"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Nigel Molesworth wrote:
On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:46:43 +0000, rjs wrote:

the pros and cons and what each system is designed to do

Water Conditioners claim to reduce scale by magic. They don't. Water
Softeners virtually eliminate the calcium carbonate (limescale)
in the water by swapping the carbonate ion for the chloride ion.

And making the calcium carbonate sodium carbonate which adds an
interesting mineral water flavour.

As a
result scale is removed, the water feels more "luxurious", soap forms
a lather more easily and doesn't form scum, you need less detergent in
your washing machine, and you don't need salt in your dishwasher. I
would never go back to hard water.

Lots of misinformation he-

- Soft water from a softener contains sodium carbonate rather than
calcium/magnesium carbonate, the hardness.
- You use less soap as soap is not being consumed by reacting with the hard
water. Basic hard water reaction is sodium stearate (soap) + calcium
carbonate (hardness) - calcium stearate (scum) + sodium carbonate. Soft
water contains sodium carbonate and doesn't react with the soap, so all the
soap goes into cleaning rather than scum making.
- You don't have to have a water meter.
- You don't have to ask the water company.

This misinformation about asking water companies comes from Google and not
reading which country the rules apply to. Many US states forbid the fitting
of ion exchange water softeners as the excess chloride discharged by water
softeners (calcium chloride) is discharged into rivers and ends up being
used to irrigate crops causing crop failures due to excess chloride ions. In
UK this is not an issue as there is little irrigation using river water,
some chloride is removed in sewerage works and it all ends up being
discharged into the sea which happens to be full of chloride ions.