Traditional Water Softeners vs. Magnetic Water Softeners
Hard water can really be a nuisance. If you have exceptionally hard water, scale buildup can cause premature failure of water heaters, water supply lines and significant water spotting problems around the house wherever water dries and leaves the water soluble minerals behind.
Certain parts of the United States have naturally occurring soft water, but they are by far in the minority. Many, many folks in the USA have hard water to one degree or another.
Traditional Timers
A vast majority of water softeners rely on electricity to operate. The primary mechanism that consumes electricity is the timer that starts the periodic regeneration process. Water softeners operate by ion exchange. They pull the hard water chemicals out of the water and replace them with salt ions. After so many gallons of water flow through the softener, the resin bed fills with hard water minerals. The timer kicks on at a predetermined time and the water softener back flushes all of the hard water chemicals out and fills the resin bed with new salt ions.
A Waste Potential
Traditional timers can cause problems. What happens if the resin bed is only 60 percent filled with hard water chemicals? If the system regenerates when the timer turns on, then you waste electricity and salt. A better option might be a softener that does not use electricity and only regenerates when the resin bed needs to be back flushed. The Kinetico Company makes a water softener that does just this. It is water powered. This technology makes it an on-demand system. It creates soft water as you need it and for how long you need it. It has the capability to make soft water indefinitely as long as you supply the unit with the necessary salt.
Freedom From Timers
Traditional softeners require you to guess your water usage. You may be lucky and guess right. What happens if you need to use more water than usual? Well, if you don't re-calibrate the softener, then you will not have soft water.
The Kinetico unit solves this problem with a dual tank design. As one tank fills with hard water deposits, the second tank takes over as the first one regenerates. This allows you to use as much water as you want with little or no worry of ever running out of soft water.
Magnetic Units
Are you interested in buying a magnetic water softening unit? If so, keep several things in mind. These devices do not remove anything from the water. High energy electrical fields that surround water lines after the magnets have treated the water may reverse the effects of the magnets. This portion of the water treatment field is currently in the midst of a heated controversy. Personally I don't know who to believe. I tend to think that there is some truth on both sides. This is based upon actual user feedback I have received. Some devices work for some people and other devices seem to do nothing.
The Water Quality Association (WQA) should have a good answer by the end of 2001. Expect a fair report to be issued on the performance of residential magnetic and electronic water softening devices.
We already know that industrial and commercial magnetic devices work. But, the same can't be said for all household devices. It is my hope that the WQA's report uncovers just what is required to make a magnetic system work on just about any residential system. There is no doubt that many people would be interested as long as they could count on 24/7 performance.
Related Column - Magnetic Water Softeners
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