Waterguide - Softening units

How do softening units work?

Softening units exchange the hardeners of calcium and magnesium ions for sodium ions using a strongly acidic exchange resin. So instead of hardeners such as calcium hydrogen carbonate, you are left with sodium salts that dissolve more easily, such as sodium hydrogen carbonate. As a result, the water is virtually completely free of hardeners, and has a residual hardness of less than 0.1 °dH.

Only ions are replaced during the softening process, with the salinity of the water changing only marginally.

Different types of softening units

Time-controlled softening units are usually designed as single units. The regeneration process takes place at a specified point in time when soft water is not required.

Volume-controlled softening units take maximum advantage of the resin capacity. A water meter measures the volume of soft water that flows through the softener and sends this information to a controller. The controller automatically initiates the regeneration process once a specific, predefined volume of soft water has been measured.

Quality-controlled softening units offer optimum operational reliability, as they operate independently of water quality and soft water consumption. As the chemical state of the exchange resin is measured continuously, the regeneration process is triggered as soon as the resin has been exhausted.

Advantages of Herco softening units

Herco softening units are designed based on how they will be used by the end user. Performance-wise, they can be scaled up to any level – there is no threshold. Herco will always provide the most efficient solution – be that a time-controlled standard single unit or a complex industrial quality-controlled softening system.

This picture shows the progress of a softening unit.

On our download page you will find a product overview.