Water softeners are filled with thousands of tiny beads that do the work of softening your tap water. It is on these beads that the ion exchange process takes place and hardness minerals are removed from your water. All of these beads together form a water softener’s resin bed, which is a component that can vary drastically in quality from one unit to the next. Today we’re going to talk about what a resin bed is, the concerns that come with many conventional resin beds and how the Hague WaterMax overcomes those concerns!
What is a water softener resin bed?
As mentioned above, a water softener’s resin bed is the collection of thousands of resin beads inside of a water softener’s tank. When tap water enters a softener, it flows through the resin bed and comes into contact with as much of the resin beads as possible. After flowing through the bed, hardness minerals will have been left behind and only soft water exits out of the tank.
Distribution concerns in conventional water softener resin beds
In an ideal water softener, the water that flows through the tank will come into contact with every part of the resin bed. In reality, this is often not the case.
Conventional water softeners send water directly down from the top of the tank into the resin bed without controlling the water’s flow. When this happens, most of the softening takes place at the top of the resin bed and much of the beads at the bottom of the bed go unused. Not only does this increase the amount of regeneration cycles needed for the softener, even when the beads at the bottom are still capable of softening water, but it also doesn’t soften your water as effectively because contact is only made with a small portion of the resin bed.
The Hague WaterMax solves this problem with its patented Directional Flow Screen technology. When water enters the WaterMax’s tank, it hits a series of screens and is flattened out across the entire resin bed. This ensures that the whole resin bed comes into contact with the water in the tank, which reduces the amount of regeneration cycles needed and improves the quality of your water.
How a water softener resin bed can degrade over time
Most conventional water softeners will require you to replace the resin bed periodically throughout the system’s lifetime. That’s because resin beads are damaged over time by the chlorine that’s added to municipal tap water or the sand that’s commonly found in well water. When the resin beads become damaged, they are ineffective at softening your water and the damaged beads can get into your pipes and clog up the screens on your faucets. At this point, a professional will have to come to your home to replace your system’s resin bed.
This is another problem that is avoided with the Hague WaterMax. The WaterMax contains several pre-filters that remove contaminants from your water before it is sent into the resin bed. These filters can be customized depending on where you get your water and what kind of contamination problems your water has. For example, a filter cartridge can be added that removes chlorine from city water or a sediment filter cartridge that removes sand from well water. By filtering your water before it enters the resin bed, the beads will be protected and you will never have to replace the resin bed in the Hague WaterMax.
If you have any questions about a water softener resin bed, or if you’d like a water system serviced or installed in your home, contact North Carolina Water Consultants, your water softener and water filtration system dealer in North and South Carolina. We provide service all over the Carolinas, including towns like Davidson, Kannapolis and Mooresville, NC.