How to soften hard water completely, simply and effectively

What is Total Hardness Water?

Total hardness water is a type of hard water that exhibits characteristics of both temporary and permanent hard water. The main chemical components are salts: CaSO4, Mg(HCO3)2, MgCl2, CaCl2, MgSO4.

Effects of Total Hardness Water

Softening total hardness water plays a very important role. If not softened, it can have serious consequences on human health and in daily life and production.

For Health

1. When bathing, washing, cleaning with soap, hard water reduces the ability to lather, causing soap not to dissolve completely, leaving residues on the body, leading to dry skin, itching, and potentially causing skin inflammation, as well as making hair dry and prone to falling out.
2. In hard water, there are lime residues, which if used for a long time can accumulate in the walls of arteries and veins, seriously affecting blood circulation, leading to cardiovascular diseases. It can also cause kidney stones and urinary stones.
3. Using this type of water for cooking, preparing medicine can also affect human health.

In Daily Life

1. The ability of soap to lather in hard water is low, resulting in less foam. This leads to clothes not being cleaned properly, and soap residue may remain on the clothes. Additionally, clothes deteriorate quickly, fade, especially white clothes turn yellow.
2. Bathroom fixtures such as bathtubs, sinks, tiles, etc., become yellowed, affecting the aesthetics of your home.
3. Hand wash faucets, showerheads, are prone to rust, scaling, and yellowish deposits.
4. Total hardness water used for food processing will take longer to cook, affecting the taste, color, and quality of the food. Especially when brewing tea, coffee, they will have a darker color and lack aroma.
5. Boiling water with water heating devices, kettles often results in scaling, reducing heat conduction and transfer, causing water to boil slowly, wasting energy, leading to electricity wastage, and the equipment is prone to quick damage.

For Industrial Production

1. Water conduits, water pipes are prone to blockages, damage, costly repair, and replacement. The cause of this is the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) in hard water causing scale buildup on the surface of equipment, reducing flow rates in pipes.
2. Hard water should not be used in boilers, steam boilers, and cooling towers. Because when boiling, it will create a layer of scale that adheres to the equipment walls. This layer reduces the water heat transfer coefficient.
3. When using total hardness water in the textile industry, fabrics become stiff and scratched. Additionally, fabrics may turn red or yellow due to the high iron content in hard water. Soap not fully dissolved can stick to the fabric, reducing the quality of the product.
4. In food and beverage production, hard water can alter the taste and safety of the product, potentially containing harmful chemical components present in hard water.

Simple Ways to Soften Total Hardness Water

There are many ways to soften total hardness water, suitable for every household, community, or production area.

Boiling Water Method

Boiling water will decompose Mg2+ and Ca2+. The scale layers will settle at the bottom and can be removed by decanting, settling, filtering, and taking the clean water portion.

This method is only applicable to households, using water for consumption purposes, with a small amount of water used.

Ion Exchange Water Softening

Pass the water to be treated through a device containing ion exchange resin made from polymers. Here, Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions will be replaced by Na+ and K+ ions.

The ion exchange water softening method can remove many types of minerals in water, with low operating costs, so it is widely applied. However, the filter media needs to be regenerated periodically or when they are "full" to achieve high efficiency.

Hardness Water Treatment with Chemicals

This method involves mixing various chemicals into water to react with Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions to form simple, less harmful compounds. This can treat total hardness water for various purposes.

Hardness water treatment with chemicals is only used in industry because if used in households, not knowing how to use the chemicals can have serious health consequences.

Using RO Water Filtration Systems

This is a reverse osmosis water filtration process. Through this process, Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, as well as impurities like heavy metals, bacteria, etc., are completely removed, leaving pure water molecules.

This water filtration device is widely used in households, schools, hospitals, etc. However, RO water filtration systems mainly serve the usage purposes of households and offices. For industrial hard water treatment, different methods need to be applied to meet higher usage flow rates.

Note: To ensure the highest water filtration efficiency, the filter cartridges need to be replaced regularly.

Automatic Total Hardness Water Softening Equipment in Industry

Automatic total hardness water softening equipment in industry, also known as industrial water filtration systems. This method not only treats total hardness water but also removes other water pollutants.

According to experts' evaluations, industrial water filtration systems are considered the optimal solution, widely used in breweries, food processing plants, facilities related to boilers and high water usage.

Above are the related information and various methods of softening total hardness water. If you are interested in water filtration machines, water filtration equipment, water softening materials, please contact Toan A JSC via hotline 0913.543.469. We specialize in providing reputable and quality products at reasonable prices, bringing you interesting experiences and benefits in life.