How To Set Your Water Softener Timer

How Water Softener Controls Work

Residential h2o softeners must on a periodic basis "regenerate" themselves by recharging their resin bed with a strong alkali solution. A control valve on top of the softener initiates and controls this recharge.

Residential water softeners have 2 kinds of control systems. The oldest and simplest is a clock timer, often called a solar day clock. Information technology works like the timer on a stove. You pre select a twenty-four hours for regeneration, and when the day arrives, the timer initiates and carries out the regeneration of the softener. A typical setup might be every 6th solar day. The softener would regenerate every 6th day regardless of the amount of water used in the home.

A metered softener counts the gallons of water that laissez passer through the softener, and then initiates the regeneration afterwards a pre-set number of gallons of water have been candy. If niggling water is used, regenerations are less frequent, and vice versa.

It is generally believed that metered softeners are more than economical and friendly to the environment than timer models. This is probably true in nearly cases.

Metered systems, however, don't automatically save water. Both timers and meters have to be set up correctly, and a poorly programmed meter is just as inefficient equally a poorly gear up timer.

In programming a water softener, certain assumptions (guesses) are fabricated. The most basic is that a person living in a residence uses 75 gallons of h2o per day. Some manufacturers attempt to exist more scientific and motion the figure up or downward a bit, but the basic gauge is that a person uses 75 gallons of residential water per twenty-four hour period. That number usually works pretty well.

To set up the softener up correctly it is also necessary to know the hardness of the water. Hardness is a measure of the calcium and magnesium present in the h2o. It is expressed either in parts per million or, more commonly, in grains per gallon. A "grain" equals 17.1 parts per million. It is also important to know the iron and manganese content of the water. Atomic number 26 and manganese are frequently bug with well water, simply they are rare in city water supplies.

For the sake of simplicity, this give-and-take assumes there is no iron or manganese in the water. The presence of iron and/or manganese presents another prepare of issues.

To attempt to set the softener control without knowing the hardness of your water is as pointless a setting your watch without knowing what time it is. Fortunately, it is easy to test for hardness with inexpensive tests available in pool stores, pet stores, hardware stores, and many other places. Or, if you live in a urban center, merely call your metropolis water department and they'll tell you. They may give you a hardness level in milligrams per liter. To convent to grains per gallon, which is what's used in h2o treatment jargon, carve up the milligrams per liter by 17.i. A grain of hardness is equal to 17.1 milligrams per liter or 17.1 parts per million.

One time yous know the hardness of the water and the number of people who alive in your dwelling (if you tin't call back, ask a member of your family), yous're ready to programme the softener.

What you're trying to do is

A. Determine how many gallons of h2o your softener will soften before information technology needs to recharge itself, and

B. Give the softener the data it needs to recharge itself just a bit before it reaches its capacity.

Determining the gallon chapters

Your softener has a theoretical capacity, or "size," that is stated in grains. For example, if you have a "xl,000 grain softener," it will in theory treat 40,000 grains of hardness between regenerations. If your water has twenty grains of hardness per gallon, your softener will treat 40,000 grains divided by 20, or 2,000 gallons of water between regenerations. If your family uses 500 gallons of water per twenty-four hours, the softener needs to regenerate approximately every quaternary twenty-four hour period. 2,000 divided by 500.

The example above is only theoretical because a regenerated softener has less capacity than its stated capacity and the real capacity depends on how much common salt is used to recharge it. The more salt, the greater the chapters. The twoscore,000 gallon figure is based on your giving the softener its strongest common salt dose, which is an impractically high corporeality. 15 lbs. of salt per cubic foot of softener resin is the largest practical salt dosage, and that volition really but regenerate the twoscore,000 grain softener to about 37,500 grains capacity.

Here are the most common sizes of residential water softeners with the information needed to program the control valve for optimal performance. You will note that equally less salt is used for regeneration, the softener's treatment capacity decreases, but its efficiency in terms of common salt usage goes up at a greater rate.

Mutual Size Designation in Grains	Mineral Tank Size	Cubic Anxiety of Resin in the Mineral Tank	Bodily softening capacity if dosed with 6 lbs salt per cubic pes of resin	Actual softening capacity if dosed with 10 lbs common salt per cubic foot of resin	Bodily softening capacity if dosed with 15 lbs table salt per cubic human foot of resin
xv,000	vii" X 44"	0.v	10,000	12,500	15,000
24,000	8" X 44"	0.75	15,000	18,750	22,500
32,000	9" X 48"	i.0	20,000	25,000	30,000
40,000	10" X 44"	1.25	25,000	31,250	37,500
48,000	10" X 54"	1.50	30,000	37,500	45,000
64,000	12" X 48"	two.00	40,000	50,000	threescore,000
fourscore,000	13" X 54"	2.l	fifty,000	62,500	75,000
110,000	xiv" X 65"	three.50	lxx,000	87,500	105,000

Let's use another example to prove how the tabular array works.

We'll say your water hardness is xv grains per gallon and yous accept a family unit of 3. You have a 24,000 grain water softener.

Your family unit of 3 will utilize 225 gallons of water per solar day (3 X 75). Since the water has xv grains of hardness, y'all'll need to treat 3375 grains of hardness per day (225 Ten fifteen). If you lot requite the softener its total dose of salt, xv lbs. per cubic foot, yous can get near half dozen 2/3 days earlier regenerating (22,500/3375). Dosing at 10 lbs., the softener can become 5 1/2 days (18,750/3375). At half dozen lbs. per cubic human foot, you'll have to regenerate every iv 1/2 days (15,000/3375).

At present, have a look at salt usage.

We'll use the 32,000 grain softener since it has exactly ane cubic foot of resin.

Note that it yields 30,000 grains of softening while using the full 15-lbs. of salt. It gives a 25,000 grain functioning while using 10 lbs. of salt, and a xx,000 grain functioning on only six lbs. In other words, equally compared with full salting, you get 2/3 every bit much softening operation on 2/five equally much salt at half dozen lbs., and 5/6 the performance for only 2/3 the table salt at 10 lbs. In a calendar month'southward fourth dimension, you'll utilise several pounds less salt by reducing the salt dosage. Still, since the softener will have to regenerate more frequently, you'll use more than water.

I'thousand not going to endeavour to tell you lot where to set up your salt dosage, merely in many cases the middle footing works all-time, giving y'all good salt economy without excessive water.

Reserve

One more thing to consider earlier nosotros set up your softener upward is reserve.  Since your softener will regenerate at ii:00 AM, you need to go out it a chip of leeway and so you won't run out of softened water at noon.  The easy way to do this is just subtract a twenty-four hour period's "reserve" from your calculated total.  If y'all have a family of four, for example, decrease 300 gallons from the capacity (75 for each person in the family unit).

To ready upwards your softener valve, here'south what you lot need to know:

A. The salt setting. Pick a number. We suggest starting with x lbs. You can alter later if you experience a different setting is needed. Multiply 10 times the cubic feet of resin in your softener. The consequence is your salt setting.

B. Determine the capacity. Take the number from the nautical chart for your softener size under the 10-pound column. This is in total grains, and so to convert it to gallons capacity, divide it past the number of grains of hardness of your water. Finally, from this decrease the reserve--the number of people living in the home multiplied past 75. The respond is the gallons capacity of your softener between regenerations.

To put this information into a twenty-four hour period clock softener, simply set up the common salt setting (see below), and so separate your daily consumption, in grains, into the total grain capacity of your softener, then set upwardly the time clock so that it volition regenerate when the capacity is wearied. Let's say your softener has a batch capacity of 15,000 grains and you have a family of four and your h2o is x grains per gallon hard. Four times 75 equals 300 gallons per day time ten grains equals 3,000 grains per day. And then, 3,000 into 15,000 tells you that the softener should regenerate every 5th day. Since most day clocks are 12 day clocks, the closest yous tin can become is every 4th twenty-four hours. This isn't a very exact science, and that'southward a reason that you can oft be more verbal with a metered softener.

To program the salt setting on your Fleck Econominder metered softener, take the back encompass off of the valve and look within. To your left you'll encounter the salt setting indicator shown in the picture below. Merely loosen the screw, motility the indicator arrow to the salt setting you determined in step A above, then retighten the spiral, and replace the embrace. The common salt setting is done. Call back that you are setting the pounds of salt per cubic foot of resin in the softener. For a vi pound setting in a softener that has two cubic feet of resin, fix the punch to 12 pounds.

. The next step is to program the capacity that you lot determined in step B into the softener. This is an easy process. Find the capacity cycle on the face of the control module (see picture below). Set the white dot on the outer wheel confronting the chapters of your softener. The chapters numbers are multiplied past 100. The picture shows a setting of 1000 gallons. The setting doesn't have to be exact--simply get as shut to your capacity number as possible.

Annotation: This footstep is sometimes tedious because moving the gears is more than difficult with some valves than others. The best way is to use your thumb and forefinger to pull out on the "people bike" (the wheel just inside the transparent chapters wheel, the 1 with little people on it) while you lot hold the outermost cycle down with the thumb of your other paw. In this style you can motility the wheels to match them upwards. Just mess with it. You'll figure it out.

The final step is setting the time of day. Exercise this with cherry push button on the left. (Encounter the top picture on this page.) Set it to the real time of day--the fourth dimension when y'all set the time--and the softener will regenerate at 2:00 AM of the appropriate day.

Note:  The above applies specifically to Bit metered softeners that take a mechanical common salt setting.  For electronic (SXT) units, the aforementioned formula tin can be used to determine capacity and reserve, only salt usage is set past telling the softener how long to go on the brine refill cycle in operation.

Here are the round-number assumptions that are normally used to set up up common salt dosage.

One gallon of water dissolves three pounds of salt.  Therefore, you'll demand iv gallons of h2o to provide a 12 lb. salt dosage.  To do this, you lot demand to know the brine line flow control figure for your softener.  For most Fleck residential softeners, it's 0.5 gallons per minute.  This means that during the brine refill, the softener's last step in regeneration, the brine tank will be refilled with water to brand brine for the side by side regeneration at the rate of 0.five gallons per infinitesimal.

This means that you need to give the softener two minutes of brine refill time for each gallon of water (i. e., three pounds of salt) for the next regeneration.

For example, if you need 15 lbs. of salt, set your alkali refill fourth dimension to 10.  This will keep the bicycle open up for 10 minutes, which will allow the brine tank to refill with 5 gallons of h2o (at half a gallon per minute), and the v gallons of water will dissolve xv lbs. of salt for the next regeneration.

Metered SXT units come with good programming instructions. Information technology's worth your trouble to give some consideration to setup, considering you have lots of options that can improve performance.

Unless your softener has been set upwards specifically for you by the vendor, don't assume that the default settings are proficient enough. In that location is no reason to have a sophisticated softener command if information technology's set up incorrectly.

Source: http://www.purewateroccasional.net/hwmeteredsoftener.html

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