Water Softener Systems

How does water softener work? - Environmental ProTech - Houston, TXWhat is a Water Softener?

A water softener is made up of three main components:

  1. Control Valve – determines when regeneration is necessary, the direction of water flow and the amount of time spent in each cycle
  2. Pressure Tank – holds the resin that exchanges sodium for hardness minerals and is under water line pressure
  3. Salt Tank or Cabinet – holds the salt that makes the brine solution used to regenerate the softening resin

How Does a Water Softener Work?

A water softener removes hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) through a process called ion exchange:

  1. Raw water runs through a bed of sodium charged softening resin contained in a pressure tank
  2. Hardness ions attach to the resin, exchanging themselves with the harmless sodium ions
  3. Eventually the resin contains only the hardness minerals and has to be regenerated
  4. The control valve monitors water usage and determines when to regenerate
  5. The resin is backwashed to rinse away impurities
  6. A strong brine solution is then drawn through the bed and hardness ions are exchanged for sodium ions
  7. The hardness ions are then rinsed to the drain
  8. The softener is now ready to soften again

Soft Water Benefits:

Hard Water Costs You Money!

  • Reduce water heating costs up to $100/year
  • Cutting soap & cleaning product use by 50% saves as much as $90/year
  • Damage to fabric can cost as much as $200/year
  • Damage to plumbing & appliances can cost as much as $90/year

Save up to $480 annually*!

*Source: Water Quality Research Foundation Battelle Institute Study (2009)

High Efficiency Softener Features:

Upflow Regeneration never depletes the unused portion of the salt charged softening resin. Downflow softeners unnecessarily deplete the unused portion of the bed every time. Downflow regeneration is like draining your gas tank before filling up your car!

Optimal Precision Brining
Prior to regeneration the control valve calculates the precise amount of salt required to regenerate only the used portion of the resin bed. Compared to conventional softeners this feature can save up to 30% more salt!

Soft Water Brine Tank Refill conserves capacity and keeps brine tank clean by adding only treated soft water back into your salt tank.

Automatic System Flush “refreshes” system with a short backwash and rinse every seven days if water has not been used preventing bacteria growth.

Soft Water Recharge ensures you never run out of soft water due to unusual spikes in water usage. The system will automatically perform a quick “recharge” restoring enough capacity until the softener performs a full regeneration overnight

Adjustable Backwash Frequency
Save up to 2,000 gallons of water annually! For clean city water there is no need to backwash with every regeneration. The backwash frequency can now be preset to meet your specific water quality needs.