WATER SOFTENERS for you home and business

What is a water softener?

A water softener is a device that makes HARD WATER soft. Hard water is water that has a high concentration of Calcium Carbonate dissolved into it. This happens when rainwater seeps through limestone and chalk in the ground before being collected into reservoirs and then fed or pumped to your house. Rainwater is slightly acidic because it has mixed with Carbon Dioxide in the atmoshphere to form CARBONIC ACID. This can be formulated as CO2+H20=H2CO3. The amount of C02 which dissolves into the water is dependent on the temperature of the rainwater and the colder it is the more C02 dissolves into it. When water heats up, the C02 evaporates off reducing the acidity of the water. This also happens when the atmospheric pressure is reduced since this literally “sucks” the C02 out of the water.

This “acidic” rainwater dissolves the Calcium Carbonate CaC03 in the ground which is present in the form of Limestone or Chalk (also as Aragonite, Calcite,Vaterite,Marble and Travertine) which when dissolved become ionised in the water as Calcium Bicarbonate. CaCO3 + CO2 + H20 = Ca (HC03)2. These ions float in the dissolved water as Ca++ and HCO3 - ions and will remain in solution until the water is either heated or the atmospheric pressure is reduced.

When the water now rich in these ions is heated, the CO2 leaves the water and the ions recombine into their original form as LIMESCALE. The CO2 also leaves the water when the pressure is reduced and this happens when water suddenly changes direction as in the L-bend in a pipe or when it suddenly leaves from a tap or shower head when it drops from a high pressure to a low pressure. Boiling or heating water quickly causes LIMESCALE to be deposited as is evidenced in hot water cylinders, boilers and kettles. Sudden pressure drop precipitations of LIMESCALE can be seen in pipes at L-bend , shower heads and taps.

(For the purpose of simple explanation we have not mentioned Magnesium Salts which are present in the ground as Dolomite since it is the Calcium salts which are the main cause of HARD WATER)

So the ions of Calcium and others are called the “hardness ions” and not only cause LIMESCALE
but also react with soaps to prevent proper lathering and can cause a “scum”. This scum is called Calcium Stearate.