How Does Water Softener Work?

There are many telltale signs of having hard water, and if affects the taste of food cooked with it, how well your washer, detergents and soap work and can even leave a film on your skin and hair. There is no doubt that a water softener helps to alleviate most of these problems and come armed to deal with specific minerals and problems.

Physical Water Softeners

Water softeners filter out minerals in the water that make it "hard." They do this through a series of filtration agents, such as sand and charcoal, layered inside of a filtration tank. Ammonia and salt are kept separate and are used to clean the filtration system (filtration materials) periodically.

Water comes into the filtration tank where it passes through various layers of materials that trap the particles of minerals, from larger to smaller, as the water passes through it. Over time, the minerals build up inside the layers, and must be expunged for the system to continue filtering properly and smoothly.

If you notice have lime scale, rust or other mineral deposits on your faucets or in the plumbing, use a water filtration system.

Water Softening Agents

You can buy things to add to water to soften for individual use, such as Epsom salt for a bath and vinegar to the rinse cycle in your washer. Vinegar can also work in place of the sheeting agents that help your dishwasher do a thorough job of rinsing.

Borax has been used for decades as a softening agent added to aid detergent in the washer. Borax is a salt element, known by various chemical names, which is what a water softener filtration system uses to clean itself of built-up minerals.