WATER SOFTENER

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Water softeners are resin bed ion exchangers. They contain a cation resin bed which exchanges the cation sodium for the cations calcium and magnesium in the water, both of which are harmful to patients on haemodialysis. The resin bed exhausts when all the sodium ions have been exchanged. The resin bed can be regenerated by back-flushing with a brine solution. A water softener is also used as a pre-treatment for a reverse osmosis unit. Water softeners are used with haemodialysis machines in hard water areas.