Cowdogs
New Member
So I am looking at improving my understanding of the variables involved in controlling a water softener value for salt efficiency. My value is a Clack EE, but my questions probably apply to any softener.
It seems to me 3 things must be managed.
And finally I don't understand why hardness leakage seem to be treated as a "guaranteed to happen" at lower salt settings. At the moment my softener is oversized. I am building an addition to my house that will make my softener right-sized in about a year. In the meantime, it seems that an oversized softener could be run at 6lbs/cu ft without any leakage? Why is this thinking wrong?
It seems to me 3 things must be managed.
- How often/soon the softener regenerates. This is controlled by setting the water hardness and softener capacity (in grains) in the valve. Seems simple enough.
- How much salt is used when the softener regenerates. This is controlled by how much water is added to the brine tank for the next regen? And this setting is in lbs. for my valve? This makes sense as the amount of salt in fully saturated brine is fixed, and valve uses all the brine during the regen.
- How long the brine is exposed to the resin. Not sure about this one? Brine regen time? Or brine injector size? Is this something you even adjust? Or is is set according to tank size?
And finally I don't understand why hardness leakage seem to be treated as a "guaranteed to happen" at lower salt settings. At the moment my softener is oversized. I am building an addition to my house that will make my softener right-sized in about a year. In the meantime, it seems that an oversized softener could be run at 6lbs/cu ft without any leakage? Why is this thinking wrong?
Last edited: