dishwashers
John Hunt
does. Is there any need in Edinburgh?
David Hansen
<johnmhunt...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote this:-
>just to settle a discussion. I don't use salt in my dishwasher but a friend
>does. Is there any need in Edinburgh?
I don't think so. Unless the dishwasher is very sophisticated using
salt would probably make the water too soft.
--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.
J Wexler
> just to settle a discussion. I don't use salt in my dishwasher but a friend
> does. Is there any need in Edinburgh?
No need, so far as softening the water is concerned. However, our present
dishwasher (just over 4 years old) has a handbook with firm instructions
to use salt anyway, on pain of invalidating the guarantee.
John Wexler
Julian Bradfield
John Hunt <johnmhunt...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>just to settle a discussion. I don't use salt in my dishwasher but a friend
>does. Is there any need in Edinburgh?
No. The public water supply in Edinburgh is very soft (despite all
the information you'll find by Googling - presumably the brewers have
their own sources of water?).
Having harassed a Scottish Water telephonist, I now know that the
actual water hardness in central Edinburgh is
0.3 mmol/l = 30 ppm
The international definition of "soft" water is < 1.6 mmol/l.
Jack Campin - bogus address
> the information you'll find by Googling - presumably the brewers
> have their own sources of water?).
Yes - there's a shallow underground aquifer running underneath the
locations of the older breweries, from Slateford/Fountainbridge
down the Cowgate to Holyrood. It's been in use for brewing since
the Middle Ages, the monks of Holyrood Abbey used it.
============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557
Ronald Raygun
Millimols of *what* per litre of water? Specific dissolved
minerals, or any? If the answer is "any", then deployment of salt
would increase, not decrease, the mmol count and hence increase
the hardness. Yet the purported purpose of adding salt is to make
the water softer.
What's going on?
Bill Hewitt
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
william hewitt is stated to have refused to associate with mankind - Googlism
Julian Bradfield
Ronald Raygun <no....@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
>> actual water hardness in central Edinburgh is
>> 0.3 mmol/l = 30 ppm
>Millimols of *what* per litre of water?
Calcium carbonate.
(One would think that other ions such as Mg++ and SO4-- would be
issues as well as Ca++ and CO3--; I don't know whether they are
included or not.)
Ronald Raygun
So what does adding salt actually achieve? Does it somehow bully
the calcium carbonate into "behaving itself" (making it less likely
that it will stay behind on your glassware as limescale deposits)?
John Hunt
">
> So what does adding salt actually achieve? Does it somehow bully
> the calcium carbonate into "behaving itself" (making it less likely
> that it will stay behind on your glassware as limescale deposits)?
>
I think it's supposed to stop the pipes in the dishwasher furring up.
Phil Barker
>
> So what does adding salt actually achieve? Does it somehow bully
> the calcium carbonate into "behaving itself" (making it less likely
> that it will stay behind on your glassware as limescale deposits)?
>
from http://home.howstuffworks.com/question99.htm
"The idea behind a water softener is simple. The calcium and magnesium ions in
the water are replaced with sodium ions. Since sodium does not precipitate out
in pipes or react badly with soap, both of the problems of hard water are
eliminated. To do the ion replacement, the water in the house runs through a
bed of small plastic beads or through a chemical matrix called zeolite. The
beads or zeolite are covered with sodium ions. As the water flows past the
sodium ions, they swap places with the calcium and magnesium ions. Eventually,
the beads or zeolite contain nothing but calcium and magnesium and no sodium,
and at this point they stop softening the water. It is then time to regenerate
the beads or zeolite."