Hard water is simply water that is rich in minerals such as calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese. Though these minerals are natural and not typically hazardous to health.

The benefits of water softeners.

Some customers exclusively want to see whether it will help with their skin problems and others are keen to save time and money. One gentleman I spoke to was simply so used to having soft water in the first place and frustrated at the difference in water quality that he decided to buy a softener to achieve the standard of living he was used to.

So why should you buy a water softener?

• Save Money on cleaning products, soaps, etc.
• Improve the efficiency of your Solar Water Heater. Hard water forms scales in the panels of the solar water heater resulting in loss of heat in the water and call for de-scaling.
• It can help improve your skin and provide relief from skin conditions.
• Will help reduce hair fall.
• Will form scales within the pipes will clog and lower the water pressure.
• Spend less time cleaning.
• Laundry comes out brighter, ensuring efficiency of your washing machine
• Glasses and dishes regain their shine.
• It’s better for cooking.
• Enjoy showers and baths with silky smooth water.
• Reduce streaking and spotting when you wash your car.

Solving Hard Water Problems

Hard water comes from aquifers and other underground sources that collect dissolved minerals from rock—particularly calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese. These minerals give water undesirable characteristics that collectively are dubbed “hardness.” The severity of hardness is measured by grains (of mineral) per gallon (GPG) or, in some cases, by parts per million of mineral (PPM). One GPG equals 17.1 PPM.

Technically, any water that contains more than 1 GPG of dissolved hardness minerals is considered hard, but, realistically, water with up to 3.5 GPG is relatively soft. Water with more than 10.5 GPG is very hard. Between these extremes is typical, moderately hard water.

Hard water is less an issue of health than of potential expense. Many of the problems created by hard water are hidden until some type of malfunction occurs in your home’s plumbing system or in a water-using appliance. When heated, dissolved hard-water minerals re-crystallize and form scale that eventually clogs plumbing, reducing water flow. Scale and lime deposits also take their toll on water-heating appliances such as dishwashers and coffee makers, increasing the need for repairs.

Worse yet, scale cakes onto interior surfaces of water heaters, making them more likely to fail. According to a study commissioned by the Water Quality Research Council at New Mexico State University, water heaters operate 22 percent to 30 percent less efficiently when plagued with hard-water scale.

Hard-water problems are more obvious as a nuisance when you bathe and cook, do laundry and clean house. Calcium and magnesium react with many soaps, shampoos, cleansers, and detergents, diminishing their lathering and cleaning capability so you have to use more and rinse longer. They also form a scum on tile and what appears as bathtub ring that is difficult to rinse away. In the kitchen, this “soap curd” translates into spotted dishes and scale on cookware. Additionally, certain hard-water minerals, such as iron and manganese, can give water an undesirable appearance, odor, or taste.

Hard water does enter the health arena in one area: People who have hard water are more prone to rashes and skin problems because it changes the skin’s pH so that soap remains on the skin, clogging pores.

How a water softener works.

In these systems, hardness ions (calcium and magnesium) are exchanged for salt (sodium or potassium) ions. The exchange takes place within the resin tank of the water softener. When water flows through the tank it comes in contact with small resin beads that are covered with salt ions. As water flows through the resin beads, hardness ions trade places with salt ions, hence the higher salt content in softened water.

As larger volumes of water are softened, the beads become exhausted and contain nothing but hardness ions . The beads are recharged by adding bags of salt to the brine tank. Recharging works the same as softening but in reverse. The hardness ions swap places with the salt ions in the brine tank and excess minerals are rinsed into the wastewater drain.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis is a technology that is used to remove a large majority of contaminants from water by pushing the water under pressure through a semi-permeable membrane.

Understanding Reverse Osmosis

Reverse Osmosis, commonly referred to as RO, is a process where you demineralize or deionize water by pushing it under pressure through a semi-permeable Reverse Osmosis Membrane.

A semi-permeable membrane is a membrane that will allow some atoms or molecules to pass but not others. A simple example is a screen door. It allows air molecules to pass through but not pests or anything larger than the holes in the screen door. Another example is Gore-tex clothing fabric that contains an extremely thin plastic film into which billions of small pores have been cut. The pores are big enough to let water vapor through, but small enough to prevent liquid water from passing.