What is a Reverse Osmosis Water Softener?

Water is vital to every day life as well as to living organisms. A reverse osmosis water softener or ion exchange system takes into account the idea that drinking water does not come with a user's manual. Hard H2O can cause soap and detergents to lose effectiveness. Instead of dissolving, soap can coagulate, leaving a film on hair and debris on clothing. A filtration system that cleanses minerals and contaminants from water is excellent for making the water potable, but if the water is not soft, other issues can arise.

An ion exchange drinking water softener is a different process from reverse osmosis. RO uses semi-permeable membranes to filter out minerals and other deposits that can contaminate the supply. Calcium and magnesium can build up, like scales, in storage tanks and pipes. The positive charges on these minerals allow them to travel with hard water as they pass through a mineral tank.

Some particles may even travel through semi-permeable membranes. Drinking water filtration systems employing softeners have to use sodium particles to drive the calcium and magnesium away. Ion exchange can use this to divert the calcium and magnesium. Softeners can be added to a reverse osmosis process, but the balance has to involve sodium that can be filtered out later.

Water filtration and purification is a constantly evolving process, cleaning water for drinking and softening to make it more effective for washing. Hard H2O can also leave scales and stains on fixtures in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. Softening processes such as reverse osmosis and ion exchange systems often require regeneration; this involves keeping reserve resin to help recharge the sodium particles.

Interestingly enough, desalinating drinking water is often a part of the filtration process. Sodium does have use in the filtration process as a softener, but only as a mid-point in the ion exchange or reverse osmosis water filter system. Often a process that involves softening and filtration requires two tanks.

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