Water Softeners FAQs

What causes hard water ?

Water that is hard contains calcium and magnesium compounds. Rain water is naturally soft - it does not contain any minerals, but as it seeps through the ground it can pick up minerals, such as calcium and magnesium compounds, from the soil and rocks it passes through.

What are the problems with hard water ?

Hard water causes pipes to fur up and scale to collect in kettles and in electric irons and washing machines. If the scale collects on heating elements it shortens their life and makes appliances less efficient. It is also more difficult to work up a lather from soap, washing up liquid and washing powders. It can also cause "tide marks" on basins, sinks, baths, showers and toilets.

What is a Water Softener?

A water softener is just a special type of "filter" that removes the calcium and magnesium in hard water by using plastic beads and cleans itself periodically by a process called “regeneration.”

Water softeners have three main components: A mineral tank, brine tank and control valve.

The Mineral Tank

The mineral tank is where water is softened and incoming hard water passes through media, a fancy name for plastic beads. These beads are often made of polystyrene and may also be called resin beads or other names. The plastic beads have a negative charge and attract the calcium and magnesium minerals from the water which have a positive charge. Since opposites attract, electricity does the work for us and the hard water minerals are removed from the water and deposited on the plastic beads. Water softened.

The Brine Tank The brine tank contains a brine i.e. water saturated with salt. The brine solution is typically made with salt or sodium.

The Control Valve and Regeneration The control valve is the management system. It determines when it is time to clean those plastic beads which are now coated with calcium and magnesium. To clean the beads the water softener uses a process called regeneration which consists of three cycles: Backwash, Recharge and Rinse.

Backwash Regeneration starts with a backwash cycle where the valve reverses water flow in the tank and flushes the tank of debris. The debris is then eliminated out the drain.

Recharge or Regeneration In the Recharge cycle the salty brine solution is pumped into the mineral tank. The highly concentrated salt solution with its positive electrical charge is attracted to the negatively charged plastic beads and forces the magnesium and calcium off the beads. The excess magnesium and calcium rich salty water is then flushed out of the tank and down the drain.

Rinse The tank is then filled and rinsed with water and the process repeats itself. The beads are now coated with salt. As the calcium and magnesium from the hard water are attracted to the plastic beads, the salt, now in much diluted quantities and smaller electrical charge, is forced off the beads and is suspended in the softened water.

When the beads become nearly all coated with minerals, the control valve starts a new regeneration cycle and cleans them again, flushing the hard water minerals down the drain.