Sears 625.34854, 625.34855 owner manual Service, Regeneration

SECTION 2

HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS

2B. SOFT WATER SERVICE AND REGENERATION

SERVICE

When the softener is giving you soft water, it is

called "Service". During service, hard water

comes from the house main water pipe into the

softener. Inside the softener resin tank is a bed

made up of thousands of tiny, plastic resin beads

(FIG. 4). As hard water passes through the bed,

each bead attracts and holds the hardness

minerals. This is called ion-exchanging. It is

much like a magnet attracting and holding

metals. Water without the hardness minerals

(soft water) flows out of the softener and into the

house soft water pipes.

REGENERATION

[]

FILL:

Salt,

dissolved

in water,

is

called

brine.

Brine

is

needed

to

clean

the

hardness

minerals

from

the

resin

beads.

To make

the

brine,

water

flows

into

the

salt

storage

area

during

the

fill

stage

as

shown

in

FIG.

5.

Fill

cycle length

depends

on

how

much

soft

water

making

capacity

you

have

used

since

the last

regenera-

tion.

As

you

use more water,

fill

time

increases

so

more

brine

is

made.

The

greater

amount

of

brine

cleans

more

hardness

minerals

from

the

resin

bed.

WATER FLOW THROUGH THE

After a period of time, the resin beads become SOFTENER IN FILL

coated with hardness minerals and they have to

be cleaned. This cleaning is called regeneration

or recharge. Regeneration is started at 2:00 a.m.

by the electronic timer (see page 14). It takes

place in 5 stages or cycles. These are:

Hard Water

IN

SoftWTater ,/.

_-1 FILL [] BACKWASH

[] BRINING [] FAST RINSE

[] BRINE RINSE

WATER FLOW THROUGH THE SOFTENER IN SERVICE

AJ_( Salt

Storage Tank

salt not shown)

Hard Water	Fill Water ._._
IN

Soft Water

OUT

J

Resin Tank

..---- Resin Bed

Salt Storage

Tank

i i

i i i

12