Re: Coolant

[Robert Myers <rmyers@inetone.net>]

WARNING Pedant alert!  More that you ever wanted to know about soap and
hard water.  Delete now or prepare yourself.


Agreed, Huw, these water softeners remove Ca+2, etc., ions from water and
replace them with an equivalent amount of Na+ ions.  This "softens" the
water but does nothing to lower the ion content of the water.  The process
involves an ion-exchange process in which a Ca+2 ion is adsorbed onto a
substance called a zeolite with the release of two Na+ ions.  Back flushing
with salt, as required for regeneration of the zeolite reverses the process
and readies the zeolite for another go-round.

I would rather not put large (or for that matter, small) quantities of salt
(NaCl) into my car's cooling system.

BTW, FWIW, the difference between hard water and soft water is the way in
which they behave with soap.  Soap is (usually) the sodium salt of a fatty
acid.  These are fairly water soluble and form a lather nicely.  Hard water
requires more soap to form a lather and also forms soap scum.  Soap scum is
a precipitate formed between Ca++ (or Mg+2, etc) and the anionic portion of
the soap.  Once the "hard" ions are consumed then the soap can go about the
process of forming a foam.

At 03:48 PM 4/20/99 -0400, Huw Powell wrote:
>> Now, if I'm wrong about that Brita-type filters and if they actually do
>> function to remove dissolved ionic materials and actually do soften water
>> then this water would be preferable. 
>
>but I think the "water softeners" use an ion exchange system, same level
>of ionic content but the stuff the water comes with that makes it taste
>bad, etc, is replaced by... sodium chloride.  methinks.  whatever is in
>those bags of salt folks with water softeners have to buy... maybe a
>sodium/magnesium mix too.
>
>they are getting rid of the calcium, iron, etc.
>
>-- 
>Huw Powell
>
>http://www.thebook.com/human-speakers
>
>82 Audi Coupe; 85 Coupe GT
>http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~human
>
>
___
   Bob
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