On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 12:52:16 -0500, "Bob" wrote:

So where does this salt come from?

wrote in message
oups.com...
that mayo site is excellent and softening water does raise salr
content.

if the ware sarts out with 10 grams of hardness, mild hardness,
softening adds 80 mg per liter of salt


There have a few morsals of wisdom in this thread that are the key to
understanding the exchange softner:

David Martel wrote:
" Sounds like you have an ion exchange resin type water softener. In
these there is a resin which releases sodium and takes up calcium. So
the amount of sodium (which is the "salt" that concerns you) in your
tap water is a function of the hardness of your well water. Really
hard water will yield somewhat more "salty" tap water than slightly
hard water does. For most folks this "saltiness" is thought to be
insignificant. By having the hardness of your well water tested and
reading the owners manual or writing to the manufacturer you should be
able to figure out how much salt is in your water. Then figure out how
much water you drink per day and you'll know how much salt is being
added to your diet by your water. Run this number by your physician
for his advise."
Dave M.

Another critical piece of info was:

"Did he tell you to cut down on *table* salt (sodium chloride) or
sodium? What's left after the softener does its thing is sodium
carbonate, not sodium chloride."
dadiOH

Bob had two pieces of useful info:
"There's twice as much sodium in the water as the calcium, magnesium,
and iron that was in the the hard water. (it's not much)
The kitchen cold water faucet and the outside faucets are probably
plumbed with hard water rather than softened water."
and
"The salt water from the brine tank is only used to clean the minerals
fromthe resin tank. When that portion of the cycle is complete, a
properlyoperating softener uses clean hard water to back-flush any
residual salt down the drain. Thus leaving (at most) a trace of salt.
After the regeneration is complete, the only sodium left in the tap
water, is that which is normally in the water before it comes into the
home."
Bob

You put all this together and you have pretty much the correct story
on the softner side. As for the R/O it is not clear how the OP's
system is really set up. Yes, in prinicple it should remove
substantial amounts of Ca, Mg, and Fe itself.


Gary Dyrkacz

Radio Control Aircraft/Paintball Physics/Paintball for 40+
http://home.comcast.net/~dyrgcmn/