GE GXSF23Z01 Water Softener Sump Pump Capacity Required

[RJ539]

According to my GE GXSF23Z01 water softener specs, the max. water outflow occurs during the final regeneration rinse cycle at 1.8 GPM (108 GPH). I have routed the 5/16" ID valve drain hose to a Little Giant VCL-24ULS condensate sump pump (rated 270 GPH @ 1' head) mounted approx. 2 ft. below the softener valve.

In spite of having a capacity rating of 2.5 times the spec.'d water softener max. output flow rate of 108 GPH (1.8 GPM), this pump failed to fully handle the entirety of GE's stated 37 gal. regeneration cycle discharge, leaving approx. 8-10 gal. flowing across my basement floor.

Many thanks to you in advance for any input you may have on my situation, including your recommendation for an adequately sized sump pump.

Russ

 

[Reach4]

1. How high is the pump discharge?
2. What size line is that?
3. Usually you can run the drain line of a softener to a higher level with no pump in between. The factors as to how high you could go include the water pressure into the softener, and how big the path uphill is. This is not to say that given those numbers, I could produce a max height.

But consider this: if the softener should work with 35 psi, then a water pressure of 45 psi having the drain line run thru big-enough pipe should let you discharge about 23 ft higher before compensating for flow losses in the drain line. But if you ran that drain with 1/2 inch PVC, there should not be a lot of extra loss.

So my point is that you may well be able to route this higher, perhaps to an air gap device in the floor above that lets you share the standpipe between a softener and washing machine.

But for the purpose of establishing blame, you could measure the flow out of the softener during backwash. If it takes S seconds to fill a 5-gallon bucket, the GPM is 300/S.