How to Soften Hard Water
Hard water is simply water that is rich in minerals such as calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese. If you find that soap and shampoo don't lather well, dishes are spotted, the bathtub has a ring, laundry is dingy, and the coffee maker has scale deposits, your home probably has a hard water problem.<o:p>
Though these minerals are natural and not typically hazardous to health, they can create deposits in your plumbing, water heater, and other water-using appliances, and make washing dishes, clothing, skin, and hair more challenging.<o:p>
Hard water is a familiar reality for millions of Americans. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 85 percent of American homes have problems with hard water.<o:p>
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.
Unit Selection
The selection of a water softening unit depends on the hardness of the raw water and the amount of water to be softened. There are manual, automatic, semiautomatic, and fully automatic units that differ in the degree of resin regeneration automation. First, the number of fixtures in the home that will require softened water must be determined. Then, all the fixtures' flow rates need to be added up. Note that conventional faucets use 3-5 gallons per minute (gpm) and conventional showers use 5-10 gpm. (Newer, water-saving fixtures may use only half these amounts.)
Working configuration:singe-valve and dual-tank,one tank is working,the other tank is standby,alternative regeneration for continuous 24 hours working.
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.
Operation and Maintenance
Maintenance of water softeners is largely confined to restocking the salt supply for the brine solution. Semiautomatic models require either a manual start of the regeneration cycle or regular service for a fee.
The resin should never wear out. If resins are not regenerated on a regular basis, at the proper intervals, they may become contaminated with slime or impurities and require replacement. Resins can also become clogged with tiny particles of iron if the raw water contains that mineral. Back-washing, that is, reversing the normal flow of water through the treatment unit, may be required to remove the iron. Alternately, special additives may be added to the brine to help minimize this condition.
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.
Technoloty index and working
Water pressure:0.18-0.6Mpa
Working temperature:1°c-55°c
Hardness of raw water: <8mmol/L
Operation method:manual/automatic
Hardness of effluent water: ≤0.03mmol/L
water flow: 0.3-100 m3/hour
Rebirth method:
Control method: time or flow
Working electric: 220V/50Hz
Water softener for hardness removing
Model I : dual-tank and dual-valve, two tanks running simultaneously and regenerate respectively.
| Model |
water output
(m³/hour) |
Resin-tank<mm>
(diameter*Height) |
Brine-tank(Liter) |
Resin
(kg) |
connecting pipe(inch) |
| YL-II-0.5A |
0.5 |
200×1200 |
60 |
40 |
3/4 |
| YL-II-1A |
1 |
250×1400 |
60 |
80 |
3/4 |
| YL-II-2A |
2 |
300×1400 |
100 |
120 |
1 |
| YL-II-3A |
3 |
350×1650 |
200 |
160 |
1 |
| YL-II-4A |
4 |
400×1800 |
200 |
240 |
1 |
| YL-II-5A |
5 |
500×1800 |
200 |
360 |
1 |
| YL-II-6A |
6 |
600×1850 |
350 |
480 |
1.5 |
| YL-II-10A |
10 |
750×1850 |
500 |
720 |
1.5 |
| YL-II-18A |
14-18 |
900×1850 |
500 |
720 |
1.5 |
| YL-II-25A |
20--25 |
750*1850 |
500 |
720 |
2 |
| YL-II-36A |
30--36 |
900*1900 |
800 |
1040 |
3 |
| YL-II-50A |
45--50 |
1200*2400 |
1000 |
1440 |
3 |
| YL-II-70A |
60--70 |
1200*2400 |
1500 |
2000 |
3 |
| YL-II-100A |
80--100 |
1500*2500 |
2000 |
3200 |
3 |
Model II.:dual-tank and single valve,running mode :one tank is running,
the other one is stand-by.
| Model |
water output |
Resin-tank<mm> |
Brine tank
(Liter) |
Resin
(kg) |
connecting pipe(inch) |
| m³/hour |
(diameter*Height) |
| YL-II-1B |
1 |
250×1400 |
60 |
80 |
3/4 |
| YL-II-2B |
2 |
300×1400 |
100 |
120 |
1 |
| YL-II-3B |
3 |
350×1400 |
100 |
160 |
1 |
| YL-II-4B |
4 |
400×1650 |
200 |
240 |
1 |
| YL-II-5B |
5 |
500×1750 |
300 |
360 |
1 |
| YL-II-6B |
6 |
600×1850 |
350 |
480 |
1.5 |
| YL-II-10B |
8--10 |
750×1900 |
500 |
720 |
1.5 |
| YL-II-18B |
12--18 |
900*2400 |
800 |
1040 |
2 |
| YL-II-25B |
20--25 |
1000*2200 |
1000 |
1440 |
2 |
| YL-II-35B |
30--35 |
1200*2400 |
1500 |
2000 |
3 |
| YL-II-50B |
40--50 |
1500*2400 |
2000 |
3200 |
3 |
Model III. Single-tank and single-valve(time setting based or flow rate based)
| Model |
water output
(m³/hour) |
Resin-Tank<mm>
(diameter*Height) |
Brine tank
(Liter) |
Resin
(kg) |
connecting pipe(inch) |
| YL-I-0.5 |
0.5 |
200×1200 |
60 |
20 |
3/4 |
| YL-I-1 |
1 |
250×1400 |
60 |
40 |
3/4 |
| YL-I-2 |
2 |
300×1400 |
100 |
60 |
1 |
| YL-I-3 |
3 |
350×1650 |
200 |
80 |
1 |
| YL-I-4 |
4 |
400×1650 |
200 |
120 |
1 |
| YL-I-5 |
5 |
500×1800 |
200 |
180 |
1 |
| YL-I-6 |
6 |
600×1850 |
350 |
240 |
1.5 |
| YL-I-10 |
10 |
750×1850 |
500 |
360 |
1.5 |
| YL-I-16 |
16 |
900*2200 |
1000 |
520 |
2 |
| YL-I-20 |
20 |
1000*2200 |
1500 |
720 |
2 |
| YL-I-28 |
28 |
1200*2400 |
2000 |
1000 |
3 |
| YL-I-50 |
50 |
1500*2400 |
2000 |
1600 |
3 |
Operation and Maintenance
Maintenance of water softeners is largely confined to restocking the salt supply for the brine solution. Semiautomatic models require either a manual start of the regeneration cycle or regular service for a fee.
The resin should never wear out. If resins are not regenerated on a regular basis, at the proper intervals, they may become contaminated with slime or impurities and require replacement. Resins can also become clogged with tiny particles of iron if the raw water contains that mineral. Back-washing, that is, reversing the normal flow of water through the treatment unit, may be required to remove the iron. Alternately, special additives may be added to the brine to help minimize this condition.
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