Solutions to hard water

There are two possible solutions to hard water available today. You can filter the water or you can soften the water. Filtration is the more costly solution, but may be necessary depending on your specific problem. If you have dissolved minerals, softening water is your best choice. If you have particles, then you may need a whole house solution involving filtration.

A water softener is a simple idea, and easy to implement. The water softener replaces all the calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions. Since sodium doesn't react to soap or cause 'scale' on your pipes, all of your problems will be solved.

To replace the ions, the water is run through a bed of small beads called zeolite. The beads are covered with sodium ions. As the water passes through, the calcium and magnesium are replaced by the sodium. Of course, the beads slowly run out of sodium, and will need to be regenerated.

Regeneration is also a simple process. By soaking the beads in a salt bath (salt is sodium chloride), you can replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium once again. The salt is a very strong brine solution, which is why it can replace the calcium and magnesium.

There are several systems available for softening water.

Filtering water involves separating mineral particles, like manganese, iron, hydrogen sulfide or other organic matter, from pure H2O. By passing water through a "filter bed," or "media bed," these granular particles are trapped - and clean, purified water passes through the bed.