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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 |
| 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
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| FILL: | Salt, | dissolved | in water, | is | called | ||||||
brine. | Brine |
| is | needed | to | clean | the | hardness |
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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 |
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depends |
| on | how | much | soft | water | making |
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capacity |
| you | have | used | since | the last | regenera- |
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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. |
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WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
After a period of time, the resin beads become | SOFTENER IN FILL |
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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 ,/.
[] 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 | ||
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Soft Water
OUT
J
Resin Tank
Salt Storage
Tank
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