Water Softener – Auto Recharge

Hard Water

Hard water is water that contains high amounts of minerals, especially calcium and magnesium. Many areas in the country have very hard water as illustrated by the areas highlighted red in the map below. It’s important to understand if you have hard water as it can create serious issues for cleaners.

Soft Water

Water that is run through a water softener becomes “softened” through an ion exchange process. The calcium and magnesium are swapped for sodium ions in the tank of the water softener. This adds a small amount of sodium to the water and the calcium and magnesium ions are later flushed out as waste water. The sodium ions in the softened water do not form scale on equipment and don’t affect cleaning solutions.

Lime Scale

Lime scale is caused by an accumulation of calcium carbonate on surfaces. This is the hard, chalky white substance that builds up on your faucet and shower head. If you’re not using a water softener it will do the same thing to your cleaning system. Lime scale will plug up jets, hoses, heat exchangers, fittings and more. Cleaners that use truckmounts capable of running at high temperatures are even more susceptible to these problems since heat increases mineral deposition.

Decreased Cleaning Efficiency

As scale builds up on a truckmount heat exchanger it will reduce its heating efficiency. It is not uncommon for units that have not been descaled for some time to have a 50-70% reduction in heating efficiency. It can also cause a reduction in pressure, reducing the amount of agitation used to remove soils from carpet. In addition to reducing the pressure and heat, hard water binds to cleaning agents in your rinse and will completely nullify the rinses cleaning ability.