Water Softener and Temporary Hardness

[afr0byte]

So, I'm getting a softener installed tomorrow. I was curious if anyone knows the answer to a question. My water has a lot of temporary hardness (Ca ~80, Mg ~7, SO4 21, Cl 3). Will the bicarbonate in the water bond with sodium to create, basically, baking soda in the water? What other molecules would be formed?

 

[ajdelange]

Yes. You have 80/20 = 4 mEq/L calcium which will be replaced by 4 mEq/L sodium (4*23 ~ 92 mg/L) sodium. Similarly you have 7/12 mEq/L magnesium which will be replaced by a like amount of sodium. There will be no bonding unless you remove the water. If you did that you'd have a mix of sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulfate and sodium chloride.

 

[afr0byte]

Cool, thanks for the response. I suppose I meant that it'd taste like baking soda in water, which would make sense. Cheers. Good thing I ordered an RO system today, and he's plumbing the hose spigot before the softener.

 

[ajdelange]

Not clear on exactly how you are doing this but you want to feed the RO system with softened water. OTOH you will want unsoftened water available for when you brew with diluted water.

 

[afr0byte]

Not clear on exactly how you are doing this but you want to feed the RO system with softened water. OTOH you will want unsoftened water available for when you brew with diluted water.

I should have specified. Sometimes I lime soften my water (or dilute with it like you said). I intend to run softened water through the RO unit.

 

[ajdelange]

Good. Based on a WAG at your alkalinity you would have chalk precipitation on your membrane(s) if you didn't soften first.