How Often Should A Water Softener Regenerate?

 


What is water softener regeneration?

Water is a solvent. That means water is very good at breaking down things like minerals, which it then carries within itself. The amount of minerals in water is known as its hardness. High mineral levels means your water is hard while low mineral levels is soft water. A water softener system removes minerals from water so that you have soft water.

A popular water treatment system is the ion exchange system. This system runs water over resin, typically made from sodium chloride, to attract and remove minerals from your water. Regeneration is the process of flushing these minerals from the resin so that it can continue to remove minerals from water. This is done by using salt, which must be replenished regularly by the system’s owner.

How often should it regenerate?

Broadly speaking, a water softener will regenerate as frequent as multiple times a day to every two or three days. The more often the softener regenerates, the less minerals within the resin at any given moment. A more frequent flush of the resin, however, produces more waste water, and requires more frequent refills of salt in the system. That is why you only want your system to only regenerate as often as necessary to keep your water soft. This depends on several things such as:

·         The hardness of the water.

·         The amount of iron in your water.

·         How much water you use.

·         Resin tank capacity.

·         The age of your system.

·         Chemical deterioration caused by oxidants such as chlorine in the case of municipal water supplies.

The more things in your water that your water softener has to remove, the sooner it will need to regenerate. Now, regeneration is controlled by the unit’s control valve. The control valve may be set to regenerate based on time or by usage. A control valve may be set to regenerate every week or every few days. A usage or “metered” control valve can be set to regenerate the system after a certain amount of water has flowed through. When your water usage increases with a metered control valve, your softener unit will regenerate more often.

These settings should be set by a trusted water service conditioning company who has a great understanding of what is in your water. Look no further than Amber Water Pros for all of your water conditioning needs! To learn more about water treatment, check out our other blogs or go to AmberWaterPros.com.

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