How Do Water Softeners Work?

May 18, 2011

What’s in water that makes it hard and corrosive?

Almost all water provided by your Arizona municipality will contain high levels of Calcium and Magnesium.

These minerals are great for your garden plants but are very bad for plumbing fixtures and appliances!

Scale build up in pipes and corrode finishes from faucets and fixtures along with hard water deposits on shower enclosures are just a few of the negative effects hard water has on plumbing fixtures and appliances.

What's the Solution?  Condition your water by investing in a Water Softener

So what does a water softener do? The simple is answer is: "It removes the Calcium and Magnesium".

How does it work?

As water enters your home it passes through the water softener and into a resin tank that contains millions of tiny poly styrene beads that are coated with a chemical called Zeolite. The resin attracts and collects all the Calcium and Magnesium that’s in the water, once the resin tank becomes saturated and full with the Calcium and Magnesium it’s pulled from the water it automatically cleans itself by going through what’s called the regeneration mode.

Why do water softeners use salt?

The second part of a water softener is used to clean the resin tank and purge it from all the Calcium and magnesium that it’s collected. This is done by use of a brine tank that holds salt brine until needed. The salt brine is passed through the resin tank, as the salt brine comes in contact with the millions of poly styrene beads, they release all the Calcium and Magnesium and is flushed from the system and channeled into a near by drain.

How does the system clean the resin tank from the sodium the salt brine left behind?

The control module cycles a series of rinse cycles through the resin tank using fresh water to cleanse the resin tank from any left over sodium that was used in the cleaning of the Zeolite beads.

Does a water softener waste water and salt?

Our water softeners are state of the art; they are on demand regeneration units. This means that they only regenerate depending on the amount of water you and your family use and not based on a timer control module that regenerates on a 24 hour cycle wasting water and salt wither it needed to regenerate or not!