Tom Sawyer
In the Trades
There is a major manufacturer of water filtration equipment that is just about ready to unveil a saltless water softener. Now we have seen varients along this idea for quite some time. Some work, some work a little and most are pure scams but this one's a bit different. From what I understand this unit is a hybrid of RO and exchange technologies. I did not say ion exchange for a reason and here it is. Basically, the unit uses two membranes made of different materials (which they won't tell me what for obvious reasons) Water comes in between these membranes and the membranes are electrically charged, positive and negative which depending on the polarity either attracts the minerals from the water (removal) or discharges the minerals from the membrane (backwash) the membranes also allow the filtered water to pass through when the exchange is completed.(RO) That's probably a very simplistic explanation but it's all I was able to weasel out of them. The upside is no more salt. The downside is about a 30% increase in waste water and a large increase in chlorides etc to the drain so I'm doubtfull that California will allow it. Still, very interesting stuff. Also of note is that Lancaster and Clack have come out with a couple of priority valves that have capabilities beyond the standard WS series. These valves allow a greater range of programming and diagnostic options while retaining the patented stack assembly. Also interesting is Lancaster/Clacks AquaNue Aeration filters that use the media tank as the retention tank. This eliminates the problems with plugged injectors and feed lines. Supposed to be the cats ass for H2S and Iron. Note the valve, that's a Clack on there.
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