Water Softeners
Water softeners are beneficial in all hard water areas. Hard water causes scale to build up reducing water flow, clogging up shower heads, washing machines and other household appliances.
Water softeners are a simple and effective way to prevent these problems and will help remedy existing issues by washing away scale deposits.
How does a Water Softener Work?
Water softeners work through ion-exchange, a process where hardness ions in the water, calcium and magnesium, are exchanged for the soft sodium ions which do not cause scale and soap scum.
This occurs inside the water softener in a cylinder filled with millions of tiny plastic beads which act as ion-exchange resin.
Benefits of Water Softeners
What does it take to fit one?
A modern water softener is designed to fit under a counter and is usually installed in a kitchen or utility room, although other places, such as a garage, can be used.
Installations softens all the water in the house from the rising main stopcock (with the exception of a new hard water mini tap at the kitchen sink that is required in the UK by law).
New plumbing is required to divert water from the stopcock to the water softener, a small drainage point is required for the waste water of the cleaning process and an electrical power source is needed for the electronic controller.
What are the choices?
There are two types of water softener. One will measure your water consumption and adjust itself daily to match demand, this is called an intelligent microprocessor meter controlled machine. The economy electro-mechanical time clock machines rely on the user to set an interval of regeneration in anticipation of water usage.
The regeneration process is automatic and only requires salt tablets to be added to the machine when the remote system monitor indicates that the salt level is low.
The salt does not soften the water, it is used to clean the ion-exchange resin.