Water Softeners for Boiler Systems
Water softeners are a common piece of pre-treatment equipment for boiler feed water. Water that is too hard quickly scales up the internal components of a boiler making heat-exchange far less efficient and eventually destroying the boiler. Water softeners also significantly reduce or completely eliminate the hassle and cost of chemical treatments to keep boilers clean.
Contact Aquatell for help in choosing a water softener for your boiler
Aquatell has years of experience providing water softeners for boiler feed water applications. Here are a couple of things to think about as you make your decision:
Water Chemistry
Choosing a boiler water softener just can't be done properly without knowing the chemistry of the water being treated. Raw water needs to be tested for total hardness and pH, and for rural water supplies the iron and manganese levels should also be tested. Beware of dip-strip style test kits. These aren't very accurate and leave much interpretation of the results to the person doing the testing. The quality of the water treatment solution, can only be as good as the quality of the water testing you do up front.
Flow Characteristics
Once the water chemistry is understood, the only thing left in determining the size and type of water softener you need for your boiler, is the water flow. The following bits of info should be collected prior to talking to a dealer about a softener for your boiler:
- feed line diameter
- feed line water pressure
- total gallons of water processed per 24h period
- will the softener need to provide soft water 24/7 or will there be daily or nightly 'down time'
Twin-Alternating (aka Duplex) Water Softeners
Most boiler systems run 24/7 or pretty close to it. This necessitates a 24/7 soft water feed. While the vast majority of softeners used in residential applications are single tank systems, it's usually advisable to look at a twin-alternating or 'duplex' water softener. A duplex system has two softening tanks and one brine tank. While softening Tank A is providing soft water, softening Tank B can be regenerated. This main/backup arrangement ensures that even during high water use periods, the softener is always capable of meeting the need. As soon as one softening tank is depleted, the other is automatically swapped in.
Contact Aquatell for help in choosing a water softener for your boiler