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I have asked this question before (without seeing an answer) and will again... what it wrong with the softeners that use salt? It is my understanding it is simply an ion exchange process that goes not introduce salt into the water.
We stayed in a home with one for an extended period and enjoyed the water with no negatives noted.
Salt water systems works, however, they are not legal in some cities. The huge amount of salt you dump into the sewer system, can screw up the balance of the treatment plant. The salt does not go into your water, but it goes into the sewer.
Some years ago, I worked for a water/sanitation company, and salt systems were outlawed. The guys in the field were told to be on the lookout for homes with salt water systems, and if you spotted one, notify the office so they could take action.
So check with your local water company before purchasing.
You guys who worry about drinking water from the ground, or from anywhere, should keep one thing in mind. We have exactly the same water on the planet right now, as we had when the earth formed a few billion years ago, so it has all been recycled many times, thought dinosaurs, trees, plants, animals, and humans, etc., for ever.
Even if you can find some pure glacier water that has been frozen for eons, long before it reached the glacier, it had already been pissed through a few million animals.
Go visit a water treatment plant. Someone stated they filter water, they don't treat it. A totally false and ridiculous statement. Go online to your local water supplier and lean the true facts and don't listen to fear mongers. There are so many real worries, I don't have time to worry about where my drinking water comes from.
You guys who worry about drinking water from the ground, or from anywhere, should keep one thing in mind. We have exactly the same water on the planet right now, as we had when the earth formed a few billion years ago, so it has all been recycled many times, thought dinosaurs, trees, plants, animals, and humans, etc., for ever.
Even if you can find some pure glacier water that has been frozen for eons, long before it reached the glacier, it had already been pissed through a few million animals.
Go visit a water treatment plant. Someone stated they filter water, they don't treat it. A totally false and ridiculous statement. Go online to your local water supplier and lean the true facts and don't listen to fear mongers. There are so many real worries, I don't have time to worry about where my drinking water comes from.
In fact, healthy urine is sterile. Yep, the best filters are kidneys. It is #2 that will kill ya!
You guys who worry about drinking water from the ground, or from anywhere, should keep one thing in mind. We have exactly the same water on the planet right now, as we had when the earth formed a few billion years ago, so it has all been recycled many times, thought dinosaurs, trees, plants, animals, and humans, etc., for ever.
Even if you can find some pure glacier water that has been frozen for eons, long before it reached the glacier, it had already been pissed through a few million animals.
Go visit a water treatment plant. Someone stated they filter water, they don't treat it. A totally false and ridiculous statement. Go online to your local water supplier and lean the true facts and don't listen to fear mongers. There are so many real worries, I don't have time to worry about where my drinking water comes from.
If you meant me, reread it. I said they treat it because they can not clean it. It takes time, pressure, rock and sand to CLEAN it. Again the aquifers in Michigan to not pump bacteria.
Whether or not salt softeners introduce salt into the water is a very difficult answer to find even on the web and can be very frustrating to find a definitive answer. Softeners that use salt, do in fact introduce salt into the water. This is seemingly a well concelaed fact that some people believe salt softening companies and the WQA (Water Quality Association) have concealed from the public for years. ALLSalt softeners use a process known as Ion Exchange in which the calcium carbonate (calcium and magnesium dissolved in the water and other cations) is exchanged for 2 times the amount of sodium. When this exchange takes place the calcium carbonate is contained in the resin bead of the salt softeners resin bed and the salt or sodium is released into your water, the same water you drink(unless you have a reverse osmosis hooked up before your drinking source) and shower in. I hope this clearly answers your question and is of help to you.
By the way, the picture in the OP looks like one of those magnet things. If so, the answeer is "No" they do nothing. According to some testing done by universities and/or the government, Magnetic treatment can work if you have a unit that is the same size as your house. Claming a magent onto your water pipes is exactly what it seems - silly. An No, clamping a magnet on your fuel lines will nto give you better mileage in your car either.
We have drilled many municipal wells. The water that I would not want comes from the big lakes, where sewage run off is common. The "additives" covers the e-coli and fecal coliform. Not something I would defiantly think about.
Detroit has the cleanest water of any major municipality and their water comes from Lake St. Clair and from the Detroit River. I am not sure why their water is so good. they do nto seem to do anything else right.
Sodium ions are much smaller and have a single positive electron compared to the larger ions that are removed by the ion exchange process. Those ions are calcium, magnesium, ferrous iron. manganese, lead, copper, radium etc. etc. and they have two positive electrons. Cation resin has negative charged sites. So it takes more sodium, or potassium, ions to remove those larger and twice as strong ions from the sites. There are two sodium or potassium ions released into the water stream for each ion that is removed.
The formula to use to calculate the added sodium is 7.85 mg/l per grain per gallon of exchange. I.E. 15 gpg hardness * 7.85 = 117.75 mg of added sodium per roughly a quart of that softened water.
If you check the labels on any food, a loaf of white bread is a good example, you'll usually find the sodium content per slice is 120-160 mg. An 8 oz glass of skim milk, about 530, same size V8 (original) 560 and the heart healthy somewhat less. And many other food and beverages contain much more sodium than the 'average' hard water that has been softened but...
The county and the few cities in Calif. that have banned softeners are blaming only softeners for the chlorides content in there sewer treatment effluent that is higher than EPA standards allow, and they either reduce them or build plants that can deal with the chlorides. The real cause is their reclaiming and then multiple reuses of Colorado River water. BTW, the Governor recently vetoed legislation that would have banned water softeners on a statewide basis.
Sodium ions are much smaller and have a single positive electron compared to the larger ions that are removed by the ion exchange process. Those ions are calcium, magnesium, ferrous iron. manganese, lead, copper, radium etc. etc. and they have two positive electrons. Cation resin has negative charged sites. So it takes more sodium, or potassium, ions to remove those larger and twice as strong ions from the sites. There are two sodium or potassium ions released into the water stream for each ion that is removed.
The formula to use to calculate the added sodium is 7.85 mg/l per grain per gallon of exchange. I.E. 15 gpg hardness * 7.85 = 117.75 mg of added sodium per roughly a quart of that softened water.
The county and the few cities in Calif. that have banned softeners are blaming only softeners for the chlorides content in there sewer treatment effluent that is higher than EPA standards allow, and they either reduce them or build plants that can deal with the chlorides. The real cause is their reclaiming and then multiple reuses of Colorado River water. BTW, the Governor recently vetoed legislation that would have banned water softeners on a statewide basis.
That isn't the first time I have heard "the loaf of bread" jargon. Wouldn't the amount of sodium in salt softened water be dependent upon how hard the water is???
That isn't the first time I have heard "the loaf of bread" jargon. Wouldn't the amount of sodium in salt softened water be dependent upon how hard the water is???
Jargon....? It's really easy and quite simple to look at any food or beverage container label and find the sodium content per serving and prove it for yourself. Plus, just about all waters contain some sodium naturally. If you are on a city water system, the water company's web site and Water Quality Report will usually show us how much; or the label on a bottle of bottled water.
Yes, it depends on the hardness content in gpg, that's why you multiply the gpg of hardness in the water plus you must convert any iron and manganese to gpg by multiplying the iron by 4 and the manganese by 2 and add those figures to the gpg of hardness; that's compensated hardness, by 7.85 mg/l. That's why I said;
The formula to use to calculate the added sodium is 7.85 mg/l per grain per gallon of exchange. I.E. 15 gpg hardness * 7.85 = 117.75 mg of added sodium per roughly a quart of that softened water.
There is a formula for added potassium content also. It's something like 9.xx mg/l times the compensated hardness being removed. Potassium chloride is not as efficient as sodium chloride and the salt dose has to be increased depending on the salt efficiency (grains regenerated per lb used per regeneration) of the softener. The higher the salt efficiency setting, the more potassium is required; up to 27-30% more. And the caution of using potassium chloride is that too much potassium is seriously dangerous to humans.
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