Technical Update: Water Softeners & Closed Loop Systems

Adam Griffith’s Monthly Technical Update

Base exchange water softeners provide a crucial function in water treatment by removing potentially harmful Calcium & Magnesium ions from the water, protecting assets from scale build-up which would reduce the efficiency of the system. However, not every water system requires, or would benefit from, a water softener being installed.

Closed loop systems, by design, have a very low water make-up, with a good system seeing <5% system volume per year; If hard water is not being fed into a system, because it does not make up frequently, there would be little reason to install a water softener. A water meter installed on the supply to the make up unit will indicate the amount of system fill.

Water softeners are often a source of bacteria proliferation when not maintained correctly, regular regeneration and resin bed disinfections are key to maintaining high quality softened water.

Chemical programmes that contain Phosphates, Hydro-X & Hydro-X Super, do require soft water, therefore in hard water areas a small cabinet water softener is typically installed. If a system treated with Hydro-X/Super is regularly fed with hard water, calcium phosphate will precipitate, this will settle in low flow areas if not removed by means of filtration.