"Alan" wrote
On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:09:22 GMT, Tony Hwang wrote:

Alan wrote:
On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 22:37:57 -0500, "Gary Slusser"
wrote:

"Alan" wrote


except that the softener should put the water in, if it is in the
service position.

It doesn't work that way, you have to add an amount of water at least
up to
the air check of the brine pick up. And then allow the unit to go
through
its brine refill or you have to add that water manually before the frst
regeneration. If not there will not be any brine. I answered this post
in
another venue.


I do not doubt your expertise, but my softener added all the water to
the brine tank on its own as soon as the water was turned on before
the first regeneration. Older model?
Hi,
Something wrong then with yours.
Tony

It works perfectly Tony. The same thing happened each time I cleaned
out the brine tank. It has never been necessary to add water to an
empty (except for salt) brine tank as the softener does it on its own.

Ok, I've failed to mention that some 'less featured' (and Kinetico)
softeners rely on a float in the brine tank brine well to control the salt
dose. A real problem with that type is that they leave the brine line fully
pressurized during Service. 'Real' softeners have a specific brine valve to
control water flow to the brine tank. That allows water to the brine tank
only when the control is in the brine refill position. That costs more
but... you can cut the brine line and you won't have a continuous water
leak. At the most, you'd have a leak for the amount of brine refill water
only. That's one gallon/ each 2.7 pounds of salt for the salt dose.

Which type would you want in your house?

There's also another type of softener. They add the brine refill water as
the first position of the regeneration and then pause for 2-3 hours so the
salt can dissolve before they continue the regeneration. During Service,
they will have very little water in the salt tank.

The vast majority of softeners add the brine refill water as the last
position of the current regeneration. Many of them have the separate float
controlled safety brine system mentioned previously. You manually add water
to their brine tank and then the volume for the salt dose used for that
specific softener or the next regeneration does not get any or the correct
amount of brine.

I hope that's all said so it's understandable.

Gary
Quality Water Associates
www.qualitywaterassociates.com
Gary Slusser's Bulletin Board www.qualitywaterassociates.com/phpBB2/