A water softener is an appliance that is fitted to the mains water supply to a home or commercial premises to remove dissolved minerals (hardness salts). These minerals form lime-scale in pipes and boilers, when the water is heated, and soap-scum in bath water, laundry appliances and sanitary-ware. They are usually fitted close to the mains water entry point in a house but can be sited almost anywhere. Modern domestic softeners are so compact that they can be easily installed under the kitchen sink.
What does a Water Softener do?
Water softeners use a process called ion exchange. The softener unit contains a column filled with beads of a resin which remove the dissolved calcium and magnesium ions from the hard water flowing through it, replacing them with sodium. Periodically, (typically once a day) the softener regenerates the resin by washing with brine (sodium chloride solution), carrying the calcium and magnesium to drain, and leaving fresh sodium ions on the resin ready for the next treatment cycle. Regeneration is usually triggered automatically by either an electronic timer or mechanical water flow meter. The unit has to be refilled with salt (in the form of granules, small tablets or blocks) typically once a month. Water suppliers define the level of water hardness (total hardness) in mg/l (milligrams per litre) of calcium carbonate. The water supply is considered to be hard if it is above 200 mg/l. 60% of water supplies in the US are hard and are typically 300 to 350 mg/l total hardness. Softening generally reduces the hardness to less than 10 mg/l.
Water softeners have three main components: A mineral tank, brine tank, and control valve. Smaller capacity models combine the mineral tank and brine tanks into one cabinet, but the two tanks are still separated within the cabinet. Larger flow capacity systems have a separate stand-alone mineral and brine tanks. Mineral Tank: The mineral tank is where the action is. It is where the water filtration takes place and the hard water is softened (calcium and magnesium are removed). Brine Tank: The brine tank is where a highly concentrated solution of salt or potassium is stored. Control Valve: The control valve is the device that controls the flow of water into and out of the mineral and brine tanks during regeneration.
The brine tank is just what its name suggests, a plastic tank that contains a brine, water saturated with salt. The brine solution is typically made with salt or sodium. However, problems may result if you are on a restricted low sodium diet in that some of the sodium is transmitted into the drinking water. Also, the bacteria in septic systems so necessary for the breakdown of waste may be adversely affected by high concentrations of sodium. So as an alternative, potassium may be used. Potassium is considered superior and environmentally friendly, albeit a bit more expensive, than salt and does not affect your health, watersheds, or the environment or your septic system.
working principle
01. By means of Absorbing the calcium and magnesium ions in water with resin, since the hardness of water is mainly composed of calcium and magnesium, in general, we adopt cation exchange resin (softener), replace Ca2+, Mg2+ (main ingredients for scale) in water, as the increase of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in resin, removing performance on Ca2+, Mg2+ of resin will gradually reduce.
02. When the resin has absorbed a certain amount of calcium and magnesium ions, it must be regenerated, the regeneration process is that flush resin layer with the salt water in salt box, replace hardness ion out of the resin again, and discharged from the tank with waste liquid of regeneration, then resin resumed the function of softening and exchanging.
03. The principle of sodium ion exchange and softening treatment is to exchange cation in the raw water with resin, hardness constituents Ca2+and Mg2+ in water exchange Na+ in resin, thus absorb the Ca2+and Mg2+ to make the water to be softened.
2RNa + Ca2+ = R2Ca + 2Na+
2RNa + Mg2+ = R2Mg + 2Na+
After the water treated by sodium ion exchanger, the Ca+ and Mg+ were superseded by Na +.
Application scope of softener
Mainly used in industry and civil water softening preparation, such as Boiler feed water make-up water, air conditioning system make up water, heat exchanger, power plant, chemical, textile, printing and dyeing, bio-pharmaceutical, Electronic system and water pretreatment.
Type choice:
Softener equipment applies cation resin for softing raw water,its main target is to use cation resin to adsorp (main parts of ),encreasing the hardness of raw water.
1. Users can choose manual operation control system for saving cost.
2. If users using for 24 hours can accord to water using time choosing for rebirth
3. Uses can according to water quality requirement:first grade multi-media filter,which can remove mud,rust,colloid and suspension in water.Second grade activated carbon filter,which can remove color,olfactory,biochemistry organic in water and encrease the left oxygen value and pollution in water.Third grade equiped softener equipment.
4. Effluent water capacity achieves the water supply of national low-pressure bioler.
5. Time control- type;flow control- type.In working ,apply single-tank,double-tank and multi-tank etc. other varied combination method.When choosing,users can choose as their needs.In operation,it has not only automatic function,but also is manual operation.
Usage:
System automatic water softener widely used in steam bioler,heating bioler,exchanger,air conditioner, and other systems water softener,also used in hotel,restruant,office, and other life water treatment and food,drinking,wine,washing,textile,chemical,medicine and other industrial softener water treatment.
Determine if you're in a region that has hard water.
Although hard water exists in water sources in all US states, the highest concentration of hard water supplies in the United States include areas of Arizona, California, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas.
If you use a public water supply, information about your level of water hardness is available from your local town hall water department.
This information may also be available from your local town hall if you have private well. Based on your location, your city government may be able to tell you the primary source of water supplies for the area and give you some test results, including water softness levels.
Bring a water sample to a local water testing lab to test your water hardness or use a commercially sold water hardness test kit if you have a private well and suspect your water is hard.
Watch the amount of foaming that occurs when you use cleaning products like toothpaste, dish soap, laundry detergent and other household cleaners. If you have to add a lot of soap to the water to work up suds, your water is probably hard.
Decide whether complete water softening is necessary.
Just because you have hard water, doesn't mean it's necessary to soften it. The techniques used for softening hard water can have adverse effects that outweigh the annoyances of having hard water. If having hard water is something you can work around, consider living with it or making small changes noted in the next method that can improve your lifestyle without going to the expense of putting in a water softening system.
Ion water softeners replace the mineral ions with sodium ions. This makes your chores easier, but since the water has a high salt content it kills plants, makes soil inhospitable to new growth, and can harm bodies of water where the saltwater is deposited.
However, softening your water will extend the lifespan of your plumbing and make chores that involve the use of soap a lot easier.
A good compromise is to attach your water softening system to the hot water line only, so that only half of the water you use is softened with sodium.
Type I : Single-tank and single-valve( flow rate based control)
Type II.dual-tank and dual-valve, two tanks work simultaneously but regenerate at different time