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SECTION 2 .ow YOURWATERSOFTENERWORKS
I
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.
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 15). It takes place in 5 stages or cycles.
These are:
[] FILL [] BACKWASH
[] BRINING [] FAST RINSE
[] BRINE RINSE
NOTE:
If the Clean feature is set to ON, additional backwash
and fast rinse cycles occur before the fill cycle.
WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN SERVICE
salt storage
tank (salt
not shown) _'h
brine valve
\
soft water hard water
OUT IN
resin tank
resinbed
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.
WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN FILL
saltstorage
tank
brinevalve
\
soft water hard water
OUT IN
\
fill water
13