Types of Water Softeners
Water softening, as earlier mentioned, employs a filtration device, system, or appliance to remove the calcium and magnesium in hard water, making it soft. There are three general types of water softeners including:
1. Ion exchange
It is the most common type of water softener and is well known for its domestic use. It replaces the metal ions of calcium and magnesium with sodium ions. Sodium ions do not possess the damaging
effects that arise from using water filled with calcium or magnesium ions.
2. Salt-free
It is a device which possesses several shortcomings as it uses a mechanical filter to remove calcium. It is ineffective with water that has magnesium as it cannot remove the metal element. It, therefore, does not work particularly well with hard water. In other words, it is generally purposed for removing calcium from hard water.
3. Reverse osmosis
The device allows water to pass through a semipermeable membrane which removes about 98% of impurities. It uses a considerable amount of water and is pretty expensive. However, it is very good at removing chemical impurities such as magnesium, calcium, and others.