What is a water softener? What does a water softener do?

Question

Question: Hello, at my place we have a problem of hard water. Which is resulting in clogging in the pipes in irrigation systems. I want to know what exactly hard water means and what are the water softener and what they do and how long the effect stays if once applied.

grace P · Accepted Answer

Water softener
When water is referred to as 'hard' this simply means, that it contains more minerals than ordinary water. These are especially the minerals calcium and magnesium. The degree of hardness of the water increases, when moreÂ calciumÂ andÂ magnesiumÂ dissolves. A water softener is a unit that is used to soften water, by removing the minerals that cause the water to be hard.Â A water softener collects hardness minerals within its conditioning tank and from time to time flushes them away to drain. Ion exchangers are often used for water softening. When an ion exchanger is applied for water softening, it will replace the calcium and magnesium ions in the water with other ions, for instanceÂ sodiumÂ orÂ potassium. The exchanger ions are added to the ion exchanger reservoir as sodium and potassium salts (NaCl and KCl). A good water softener will last many years. But many need little maintenance, besides filling them with salt occasionally. Which irrigation system are you using? I can assist you with some literature on unclogging the irrigation systems etc.Â

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