For many Americans, hard water is a fact of life. While hard water can confer some health benefits to those who drink it, it’s particularly hard on the plumbing systems of homes and businesses. As such, water softeners are often a necessity when it comes to protecting pipes and fixtures from mineral buildup and corrosion. If you don’t have the first clue as to what water softeners are or how they work, you’ve come to the right place.

Furthermore, if you need to find out what goes into a basic water softener as well as how to repair and maintain them, you’ll find the following page very illuminating.How Water Softeners Work
Basically, “hard water” is any water that has an excess of metal cations. Typical hard tap water contains a high concentration of magnesium and calcium, found in the form of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions. These ions are an important dietary supplement, but they also have negative effects. For one thing, metal cations inhibit the effectiveness of soap. They also lead to the formation of scaling or mineral buildup, which can damage plumbing and foul up other devices in your home. To combat these problems, many rely on water softeners to filter their water.

Water softeners perform a few simple reactions with your hard water to “soften” it by combining the positive cations with other molecules that neutralize them chemically. The most common way to do this is by running the hard water through a “resin bed” which contains high amounts of sodium. The sodium combines with the magnesium and calcium cations, effectively canceling them out of the equation. Softened water is then piped to the home’s faucets, showers, and other spigots. That’s essentially how water softeners work, for the most part. In general, all of this happens automatically without the knowledge of the homeowner. But like any mechanical device, a water softener has to be periodically cleaned and maintained for the best performance.

Water Softener Parts
Though they may seem complicated, water softeners are actually fairly simple. They consist of two main containers: a resin tank and a brine tank. The resin tank contains a sodium-rich resin bed which will interact with the positive cations and remove them from the water. The brine tank is a merely a secondary receptacle containing a large amount of salt. Resin beds need to be flushed out periodically to remove magnesium, calcium, and iron as well as to replenish the bed’s pellets with fresh sodium. Most water softeners will perform cleaning operations automatically on a set schedule, so there’s little manual configuration or maintenance required.

In addition to the two main tanks, water softeners also feature a few pipes and tubes used for connection purposes and for flushing out waste water. There are typically two main pipes or hoses in any water softener model. One is the drain line, and the other is the brine refill and purge line. The drain line simply dumps out excess water used during the cleaning process. The brine refill and purge line is used during the resin bed regeneration process to “backflow” water through the resin bed and strip away built-up magnesium and calcium. Everything passes through an input control unit on top of the resin tank, making maintenance and repair easy in most cases.

Water Softener Problems
Most water softener problems can be directly linked to the depletion of the neutralizing medium in the resin bed. Eventually, the resin bed will lose its ability to bind cations. Fortunately, that problem is easily solved by flushing the resin bed by using the brine tank. Resin beds will eventually have to be replaced, although many have a lifespan of 20 years or so. In addition, brine tanks must be cleaned out from time to time if the salt in the tank contains minerals and other particulate matter that aren’t water-soluble.

One additional problem related to water softeners is in the water that they produce. Soft water tends to leach out heavy metals from plumbing, which may present a health threat to some individuals. In addition, softened water absorbs a small amount of the sodium contained in the resin bed. For people with hypertension or those on a low-sodium diet, this can also be a health hazard. This particular problem can be solved by introducing potassium chloride into the system.

Water Softener Repair
A big issue when it comes to water softener repair is keeping the brine tank clean and well-maintained. The salt dissolved in the tank’s water can build up on the underside of the tank’s lid and clog the outgoing refill line. To clean a brine tank, remove any built-up salt first. Next, drain the tank thoroughly with a wet-dry vacuum. You’ll want to scrub the inside surface with soap and water to make sure you get anything that’s left over. Once you’re finished, simply refill the tank with the appropriate amount of salt water and you’re done.

Probably the most important repair task that any homeowner will have to perform is the cleaning of the resin tank’s resin bed to remove accumulated iron. You’ll want to wait until after you’ve cleaned out the brine tank to do this. To start, you’ll have to access the control unit located on top of the resin tank. Most water softeners have an “Iron Out” cycle which you can run by pressing a button or flipping a switch. When in doubt, refer to your owner’s manual or look up the instructions for your particular model online. Once the Iron Out cycle has been run, perform a manual regeneration to dispose of waste water.

One final issue that often arises is the clogging of the resin tank’s injector with salt or other particulates. It’s not a huge problem, and it’s also fairly easy to remedy. To begin, you’ll need to kill the water flow to the softener by turning on its bypass valve. Next, perform a manual regeneration as described above. Once that’s done, you’ll just have to clean off the injector head by rinsing away any built-up salt and flushing out the filter screen.

The Last Word
Water softeners aren’t nearly as mysterious as most people make them out to be. They’re usually fairly simple to restore and repair, if you have a basic, working knowledge of their parts and how they operate together. When in doubt, it’s always best to consult a water softener repair professional to do the dirty work for you. Regular maintenance is required to obtain the longest lifespan possible for your water softener. Fortunately, all the issues described above are quite common and there are plenty of quality providers of water softener parts and repair services for you to fall back on if you need help.