How would you describe the water flowing in your home taps? Well, water is water! There is nothing more than meets the eye, or is there? One factor you might be overlooking is the hardness of the water. We are not talking about the structural hardness of water, but we are discussing water hardness in the sense of chemistry.
What Is Hard Water?
To begin with, we know that water has dissolved minerals in it. These minerals found in tap water can critically affect its properties and usefulness. Minerals like mercury and arsenic can be a death trap. On the contrary, some minerals like sodium might be beneficial. Nonetheless, when talking about hard water, we mainly refer to the presence of calcium and magnesium. Hence, the higher their concentration, the harder the water.
Your Water Is Hard….. But Why Should You Care?
Hard water may not have any health implications and will taste just fine. However, this water is hard on your plumbing and cooking utensils. Using hard water means staining your bathtubs, sinks, dishes, kettles, coffee pots, and practically anything that carries your water. At first, you might not be bothered by these stains. However, such stains are caused by mineral deposits whose eventual accumulation can lead to plumbing blockage.
Additionally, hard water doesn’t blend well with detergents, soaps, and shampoo lowering their efficacy. Essentially, your new colored clothes will lose their vibrancy after a few washes with hard water. However, that’s not all, after bathing with hard water, many complain about dry – itchy skin and limp-looking rough hairs.
What Is A Water Softener, And How Can It Help?
A water softener is primarily installed at the inlet of water. Hence, before entering the taps, this device ‘softens’ water for your use. There are two types of water softeners: a salt-based device and a device that doesn’t use salt. Among the two options, the salt-based water softener is the popular choice. Therefore, we will proceed with its description.
The softener device comprises two tanks: a water softener tank and the brine tank. The magic happens in the softener tanks through a principle of ion exchange. Hence after a few chemical reactions, the tank manages to extract unwanted minerals out of the water.
The softening tank makes use of a resin layer to achieve this task. However, minerals start to deposit on the resin layer, and eventually, these deposits will render the layer useless. This is where the brine solution comes into the picture. Brine flows in for the rescue, as the brine carries the minerals on the resins layer out of the discharge hose. However, after some ‘regeneration cycles,’ the salt concentration in brine will fall, and you will have to amp it up using salt pellets.
Conclusion:
With our existence depending on water, we need to optimize it according to our needs. This means we need to filter it and soften it before it’s fit for our use. Hence, for all your filtering needs, Clean Liquid Systems is here to help. You can call us at 713-253-0100 for assistance and inquiries.