Water Softener

Definition

The pretreatment unit that uses ion exchange resin to remove calcium and magnesium from boiler makeup water. Every boiler system begins with one.

A well designed, properly maintained softener should achieve less than 0.5 mg/L total hardness, the detection limit of most field test kits, but it is never perfect and some hardness always slips through. Results should be reported as less than 0.5, never as zero, so records reflect reality if a customer later finds a deposit. The softener depends on a functioning brine tank and timely regeneration.

Related concepts

Brine Tank · Ion Exchange · Non-Detect

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Part of The Blueprint of Water · 🛠️ operations