Living · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a water softener trades minerals
A softener swaps calcium and magnesium for sodium or potassium instead of removing every dissolved thing.
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From the opening
A water softener trades minerals by swapping the calcium and magnesium that make water hard for sodium or potassium ions held on a resin, and the hardness ions stay behind on the beads. The water leaves without them and with a little of the ion that replaced them. The opening covers resin sites preferring hardness ions, sodium or potassium released in trade, and brine flushing the beads clean.
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Inside
- Resin sites preferring hardness ions
- Sodium or potassium released in trade
- Brine flushing the beads clean
- Why this is not distillation
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Ion exchange of calcium and magnesium on softener resin
- Brine regeneration of household water softeners