a domestic water supply.

What To Consider Before Purchase:

• Firstly, sodium chloride is usually less expensive than potassium chloride although the latter is better for the environment. This is because the system has to have the brine solution discharged to recharge the ions on the resin beads.

• If the potassium solution is discharged it has less impact on the environment and can actually be put on lawns as potassium is a key plant nutrient!

• Contrary to a common misconception, using sodium salt in your water softener will not adversely affect your plumbing. Most modern plumbing is made of PVC plastic and is not affected by increased levels of either sodium or potassium chloride. Sodium salt can, however, reduce the amount of maintenance required for your brine tank.

• For those concerned about the health issues of how much sodium is put into the water by a water softener, the answer is, it all depends. The harder your water supply the more sodium ions are needed to soften it. That said, studies indicate that even water softened with sodium chloride has a low concentration of sodium.

• The costs of water softeners are usually far outweighed by the benefits and cost savings obtained, through using softened water.

Your local health department can tell you the sodium and other mineral content of your community’s water supply.

Options if Your Tap Water is High in Sodium:

• Consider switching to another type of water-purification system.

• Buy demineralized water for drinking and cooking.

• Softening only the hot water and using unsoftened cold water for drinking and cooking.

Ultimately the choice between sodium or potassium salts in your water softener is a personal one, depending on the presence of potential health issues with your water supply, cost, and environmental priorities.

Whichever one you decide on, the advantages of a water softener far outweigh the disadvantages. As well as all the above they can also be helpful in reducing cleaning time by preventing hard water stains and limescale forming around the home.

Water Softeners Are Necessary For Health Today

Water Softeners Are Necessary For Health Today

Article by Tai Pham

When is water considered hard? and when is it considered soft? Technically when water possesses too much concentration of calcium and magnesium it is called hard water. If and when calcium and magnesium dissolves the degree of the water’s hardness increases. Hard water needs to be softened as they clog pipes and dissolves soap less easily. To treat hard water it goes through a process called water softening where in water would pass through a bed of resin wherein an exchange of positively and negatively charged ions occurs. The process of water softening is facilitated through the use of water softener, a unit designed to remove the chemicals that make the water hard.

Water softeners are classified into five categories: manual; semi-automatic; automatic; demand initiated regeneration (DIR); and off-site regeneration. Manual Water Softeners has its own set of variations but all of them need the operator to open and close the valves to control, rate and time length of back flushing and to control the frequency. Semi-automatic water softeners would only require the operator to push the button and the machine will control and complete the recharging process. Automatic softener are the most common softeners being used, the unit is equipped with a timer that initiates the recharging and all the steps in the process. All the operator has to do is add salt and set the timer. Demand initiated regeneration functions and automatically responds to the demand for soft water. It has two softening tanks and one brine tank, when one is softening the other tank is recharging.

Like every other technology, the use of water softeners does have its own advantages and disadvantages. Let us begin with the advantages; the use of softeners prolong the life span of appliances including washing machine, dishwasher and water heater; using softened water in washing clothes results in a softer feeling clothes; using water softeners results in the reduction of water spotting. However the use of softened water in watering house plants, gardens and lawns is not advisable because softened water has strong sodium content; there could be possible health risks from the intake of sodium laden water; and it is not recommended for use in evaporative coolers and steam irons.

What most people would like to know is how long these water softeners would last, given the amount the buyer would spend; the unit has to be of top quality. With proper care and maintenance water softeners could very well last for a couple of years.

About the Author

Isopure Water specializes in reverse osmosis and other drinking water filtration equipment since 2005. We also have an expertise in specialty media filtration when dealing with harsh water conditions such as water hardness, high iron or hydrogen sulfide levels, and aquarium water purification.

What Exactly Are Water Softeners?

What Exactly Are Water Softeners?

Water softeners transform hard water into the so-called soft water. Reducing its mineral contents does the transformation. Hard water mainly contains calcium and magnesium metal, and sometimes bicarbonates and sulfates. Soft water, on the other hand, is the type of water with none or little content of the mentioned minerals.

A water softener is used in decreasing the calcium, magnesium, and in some cases manganese and ferrous iron dissolved in hard water. The fact is water softener is a system for transforming chemically hard water into a soft water.

Softeners replace the calcium and magnesium contents in hard water by sodium. Sodium does not accumulate in pipes and also does not react to soap. This means hard water effects are eliminated.

The principle behind water softeners is easy to understand. Hard water is allowed to enter the water softener. The water softener contains a layer of plastic beads and in some instances, the material used is called Zeolite. The layer of materials inside the water softener is soaked with sodium ions. Sodium is exchanged with the contents of the hard water, calcium, and magnesium. When water comes out of the softener, the water is said to be of the soft water type.

At a point in time, the plastic beads or Zeolite layer will be saturated with calcium and magnesium ions only. Regeneration process follows wherein water is mixed with high sodium content producing strong brine. Sodium ions again replace calcium and magnesium ions, which eventually are washed down the drain.

The ordinary cooking salt is cheap. The salt or sodium chloride is the source of sodium for water softeners. Large quantity of salt costs little. It is a good source for sodium used in water softener.

Utilized in a water softener system are a number of cylindrical tanks and large square containers. The tanks are used as storage of already treated water and the container is for the salt used in the process. The number of tanks depends on the output and the system itself.

When water softeners are installed for domestic or household purpose, the water softener system is situated at the main entrance of the house plumbing system. In this manner of installation, all the water entering the house is already treated.

There are two main types of water softener systems. One is the electric single tank softener. This type, besides being costly, is a system with some setbacks. Soft water supply may run out since the system uses a single tank. It also may cause inconvenience because this type needs high pressure. Night hours bring high pressure. Noise caused by running motors is not welcome at these hours.

The hydraulic twin tank softener is the other softener type. This type ensures a continued supply of soft water for the household. The two tanks do the softening and regeneration processes alternatively. This way, there will be no chance of running out of soft water supply.

Salt containers should be refilled regularly. Most water softeners do not have salt level indicator; it is a wise decision to check salt level periodically to avoid contamination of water tanks. The water softeners operate continuously even without salt, which may result in tank contamination.

Salt-based water softeners are not effective one hundred per cent. Only 75 per cent of the calcium and magnesium water content is removed. The salt-based softener also releases to the environment huge amount of lime brine.

A newly developed water softener system is digital. The Soo~Soft Digital Electronic Water Softening System is a revolutionary innovation in water softening procedures. It is environmentally friendly and as effective as a salt-type water softener.