HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
SECTION 2
14
2B.
SOFT WATER SERVICE AND REGENERATION
AUTOMATIC BYPASS
During the brining, brine rinse and backwash
cycles of regeneration, HARD water goes
through the softener valve and to the house
pipes. If a faucet is opened, hard water is there
for your needs. However, you should not use
HOT water, if possible, because the water heater
will refill with hard water. The softener regener-
ates from 2:00 AM to about 4:00 AM, (you can
change this time. . .see page 7), a time when
water is usually not in use.
If you get up early in the morning and you can
hear the softener regenerating, change the time
setting. Set the recharge time to 12:00 AM or 1:00
AM. Then regeneration will start and end that
much earlier and your water heater will not refill
with hard water if a hot faucet is opened.
ELECTRONICS
Two main parts of the softener’s electronics are
¡
a WATER METER, and
©
a COMPUTER.
¡
WATER METER — The water meter is in the
softener valve outlet. As water flows through the
meter, it sends electric pulses to the computer.
The computer changes the pulses to a measure in
gallons of water. (1 gallon = 3.78 liters)
©
COMPUTER — The computer is part of the
circuit board. It is programmed to know the
softener’s capacity (how many hardness miner-
als it will take out of the water before a
regeneration is needed). When starting the
softener on page 7, you set it for the grains per
gallon (gpg) hardness of the water. To recalcu-
late from
)
dH or
)
fH use following conversion.
1gpg = 0.959
)
dH= 1.71
)
fH= 171 ppm
To find a regeneration pattern best for your
needs, the computer uses, (1) water usage from
the meter, (2) hardness setting, (3) softener
capacity, and (4) time since the last regeneration.
The computer always adjusts this pattern to your
water using habits. It works to provide you with
soft water for the longest time and the most
efficient salt usage.
Softening capacity is used as hard water goes
through the softener and hardness minerals are
removed. When the computer determines that
only enough capacity remains to provide soft
water up to the next regeneration starting time
(2:00 AM, or as otherwise set), it will schedule a
regeneration. RECHARGE TONIGHT displays
until the regeneration begins. When the regen-
eration begins, the recharge cycle status displays
show. See page 11.
