What is the difference between a water softener and deionizer?

Our water softeners produce high quality soft water, and they remove harmful minerals like calcium, magnesium, lime, and iron that make water hard. By removing these minerals, buildup in pipes, on fixtures, and in your RV water heater is eliminated. Removing these minerals also improves the taste of your water, and helps eliminate odors. However, there are still some remaining minerals in your water, as water softeners do not remove all the dissolved solids from water; some of our customers use the water softener for washing because it can reduce spotting, but it will not be spot free. Finally, a softener uses simple table salt to regenerate the resin.

Our deionizer (DI) systems remove all the dissolved solids and produce laboratory-grade water for a spot free rinse. The process takes out all of the solids in the water, so there is no nutritional value and the water can have a different taste and smell. DI water is also more expensive than regular water. Our deionizers use new virgin (not regenerated) resin. This resin cannot be regenerated like our water softeners. The total dissolved solids (TDS) and model/resins determine around how many gallons of water your DI can produce. DI water is used in the process of making whiskey, tooling, laboratory testing, manufacturing, car/solar panel washing, and food safety testing, to name a few, as these applications need more than a simple water softener.