brine/slow rinse question

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Teve

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As I understand softener regeneration, brining and slow rinse happen with the same value position except that slow rinse happens after no more brine is being drawn. Is the main purpose of slow rinse to push the remaining brine through the resin? Other than that, does slow rinse do anything that fast rinse can't? What is the rule for how long brine/slow rinse should last?
 

Akpsdvan

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You are on the right track for understanding the brine/slow rinse.
There are 2 reasons for the slow rinse, remove the extra brine but more overly to give the brine and resin time to inter act with each other, ie to fast or moving to the rapid rinse will not give the brine time to recharge the resin and lower the capacity of the resin.

Most down flow brine times are about 40-50 minutes, but that also depends on the size of the system, larger systems will have a longer time frame for the brine/slow rinse.
 

Teve

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But once all the brine is pushed through the resin, aren't the brine and resin done interacting, or is there still some regeneration reaction still going on within the resin that requires slow rinse to continue?

How long does slow rinse need to go after all the brine is pushed through? A fixed time per cuft? Longer if the salt dose is significantly raised, say 6 to 15 lbs/cuft? (That's what my earlier question was more about.)

You say "removing extra brine". I assume there really isn't any "extra" brine to be "removed". The resin should still be exposed to the full salt dose, shouldn't it?
 

LLigetfa

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All of the brine does not stay in the resin. Only the sodium exchanges and the chloride goes to the drain.
 

Teve

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All of the brine does not stay in the resin. Only the sodium exchanges and the chloride goes to the drain.

Yes. But once the slow rinse fills the tank/resin with fresh water, is slow rinse essentially done?
 

LLigetfa

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First off, the first part of the slow rinse is brine draw, not refill and when the brine runs out, it's just rinse, not refill. Look at the column of brine as long. In a downflow regen, the top of the bed is the most regenerated and it takes longer for the brine to reach the bottom of the bed as does the clear water rinse.
 

Teve

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Understood. But when it's just slow rinse and drain water is no longer not salty, has slow rinsing essentially done it's job or is something still happening with the resin, other than just softening the clear rinse water? I'm guessing slow rinse continues for as long as it does just to provide a margin.
 

Mialynette2003

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I don't believe you will find that the salt is completely rinsed from the resin at the end of the slow rinse. If so, you would not need a fast rinse.
 

LLigetfa

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I'm guessing slow rinse continues for as long as it does just to provide a margin.
I think the same. My low tech head has fixed cams so the shorter the brine stage, the longer the rinse which is designed to be adequate for the highest salt dose.

I think the fast rinse is more about the pack than the rinse.
 

Teve

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I can maybe see more rinsing time being needed after a "tank volume" of clear water flowing in, since remaining brine might mix with the clear incoming water.


so the shorter the brine stage, the longer the rinse which is designed to be adequate for the highest salt dose.

This relates to my original question. Is there a general rule about the ratio of the time for drawing brine to not drawing brine? 50:50? 40:60? 60:40? Or a fixed time per cuft after brine is all drawn?
 
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Gary Slusser

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The cycle is slow rinse/brine draw.

The slow rinse flow actually draws the brine from the salt tank so it flows for the length of time set for the cycle to finish.

The brine flow/time should be finished in the frist 10-20 minutes of the slow rinse/brine draw cycle time.

As to how long the cycle time should be, I don't know of any formula although in the science behind softeners there probably is one and it probably has to do with the salt dose being used but, as has been said, it is usually about 40-60 minutes depending on the type and cuft volume of resin used.

I would not suggest attempting to micro manage the cycle time. The flow is usually no more than a half gallon per minute.

Rapid rinse is used to repack the resin bed, and it will remove any left over brine if any.
 
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