What Is Water Conditioning?
Dealing with the presence of minerals in water often calls for technological solutions. Poor water quality can be as simple as an unpleasant taste or as extreme as toxicity. In some instances, accumulated minerals can also clog up plumbing lines and caused systems to completely fail. When you're dealing with such trouble, that's when a water conditioning services company can be an immense help. Let's look at some of the ways water conditioning work is done.
Reverse Osmosis
In nature, substances in water generally want to diffuse through membranes to equalize the amounts of them that are on each side. The idea behind reverse osmosis is to flip this process, pushing minerals into greater concentrations. The goal is to have as little as possible end up on the side where drinking water will be obtained. This is a fairly complicated method that requires a proper setup. It generally works best with materials that tend to dissolve. A water conditioning equipment services technician can explain whether it's appropriate for your needs.
Distillation
Depending on the sort of problem you're dealing with, simply distilling the water with more water may be the best way to achieve results. For example, nonvolatile salts can often just be distilled to the point that bad tastes are eliminated. This can be a very expensive process, especially in regions where water is at a premium. It tends to work best if you live in an area where rainwater can be collected and used for distillation.
Chelation
Chelating is a process where water is softened using specific acids. These materials are similar to ones that are used as food preservatives and shampoos, and they may be either synthetic or naturally occurring. For example, citric acid is sometimes utilized.
Lime
The use of lime in chemistry to soften water has a long history. One major advantage of lime softening is that lime has bacteria-killing properties that can be advantageous in situations where there may be more going on that just minerals in the water. Lime is suitable for treating the presence of iron manganese, radium and even arsenic. It is often used by industrial- or commercial-scale operations.
Coagulation
By adding sulfates, it is possible to give particles in the water something to coagulate around. You might think of this as being similar to how your blood clots. As the particles clump, they become large and heavy to either settle or to be filtered.
