Despite the fact Water Softeners have been
in existence for many years it's surprising how little is still known about
them. Historically associated with the more affluent, they have been considered
by others as an unnecessary luxury.
Over the years softeners have become
more affordable and families, looking to maintain value in their property and
possessions, now see water softeners as an essential piece of household
equipment.
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Basically an automatic WATER SOFTENER consists of two separate tanks, one is a pressure vessel containing the softening medium (resin), the second contains the cleaning solution (brine). Picture on left. Due to space constraints, U.K. Domestic Water Softeners generally combine both tanks, (i.e. the softening vessel will sit inside the cleaning solution tank) to form what is termed a Single Cabinet Softener this makes the unit much more compact and easier to site. Picture on right. |
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We'll take you through it step by step. We're not going to be technical so you should have no difficulty understanding the process.
The Softening process is called ion exchange,
Those of you already informed, can
skip this section 'cause it'll be so boring, but you might like to look at the
range of DOMESTIC SOFTENERS we produce, or
return to our HOME PAGE and view a
different topic or even, if you haven't got one yet go to our WHY I NEED ONE PAGE.
ANY WATER SOFTENER, regardless of
manufacturer, or whatever high tech gismo you've got hanging from it, only does
one of two things, it is either Softening Water or Regenerating. (Cleaning)
Since there is only two things, lets first look at what happens when the unit
is Softening water. This is generally referred to as being in
service.
SERVICE
The Softener is in this position for most of its working life
with, (discounting any metering units on the higher priced models) a small
asynchronous motor being the only part moving. This motor runs a timer keeping
in step with real time. Hard water enters the Softener through the inlet port
of the Control Valve mounted on the top of the closed tank (resin vessel) and
is directed onto the resin bed. The water flows through the resin giving up its
Calcium and Magnesium on the way, collecting Sodium in return. It then enters
the collector at the tank base, up the central riser tube and out through the
Control Valve outlet port into the household pipework. This ongoing process
continues until such time that the resin becomes so saturated with the Calcium
and Magnesium collected, that no more water can be Softened. At this stage a
REGENERATION (Resin Clean) is necessary if the Softener is to continue
to work.
You will often hear the expression "Hardness Salts." This has led
to confusion, with a lot of people thinking that to Soften water all you need
do is add "salt." This has led to both comical and very serious instances. The
"Hardness Salts" refered to in this case are the elements "Calcium and
Magnesium" that produce the hardness in water. All salt (Sodium Chloride) is
used for in water softening is to clean the resin bed when it is saturated with
hardness.
This process is called REGENERATION which consists of a number of operations in sequence, the first of which is BACKWASH
Click on
BACKWASH to
view the first sequence of REGENERATION or
to view other topics