Consumers have many questions about how water softeners work and what benefits they deliver. These are some of the best online sources to answer these questions about hard water, how softeners work and general questions raised by consumers .
Hard water
What makes water hard and how it can be improved (Water Quality Association)
Diagnose your water (Water Quality Association)
Water hardness: description and measurement (British Water)
Household tips for determining water hardness and how to remove hard water stains (HandyMa'am)
Hard water: cost and energy considerations (British Water)
How softeners work
How does a water softener work? (HowStuffWorks.com)
Consumer's guide to water softening (British Water)
To soften or not to soften (Water Quality Association)
Consumer Alert (Water Quality Association)
Fundamentals of water softening by ion exchange (Culligan, Inc.)
How water softener exchangers work (Alpha Water Systems, Inc.). This provides a nice graphic of process.
Animated graphic of how an ion exchange softener works (University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana)
Don't be hardheaded about your softened water needs (Penn State University)
Softening in steam boiler applications (WaterTech Online)
Consumer questions about softeners
A consumer's guide for selecting the right water softening salt (pdf 268.02 kB) (Salt Institute statement in Water Treatment Dealer)
Responding to Q&A: your key to customer satisfaction (pdf 208.22 kB) (Salt Institute statement in Water Treatment Dealer)
Are there harmful effects of water softener discharges on household septic tanks ? (Water Quality Association)
What's the big stink on septic discharge ? by Chubb Michaud in Water Conditioning & Purification. A symposium was conducted in October 2005, sponsored by the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association; summaries and the major paper are available online from Water Conditioning & Purification magazine.
Home water treatment system discharges to onsite wastewater systems by Joe Harrison
Guidance for the use of water softening and onsite wastewater treatment equipment at the same site (pdf 54.21 kB) by Matt Byers, Joe Harrison and Allison Blodig (Water Quality Association/National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association joint statement)
Is softened water more corrosive ? (Water Quality Association)
Does soft water affect the operation of a humidifier? (Water Quality Association)
Water softeners remove radium (Water Quality Association)