A water softener system is designed to remove the minerals that cause water hardness, primarily calcium, and magnesium. It uses an ion exchange process to eliminate these minerals and prevent the problems associated with hard water.
Components of Water Softener:
The primary components of a whole house water softener are as follows:
- Mineral Tank: This tank contains a bed of resin beads. These beads are charged with sodium ions.
- Control Valve: The control valve regulates and directs water flow through the water softener. It also controls the regeneration process of the resin beads.
- Brine Tank: The brine tank holds a solution of salt (commonly sodium chloride) and water. The control valve draws the brine solution from the tank during regeneration.
What Size Water Softener Do I Need
To determine the size of the water softener you need, you should consider the following factors:
Water hardness: Get your water tested locally to determine the hardness level. If local testing is unavailable, you can send a water sample to the address provided for free testing.
Household size: Determine the number of people in your household.
Iron content (for well water): You should also know the iron content if you are using well water. Include this information in the water test along with the hardness test.
Let’s go through an example to understand the calculation:
Assuming your water hardness is 10 grains per gallon, you have 1 part per million of iron. Therefore, the compensated hardness is 13 grains per gallon (10 hardness + 3 compensating for each part per million of iron).
The daily water use per person is typically 75 gallons, which equals 300 gallons for four people in this example.
Therefore, the daily softening requirement is 3900 grains (13 grains per gallon compensated hardness x 300 gallons).
Since water softeners usually regenerate once a week, you must multiply the daily requirement by seven, resulting in 27,300 grains.
However, water softeners are most efficient at around 65% of their capacity. Therefore, you should divide 27,300 by 0.65, giving you approximately 42,000 grains.
Based on this example, the Water Boss 380 High-Efficiency Water Softener or the Clock WS1 Valve Water Softener 45,000 grain (45K) are suitable options.
How Do Water Softeners Work?
Water softeners work based on a process called ion exchange. The unit consists of a tank filled with resin beads, each charged with sodium ions. Raw water flows through the resin media when it enters the tank from the top. The water’s hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) are ionic and attracted to the resin beads. The resin beads grab hold of these minerals and release the sodium ions into the water.
As the water flows through the resin column, it exchanges ions, effectively removing the hardness minerals. In addition to calcium and magnesium, water softeners can attract and hold onto other positively-charged ions, including iron. This makes water softeners capable of removing iron from the water, provided the iron is soluble.
Once the system can treat water for the day, it initiates a regeneration sequence at its scheduled time. The regeneration process begins with the brine tank fill cycle. First, soft water enters the system and flows via the resin, softening the water before entering the brine tank. Then, in the brine tank, the water dissolves salts to create a salt solution called brine, which will be used later in the regeneration process.
The next step is the backwash process, where raw water enters the system through the distributor tube to physically lift and agitate the resin. This helps clean off any debris or sediment trapped inside, and the undesirable particles flow to the drain.
The brine solution is drawn back into the system after the salt is dissolved in the brine tank. A patented chlorine generator activates briefly to create free chlorine from the salts chlorides, keeping the system clean during regeneration. The remaining salt solution passes over the resin media to remove the hard minerals captured by the resin.
Finally, a rinse cycle ensures that any remaining salt is flushed from the unit. When the process is complete, the system returns to its service position, ready to provide quality soft water to the home.
In summary, water softeners use ion exchange to remove hardness minerals from water by attracting them to resin beads charged with sodium ions. They can also remove other positively-charged ions like iron. Regeneration cycles with salt solutions and rinsing ensure the ongoing effectiveness of the water-softening process.
