Do I need a water softener?
Almost all of the water found in the U.S. is hard water.
Hard water is water that is contaminated with dissolved minerals, like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, lead and limestone, that can have a negative impact on you, your household and your wallet.
Hard water produces scale. If there are stains or buildup on your sinks, bathtubs, washing machine, if you have to use large amounts of soap to clean dishes or wash your hair, or if your water tastes or smells odd, you probably have hard water. If left untreated, the minerals in hard water will cause yellow/orange stains on plumbing fixtures and be deposited as scale, eventually clogging plumbing and shortening the life of appliances like washing machines, water heaters and dishwashers. Scale deposits not only cut down on the efficiency of these appliances, they cost you money by increasing both energy and maintenance bills.
A water softener is made up of four main components: Structural tank, Fleck valve, brine tank and the media located inside the tank.
Water softeners eliminate the effects of hard water. They “soften” the water by removing the dissolved minerals found there, extending the useful life of your appliances by as much as 30%.
Automatic and Demand Softener with Fleck valve
- Natural polyglass media tank allows easy viewing of resin
performance during system cycles - 1.05 distributor tube minimizes pressure loss
- High velocity turbulator backwash distributor provides exceptional resin cleaning for improved regeneration kenetics
- Brine tank safety shutoff valve with float
- Brine draw aircheck valve
- Salt grid platform
- Brine tank safety overflow fitting
- 316 stainless steel bypass isolation valve
- Meter Range 125 - 2,125 gallons
5600 control valve features
- Injector/drain modules containing the brine valve, flow controls, and injector are removable from the valve’s exterior
- Ruggedly built timer is designed with heavy-duty 3/8" wide plastic gears
- Non-corrosive, UV-resistant Noryl® valve body
- Economical — small annual power consumption; keeps the time and activates the piston/valve mechanics with a single motor
- Designed with double backwash
How does a water softener work?
- The body of a water softener is a tank filled with resin beads. These beads are covered with sodium ions. As hard water passes through, the resin beads act like a magnet, attracting the calcium, magnesium, iron and other hard mineral ions (hardness) in exchange for the sodium ions.
- Eventually the resin beads become saturated with mineral ions and have to be “re-charged.” This process is called regeneration, and is conducted by the control valve on the top of the unit. The control valve is the brain of the system.
- During regeneration, a strong brine solution is flushed through the resin tank, bathing the resin beads in a stream of sodium ions which replace the accumulated hardness ions.
- The brine solution, carrying the displaced hardness ions, is then flushed out of the system and out the drain line. The brine is flushed out of the system with fresh water. The regenerated resin beads can be used again and again until exhausted.
