Water Softeners

Water softening utilizes a process called "ion exchange" to remove dissolved hard water minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese. These minerals can’t be trapped by a filter, so a molecular reaction is required. Water softeners have resin beads that hold onto sodium, and as the hard water flows through the resin, the sodium is swapped for the hard water minerals. The hard water minerals are trapped in the softener and a trace amount of sodium flows out with the softened water.