Water Softener for Commercial Use
Do you have an idea that water can be classified as soft and hard? Yes, water is said to be hard if it contains quantities of dissolved mineral ions like calcium and magnesium. However, these minerals have to exceed a specific amount for them to make water hard, usually 60 mg.
Due to the dissolved ions, hard water has a lot of challenges when using for domestic purposes. It leaves ugly stains on the laundry, stains the dishes, and also makes your skin ashy if you use it to take a bath. Needless to say, the inability to form foam quickly, making you use a lot of soap.
What is water softening?
Water softening is the removal of the dissolved cations of calcium, magnesium, and other metals in water. It may seem like a tough work to do, but that is not the case, there exists water softening equipment that will handle all the work for you. What you need to do is just getting yourself one and start enjoying soft water again.
How a water softener works
Overview
Softening hard water requires a lot of scientific knowledge. The process of ion exchange is used to soften water. The dissolved minerals of calcium and magnesium are positively charged; that is, they have cations. To eliminate them from the water, we have to use anions, negatively charged ions. Ion exchange will have the cations exchanged with anions and remove the hardness. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The process of softening water- the ion exchange process
Water softeners have ion-exchange zeolite or resin beads that have negatively charged ions used in the ion exchange process.
Due to their negative charge, zeolite and resin have a high affinity for positively charged ions. The process starts with resin holding onto the sodium ions because of their weak positive charges. As more and more hard water passes through the resin beads in the water softener, more calcium and magnesium ions will be attracted to the resin knocking out the weaker sodium ions.
The exchange will filter out most of the calcium and magnesium ions and, in the process, release more sodium into the water. Sodium is a weaker cation and will not make the water hard. The water that comes out of the water softening equipment will then be soft and perfect to use for your domestic needs.
Why you need a water softener
A water softener is fundamentally essential to almost every household globally, especially those that use municipal water or those living in places that contain a lot of hard water.
Hard water has a lot of drawbacks when used for domestic purposes. The drawbacks include;
Unpleasing laundry- using hard water to do your laundry leaves a lot of visible unpleasing stains on your fabrics. You definitely will not like to walk around with all stained clothes in the streets. The dissolved ions prevent the removal of dirt from the clothes. This explains the whitish marks on clothes after washing with hard water.
Traces on the dishes- hard water leaves scum on the surfaces where it is left to dry on. After washing your dishes, you will notice some white spots on the surface after they dry. Traces may also appear in the bathroom fixtures.
Shampoos and soaps not foaming- dissolved calcium and Magnesium ions prevent the formation of foams when using soap or shampoos, giving you a hard time doing your cleaning.
It clogs water pipes- hard water deposits its ions in small quantities in the water pipes. With time, the accumulated ions will start forming a hard precipitate that may eventually end up blocking the water pipes. Clogging may cause problems for almost all water channels in the house.
Factors to consider when buying a water softener
Size of the water softening equipment- for the domestic water cleaning, you will want to go with a small water cleaning equipment that will be able to clean the water you want to use for the household work. Go for that size that will fit well in your house.
The technology used- when deciding which water softening equipment to use, you should consider that with advanced working technology to ensure that your water is perfectly softened. More advanced technology will also use less time in softening water.