Hardness Breakthrough

Definition

The condition in which a softener fails to remove hardness and calcium and magnesium pass into the feedwater. It is a primary boiler scaling emergency.

Breakthrough usually follows incomplete regeneration from an empty brine tank or a surge in makeup demand that exhausts the salt supply faster than expected. In the Perfect Storm case, makeup water at 160 ppm total hardness reached 110 ppm in the feedwater, 110 times the allowable limit. The hardness consumed scale inhibitor and threatened calcium carbonate deposition on the tubes.

Related concepts

Hardness · Brine Tank · Scale

---

Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🛠️ operations