How do water softeners work?

Answer by  ushudno (155)

The water softeners work on the principle of ion exchange. The columns are filled with certain resins that selectively form links with cations (positively charged ions) and certain resins that link with anions(negatively charges ions). Thus, the dissolved substances in water, get removed from water, imparting it the softness.

Answer by  Turks (319)

Water softner enhances the quality of water by replacing hard salt of magnesium & calcium with sodium. It helps by disolving the Calsium, Magnesium, some of ferrous iron and manganese. Hard water contains a lot of calcium or magnesium dissolved in it.

Answer by  aleva932 (101)

Water is either hard or soft depending on the number of or the amount of any number of minerals present in the water. Hard water will have more minerals in it than soft water. A water softener will filter out these minerals making the water softer.

Answer by  e36 (170)

Water softeners remove minerals dissolved in the water (or small particles of them floating in the water), which make water "hard". The main mineral to do this is limestone, which is the main constituent of "hard water" and forms the solid layer that damages appliances. They do this by chemically reacting with the lime.

Answer by  susan27 (24)

Hard water is caused by minerals like calcium that are dissolved in the water. Water softeners use a resin of something like sodium carbonate which have an ionic reaction with the minerals. The hard mineral is bound up with the resin and sodium is released into the softened water.

Answer by  espraba (119)

The basic idea behind a water softener is calcium and magnesium ions are replaced with sodium ions. The zeolite is a bed of small plastic beads, a chemical matrix which do the ion replacement.