DIYbanter - View Single Post - Water softener hardness number

wrote:
In this same vein, another question: Recently, our village began using
a new water treatment plant and I no longer need my whole-house rust
filter (hurray!) While here, the "water guy" said he would reset the
water softener to cycle less often, implying that the water coming in
was softer than it used to be, but not quite soft enough.

So (finally), the question: Does setting the softener to cycle less
often result in less softening of the water? (Guess I don't really
understand what "cycling" of the softener is....)

Jo Ann

To answer your question, No. Here's what happens- water
enters your softener and the calcium ions are replaced with
sodium or potassium ions. These are easier on spotting and
let soap work better. Hence, it's called softened water
because it acts more like real soft water which comes from
rain and distillation. Over time, you run out of those
sodium or potassium ions and the softener needs to
regenerate. It needs to get rid of the accumulated calcium
(and other) ions and replenish its supply of sodium or
potassium ions.

To do this, it goes briefly offline, flushes brine from salt
or potassium chloride through the resin bed, flushing away
the calcium. It then follows with a brief clean water rinse
and goes back into action. This is set by either a timer or
a gizmo that actually measures how much water has been treated.

When your municipality improved its water quality, there was
no need for your softener to recycle so often. The
technician either reset the timer to a longer period or
reduced the hardness count in the demand regenerator.

To change the hardness of the water at your tap, the only
thing you can do is put in a partial bypass of the softener.

Mark