A typical plumber undertakes work which, during the course of the day involves various products, services and Edmonton plumbing supplies. From a products point of view a plumber may be called upon to install dishwashers, hot water tanks, water softeners as well as various valves, faucets, etc. When the plumber is involved with services they may include any types of repairs which can include leaks and plugged drains and sewers. For all of these activities the plumber will use a variety of tools and supplies which include but certainly are not limited to fittings, valves, pipes of different sizes as well as the tools that are necessary to make the repairs or installation.
One very typical task that requires various Edmonton plumbing supplies is installing a household water softener. Water in certain areas contains a considerable amount of calcium and magnesium as well as traces of manganese and iron; it is these elements that cause water to be hard. Hard water is something that is far from desirable and fortunately there are ways of softening the water, soft water makes things much easier around the home as soap lathers better and there are fewer rings around the bathtub and sinks in the house. Not only are there issues which are visible, hard water also builds up on the inside of pipes, tea kettles and boilers. If this gets bad enough it can actually cause irreparable damage.
The most common type of household water softener is an ion-exchange device. There are actually three types of water softeners, they all depend on different salts; some use sodium while the others use potassium or hydrogen. The water softener has a bed of resin that the hard water passes through; the resin has a negative charge which binds to the positive charged metal ions in the water. Although the whole process is somewhat scientific, the basic premise is that the salt used in the resin exchanges with the calcium and magnesium ions, these ions are drawn out of the water and more sodium, hydrogen or potassium is released into the water, the result is soft water.
Over time the resin is depleted as the salt is constantly being released into the hard water as it goes through it. One might think that the water softener is no longer functioning but it is; the resin is simply refreshed by passing a brine solution through it.
When the water softener is installed the plumber uses a special metering system which is part of the Edmonton plumbing supplies he has at his disposal. The meter keeps track of the amount of water used, and regenerates the softener on a set schedule, eliminating any input from the homeowner.
Along with services and products such as water softening systems, Edmonton plumbing supplies are available from PRO Plumbing & Heating, Ltd.
