Water Softener Alternatives

"Decalcification", "water softening" or simply "softening" are different words for the same process. Such a system turns hard water into soft water. Using ion exchange to replace calcium against sodium. If calcium and other hardening agents are removed from the water, the water hardness is automatically reduced. Since lime and magnesium contribute a substantial part to the hard water. Water softening or decalcification of drinking water is not necessary for health reasons. Rather, the technical disadvantages of limescale formation in pipes and systems are to be avoided. Hard water minerals are dissolved in most water. The dissolved ions, mainly calcium and magnesium ions, contribute to the water hardness. The harder the water, the more likely it is that the water pipes and machines will calcify. To counteract this, a chemical decalcification / water softening system is required. Or just a clever water softener alternative like our Merus Rings. Our alternative is a more environmentally friendly process. A sustainable and inexpensive water treatment, to get rid of your hard water. You dont need to carry salt anymore, no plumbing required to install a Merus Ring, no need of a plumber to do maintenance.

A Merus Ring is not a Water Softener

Ion exchangers are mostly used as water softener. Put very simply, the calcium and magnesium ions that form lime are exchanged for sodium ions. The latter do not form deposits, you get soft water. The exchange of ions happens through a cation exchange resin. This process consumes the resin. Therefore this resin must be regenerated from time to time. This requires salt (NaCl). In addition, valuable drinking water is required during regeneration to flush the system. A modern water softener consumes approx. 50 grams of regenerating salt per degree of hardness. In addition, approx. 2 litres of waste water are produced. At 20°dH hardness from the supplier, approximately 1 kg of salt and 40 litres of water are consumed per cubic metre of softened water. As an example, the greater Munich area: the water hardness in the urban area is between 15 and 20°dH, in the surrounding area sometimes even over 25° German hardness. This is considered as very hard water. In Germany statistically, one person consumes 150 litres per day. Extrapolated for a four-member household, this amounts to approx. 220 m3 of water consumption per year. With a new water softener, 250 kg of salt and 10 m3 of additional waste water per year and household can easily be added together. With older systems or those that regenerate depending on the volume, this consumption is often significantly higher. This salt does not only have to be bought and dragged into the cellar. The regeneration of the softener supplies considerable quantities of salt to the sewage treatment plants. Therefore, a water softener is not considered to be very environmentally friendly.

Is a water softener worth it?

No question about it, for certain industrial applications fully demineralised water with a hardness of zero is indispensable. Critical processes, such as boiler feed water or production processes, require chemically treated water. A water softening solution or an appropriate water filter system is required.

Soft water with significant lower cost.

In private households, a chemical softened water is not necessarily required. The aim is rather to prevent limescale deposits in the appliance in kitchen or bathroom. To reduce the hard water problems. To protect water heaters, pipes and boilers from deposits. Washing machines or dishwashers should stay clean. This goal can be achieved with Merus water treatment at a reasonable price, compared to a water softener. Merus changes the surface tension of water. This gives the feeling of softer water on the skin, even if the chemical composition is not changed. A Merus Ring is a non-chemical water conditioner, good for the whole house. The Merus Ring is so to say a water softener without salt and it achieves the same result in pipes and machines. The advantage is that it is more eco friendly, and comes at a much lower cost than other devices. Plumbing is not required to install a Merus Ring softener around the pipe.

Replace the old water softener

Many of our customers want to replace their old water softener to a more sustainable solution. Customers like to check whether the Merus technology can replace the old system. You don't want to experience a loss of quality. The new investment is significantly lower. The Merus Ring does not consume electricity. No regenerating salt is required. That's an important point. The operation costs are thus reduced to zero. Regular maintenance of the Merus Ring is not necessary. Many of our customers were also tired of buying large quantities of salt, carrying it to the basementr and refilling it again and again. In industry, the Merus Ring also replaces water softener. The customer can very easily determine whether his heat exchanger achieves the same effect without softener. Especially in regions of the world where water is a very scarce resource. 5% or 10% water savings through optimization or elimination the regeneration of water softening are an essential variable. In the Middle East, where a litre of water costs five times as much as a litre of petrol, considerable savings can quickly be made.

When is a Merus Ring worth it?

In the video you can see a kettle in an apartment building. There are several months between the installation of the Merus Ring and the recording. Before purchasing a water softener, the Merus Ring was installed on a trial basis with great success. Lime can be seen at the bottom of the kettle. This is quite natural and cannot be prevented without a filter. Where water evaporates, originally dissolved substances are deposited. Anyone who now expects the lime to be hard and encrusted is wrong. For cleaning you can save the use of all cleaning agents or vinegar from the household. The video was created spontaneously in the private household of a customer. You can briefly see that lime dust is already on the cloth before you wipe for the first time. This is because the customer is used to dealing with hard water. So she assumed she had to scrub hard. After the surprise that the lime could easily be removed with a damp cloth, the idea followed to make a video. This shows that the Merus Ring has a different effect than a water softener. Anyone who expects never to find a trace of lime in the house again will be disappointed. However, the goal of keeping the pipes and equipment free of lime crusts and the drinking water free of chemical additives was excellently achieved. The soft consistency of the remaining deposits can be removed in the house by faucets and kitchen appliances as if by magic. Because the water pipes are constantly under water, deposits are dissolved there. This way you will gradually become clean taps through normal use of the taps.