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

Here’s how I would explain to an actual 5 year old:

The beads in the softener have millions of little hands. They hold onto regular old salt until something they like better goes by (like hardness or certain other things). When they’re full of things they like and you want them to let go (regenerate), you put a lot of salt in there and they let go of the things they had grabbed onto because they want to touch all the salt going by. When the the salt is starting to run out at the end of the rinse, there’s nothing left but salt to grab onto. So they hold onto it until something better comes by. Rinse and repeat (literally).