Being a homeowner, you have to be vigilant about many things, from security and water purity to sanitation and making sure all are in top condition. Hard water is a major problem in most parts of the world. The salt-saturated water poses problems while cooking, bathing, cleaning, and drinking.
Fortunately, we now have a wide range of water softening systems that can ‘soften’ the water by removing salts from it. Installing an Aquatell water softener system in your home protects it, saves money, and conserves a lot of energy.
But what if you want to install a septic system alongside? How do the two work together? You can also look into what is best sewage treatment plant system for you to compare. Below, we discuss how these systems work in conjunction.
How Does A Water Softener Work?
As evident from the name, a water softener softens water. It’s sort of like a filtration system that removes salts, such as magnesium and calcium, from the water through the process of ion exchange.
Simply put, ion exchange is a filtration method that replaces one ion with another. Since most water softening systems use sodium chloride, sodium replaces the calcium and magnesium ions in hard water.
Overall, a water softener is a blessing for any household, considering it has a ton of benefits. The salts present in hard water accumulate on your electrical appliances and faucets, leaving streaky residues behind.
Moreover, using hard water for cleaning or washing isn’t feasible, to say the least, since the dishes and clothes come out with white spots all over. On the contrary, a water softening system ensures that your clothes, dishes, appliances, and faucets are spotless.
While a water softener might be a costly upfront investment, it can save you from a lot more expenditure in the long run. For instance, hard water isn’t as efficient at cleaning or washing as soft water.
Thus, you have to use an excess of washing detergent or dishwashing soap. Meanwhile, a water softening system cuts down this cost by allowing a small amount of cleaner to offer the same level of cleanliness and efficiency.
Water Softening Mechanism
Water softeners have a mineral tank where hard water enters and flows through a bed of resin beads.
These beads have a sodium charge on them and are often made of polystyrene. Sodium has a negative charge on it, while the magnesium and calcium ions in water are positive. Since opposite charges attract, the salts in water are pulled towards the resin bed.
When the water passes through the resin bed, the beads hold on to the calcium and magnesium ions, removing them from water. As a replacement, the resin bed releases sodium into the water.
Components Of Water Softening Systems
Typically, water softening systems have three components:
1. Mineral Tank
The tank refers to the space where the hard water flows and undergoes softening. The water supply comes directly to the tank, and hard water passes through the resin beads.
2. Control Valve
As more and more water passes through the resin, its efficiency is bound to decline since the sodium content decreases over time. A control valve measures how much water passes through the tank.
It begins a regeneration cycle before the resin beads get over-depleted and cannot perform their job properly. The capacity of a control valve is determined at the time of installation based on the following factors:
- Your home’s size
- Number of people using water
- Water hardness
3. Brine Tank
The brine tank is responsible for carrying out the regeneration process. It’s present right next to the mineral tank and contains a concentrated solution of salt.
You need to add new salt to the tank manually. As you do so, the brine tank starts the regeneration cycle. However, if there’s a shortage of salt in the brine tank, the water softening system will lose its efficiency.
How Does A Septic System Work?
Just like a water softening system, a septic system also cleanses water. However, while the former deals with water-hardening salts, the latter is responsible for removing solid waste.
Septic systems are useful for treating wastewater from the laundry, kitchen drains, bathrooms, and plumbing of your home. Typically, a septic system contains a soil absorption field and a septic tank.
Septic System Mechanism
Here’s how a septic system works in your house:
- Wastewater from all sources in your home comes to a drainage pipe from where it enters the septic tank.
- The tank sits in a water-tight container made of polyethylene or concrete. It houses the water for a sufficient period so that the grease and oils can go to the top while the solid forms sludge on the bottom.
- The septic tank has a T-shaped exit that does not allow scum and sludge to pass through.
- The wastewater leaving the tank is called the effluent. It goes to the soil absorption field.
- A soil absorption field is an excavation of unsaturated soil. The water passes through the soil and the bacteria treat it during the process. If there’s too much water, the soil absorption field saturates and floods.
- Lastly, the wastewater seeps into the soil, ensuring the removal of pathogenic viruses and bacteria.
How Do Water Softeners And Septic Systems Work Together?
Homeowners have a common misconception that sodium from a water softening system lowers the efficiency of a septic tank. However, a University of Wisconsin study reported against it.
In fact, the study authors wrote that a water softener could increase the efficiency of your septic system. Moreover, since the water softener removes salts from the water, it decreases the effort that has to be made by the septic system for cleaning.
However, for this to be true, you need to have the best water softener for well water in your house. The better the softening system, the more compatible it will be with the septic tank.
Also, make sure you replace the water softening systems every 10 to 15 years.
Impact of A Water Softener
You can get two types of water softeners: timer-based and demand-initiated regeneration. The latter takes into account the hardness of water and average water usage in the house to determine when regeneration is necessary.
On the other hand, a timer-based system regenerates periodically at a set time regardless of the volume of water that has passed through the system.
According to experts, a demand-initiated regeneration system is more cost-effective and energy-efficient for households. It’s also the better system to have in place if your home also has a septic tank. Here’s why:
- A demand-initiated regeneration system only discharges about a laundry load-equivalent of water. That’s easy enough for your septic system to handle. Since the softening system only regenerates when needed, the septic system does not have to overwork.
- The water discharged from the demand-initiated regeneration system holds larger amounts of magnesium and calcium ions. These improve the absorption time taken by treated wastewater to set into the drain fields.
- Owing to water softening, your soap usage will be reduced by up to half. Thus, it ultimately lowers the burden on the septic system.
Conclusion
Both septic and water softening systems have a role to play in the water maintenance in your house. However, homeowners are often confused about using the two together due to the untrue claims about one reducing the efficiency of the other.
In reality, an efficient softening system actually improves the working of a septic system, and both mechanisms can run side by side in synergy.
