Whether you’re a residential customer in Maple Grove or a commercial property in Plymouth, you know that your water softener requires a good deal of salt. For smaller softeners, you’re still putting 150-200 pounds into the tank when you refill, and bigger softeners can hold over a ton of salt. With so much weight and so many bags, did you ever wonder where all of that salt comes from?
Unlike rock salt—which is mined out of deep shaft mines using construction equipment and giant drills—or table salt—which comes from boiled and evaporated brine in processing plants—water softener salt is created in gigantic evaporating pools. These pools are located close to sea water or salt lakes, and they use sunlight to naturally evaporate water. It’s no coincidence that most bags of salt are labeled as “solar.”
There are many benefits to this type of mining process. First and foremost, solar salt is more environmentally friendly since it doesn’t involve burning fossil fuels to run equipment or large-scale boiling. Secondly, natural evaporation takes a longer time between harvests, which means that more impurities can float to the surface and be removed. This leaves you with a cleaner product that will help your water softener run more efficiently and with less potential maintenance issues later on.
Whether you’re looking for solar salt crystals or pellets, Peterson Salt & Water Treatment is committed to providing its customers with a wide variety of products and services. If you’re interested in salt delivery, including our “keep fill” service, send an e-mail to: sales@petersonsalt.com or call us at (952) 929-0422.
FUN FACT: Salt mines are held up by un-mined pillars of salt that are used as supports. Over time the mines can take on a checkerboard-type pattern of mined and un-mined sections.