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HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
SECTION 2
12
2B. SOFT WATER SERVICE AND REGENERATION
SERVICE
When the softener is giving you soft water, it is called
Service". During service, hard water flows through
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 ionĆexchanging.
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.
After a period of time, the resin beads become
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:
FILL
BRINING
BRINE RINSE
BACKWASH
FAST RINSE
1
2
3
4
5
NOTE:
If the CLEAN feature (page 7) is set to ON, additional
backwash and fast rinse cycles occur before the fill
cycle.
FIG. 4 WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN SERVICE
hard water
IN
soft water
OUT
resin tank
brine valve
salt storage
tank (salt
not shown)
resin bed
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
regeneration. 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.
FIG. 5 WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN FILL
hard water
IN
soft water
OUT
brine valve
salt storage
tank
fill water