SECTION 2
HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
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, as factory programmed, regenerates from 2:00 AM to about 4:30 or 4:45 AM (depending on the salt type setting, page 7), a time when not much water is used.
If you get up early in the morning and you can hear the softener regenerating, change the recharge start- ing time. Set the recharge time to 12:00 AM or 1:00 AM (page 7). 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.
© COMPUTER — The computer is part of the faceplate timer circuit board. It is programmed to know the softener’s capacity (how many grains of hardness minerals it will take out of the water before a regeneration is needed). When starting the soften- er, page 7, you set it for the grains per gallon (gpg) hardness of the water.
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 toward providing you with soft water for the longest time and at 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. RE- CHARGE TONIGHT displays until the regeneration begins. When the regeneration begins, TONIGHT goes off and *RECHARGE or RECHARGE TIME REMAINING flashes during the 2- 1/2 or 2- 3/4 hour regeneration.
*NOTE:
If the CLEAN feature is set to ON, a cleaning backwash (CLEAN and Bkwsh or Rinse flashes in the display, along with the minutes of the clean cycle remaining), precedes the recharge.
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