How Water Systems Specialties of Connecticut can cure your hard water problems.

In order to treat excessively hard water, a process called ion exchange is performed in order to soften the water. During the process, the "hard" magnesium and calcium ions are exchanged with "softer" sodium or potassium ions. The treatment consists of running a stream of hard water over a large amount of plastic resin beads. The hard water that flows over the plastic beads gives up its hard magnesium and calcium ions due to their attraction to the slightly electrically charged beads. The beads, which already contain sodium or potassium ions, will gain the hard ions and drop the soft ions into the water. This will decrease the overall hardness of the water being treated.

After the plastic resin beads have absorbed all the hardness out of the water supply that they can, they go under a new process called regeneration. In order to replenish the supply of soft sodium ions to the beads, a very concentrated solution of water and salt is added to the bed of beads. After they have been soaking in the solution for a while, the beads are then rinsed with fresh water and are once again able to be used to extract hard minerals from the water supply.

Selecting a Water Softener

When figuring out what type of water softener to purchase, you should look at how much water your family uses per day. Different water softeners have different capacities on how much hard water they are capable of softening.

Regneration of the water softener, as discussed above, uses three different methods. Some are more efficient than others. Here are the three most common regeneration methods:

1. time clock
2. demand initiated regeneration
3. metered

The most efficient of these methods is the demand initiated regeneration method. It offers high savings in salt and water usage over time compared to the first method, the clock method.

Another thing to consider is asking an expert. Talking to a Water Quality Association Certified Water Quality Specialist is a great way to narrow down a list of softeners that will meet you and your family's needs. They will often know which products have the best warranties and the companyie with the best reputations in the business.