Where does the salt go in a water softener?

Answer 1

The softener replaces calcium and magnesium ions in the water with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated.

Water Softeners take ions such as Calcium and Magnesium and swap them for a small amounts of ions that are more ideal, such as sodium. Sodium does not respond poorly to soap and are far less harsh.

Answer 2

If you could look inside a water softener's main cylinder you would see what looks like "sand" - but that stuff is in fact tiny granules of a special "ion exchange resin".

So-called "hard" water contains compounds of calcium, magnesium and other elements. Natural fresh rainwater picks up those compounds from the rocks and sands whilst it is stored underground over long periods of time. The compounds dissolve in the rainwater and make it "hard". That "hardness", when heated and mixed with soap or the detergent chemicals in washing powder, leaves a "scum" around sides of baths and in clothes after they have been washed. Also the hardness deposits "scale" inside water-heating kettles and furnaces, etc.

Common salt (sodium chloride) must be used regularly to recharge a water softener. The recharging process causes sodium to be picked-up by the ion exchange resin. Then, when fresh hard water is passed through the resin granules, they cause most of the calcium, magnesium and other elements to be exchanged for sodium from the salt.

The resulting sodium compounds remain dissolved in the treated water that exits from the water softener. No hard scum or scale is left behind when that water is heated and mixed with soap or the detergent chemicals in washing powder, which is why such treated water is called "softened water".

Further Note:

When compounds of such elements are dissolved in water they split up into positive and negative components known to chemists as "ions".

Answer 3

A water softener uses ion-exchange technology to trap hardness (calcium) from water. Every few days the hardness is washed out of the water softener resin using a strong salt solution. So you pour the salt into the salt tank of a water softener. The water softener adds a measured volume of water to dissolve the correct amount of salt, which is later sucked up as brine and used to wash the resin before being flushed to the drain. Julian Hobday of KindWater

Answer 4

A water softener replaces the metals in hard water (like Calcium and Magnesium) with sodium. In order for the sodium to replace the hard metals in the water, the water must be run through a chemical matrix called zeolite. The zeolite beads in the water softener are coated with sodium ions that replace the calcium and magnesium.

Answer 5

Water softeners have a tank to store salt, known as the salt tank or the brine tank. Smaller home water softeners are normally a single unit with the water softener in the back half and the salt tank in the front half - accessed through a lid at the top / front. Larger water softeners often have a separate salt tank. Julian Hobday of KindWater

Answer 6

Salt remains in the water after it dissolves in water; it exists in ionized form. Table salt will dissolve into positive Na+ ions and negative Cl- ions.