An iron breaker removes iron from your water through the process of oxidation. At the top of the tank, an air pocket oxidizes dissolved iron in your water as it enters your system. Now that the iron was brought out of its dissolved state, it can now be filtered out by the media inside the tank. Unlike a water softener, iron breakers do not need salt to regenerate. Instead, the system first backwashes the trapped iron from the filter media, then the unit recharges its air pocket by pulling air back into the tank. An iron breaker is not as effective as water softeners at removing high amounts of iron from your water. Therefore, we recommend iron breakers as a final polishing unit in your system, or in applications where there is not a high level of iron present.