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	Basis of evaluation Water analysis Questions & answers Ion exchange for dummies Questions and answers How does water become hard? Water is a good solvent and picks up impurities easily. As water moves through soil and rock, it dissolves very small amounts of minerals and holds them in solution. Calcium and magnesium dissolved in water are the two most common minerals that make water "hard". The degree of hardness becomes greater as the calcium and magnesium content increases. Hard water is not a health risk, but a nuisance because of mineral build-up on fixtures and poor soap and/or detergent performance. Hard water is known to clog pipes and to complicate soap and detergent dissolving in water. Water softening is a technique that serves the removal of ions that cause the water to be hard, in most cases calcium and magnesium ions. How does a ROWA® softener work? The idea behind a water softener is simple: Water softeners are specific ion exchangers that are designed to remove ions, which are positively charged. Softeners mainly remove calcium and magnesium ions and operate automatically. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water are replaced with sodium ions. Since sodium does not clog pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a bed of small resin beds. The beds are covered with sodium ions. If water flows past the sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium and magnesium. Evantually, the resin contains nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium. At this point the water-softening process is stopped. It is then time to regenerate the resin. Regeneration involves soaking the resin in a stream of sodium ions. Salt is sodium chloride, so the water softener mixes up a brine solution and flushes it through the resin bed. (this is why you load up a water softener with salt). The strong brine displaces all of the calcium and magnesium that has built up on the resin and replaces it again with sodium. The remaining brine plus all of the calcium and magnesium is flushed out through the pipe. After softening the residual hardness should not decrease 8,4° dH Water softening is an important process, because the hardness of water in households and companies is reduced during this process. Hard water causes a higher risk of lime scale deposits in household water systems. Due to this lime scale build-up, pipes are blocked and the efficiency of hotwater boilers and tanks is reduced. Another negative effect of lime scale is, that it has damaging effects on household machinery, such as laundry machines.
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