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Sales and Service 800-533-2848    Water Treatment   Well water can have a variety of minerals dissolved in it.  Treating the water to remove some of these minerals can greatly improve the quality of the water for household use.  Calcium and magnesium produce “hardness” in water.  Hard water is difficult to wash with since hardness interferes with the activity of soap.  Iron creates orange stains.  Manganese creates black stains.  Sulfur can produce unpleasant smells.  Softening water will reduce hardness, iron, and manganese.  Oxidation will reduce sulfur smell.  Reverse Osmosis will remove nearly all dissolved minerals from water.      A water softener treats water by ion exchange.  A softener recharges itself with sodium from salt.  As hard water flows through the softener calcium, magnesium, and iron are removed from it and replaced by sodium.  Soft water produces suds easily.  Calcium deposits on plumbing are hard and scaly, while sodium produces a powdery residue that is easily rinsed or wiped away.  Modern metered softeners regenerate only as needed, conserving salt and keeping water soft during high-use periods.  Due to the wide variety of water conditions we see in our area we build softeners in our shop to match your situation.  We use heads made by Fleck (Open - Covered ), Autotrol (Open - Covered ), and Clack (Open - Covered ) because they stand up well to the extremes of hardness and iron that we see.      In situations with sulfur smell, or high levels of iron and manganese oxidation may be the best course of pretreatment before a softener.  If an oxidizer such as chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate, or even air is mixed with water these minerals will oxidize and form larger particles.  These larger particles have different characteristics than the dissolved minerals.  Oxidized iron and manganese no longer stain surfaces and sulfur no longer forms hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg) gas.  Filtering can be done to remove these particles altogether, since they may leave a slight shade of color in the water.      In reverse osmosis the solids that are dissolved in water are removed by ultrafine filtration.  Once water has been softened it is more useful for household use but can have an unpleasant taste.  Reverse osmosis will remove about 90% of the sodium and other remaining minerals from water and bring it to bottled water quality.  Reverse osmosis is a slow process so it is only suitable for drinking water.  In areas with high levels of dissolved arsenic or nitrates in the well water reverse osmosis is a highly effective way to  reduce these contaminants to safe levels. E-mail Us