How do water softener systems work? Are they magic? Adding salt gets rid of other minerals. . . HOW? I’ve never understood this. I’m 54, male.

Question

How do water softener systems work? Are they magic? Adding salt gets rid of other minerals. . . HOW? I’ve never understood this. I’m 54, male.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

The water softener is full of resin beads that like to grab onto the minerals that make water “hard.”

However, they eventually can’t hold any more minerals and need to be cleaned, so the water softener runs a salt water solution through the beads to rinse them off.

Then, the system is ready to use again.