Hard Water Woes

One of the big problems individuals face in Arizona is the hardness of their water. The minerals associated with hardness are calcium and magnesium. These minerals can do damage to plumbing fixtures and appliances and they are the culprits which leave water spot residue.

Generally, the method for dealing with these pesky minerals has been to remove them from your source water completely. This is usually done with a water softener which utilizes what is called an ion exchange to handle the trouble. This method actually replaces the mineral with small amounts of salt or Potassium, and then back washes highly salinated water down the drain.

The municipality does not appreciate this, since they are the ones responsible for cleaning the returned water, and it is expensive to remove salt, it is for that reason we do not filter much sea water. So many parts of the U.S. have begun outlawing the installation of water softeners, as a result.

Let me remind everyone that calcium and magnesium are essential minerals for life. We need them, but we still flush them out of the water and away from us, so that we can give our hard earned cash to vitamin retail stores when we are told by our doctors, "You need more calcium and magnesium." The problem is, we have not treated the problems associated with hardness if we leave the minerals in, so what are we to do?

There is a solution, it is called ionization. Ionization has been used commercially on boilers and other applications for years and there are a few residential forms of this in use as well, some better than others. The education on this technology begins with understanding that an ionizer will not soften your water. In fact, they will not remove the calcium and magnesium at all. They will change the minerals so that they are not harmful to your plumbing fixtures, and so that they reduce spotting associated with  minerals that are binding to dishes and shower walls.

Remember, it is not that we want to throw the minerals out completely, we just need to rehabilitate them so they are not so destructive. So by passing them through a magnetic field which aligns them positively, the effect is that an aragonite talc is formed and the plumbing fixtures are actually protected by this film, and corrosion is virtually non existent. There is still a problem. If the flow rates in the home are not  matched to the size of your ionizer, or the water has not moved through the ionizer within the past 48 hours, the minerals revert back to their natural state of disorder. It is a temporary effect. However, as soon as the water begins to flow again, the effect returns. The question is, how often do you go 48 hours or more without using your water?

So as you can see, ionization is a good solution to hard water, it has been used in commercial applications for a number of years, and it can be utilized effectively in your home if it is installed correctly.


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