Water softner, acid neutralizer, and nitrate regeneration

[Stephannie Grullon]

I have all three systems mentioned above and I dont know which day or time to program each so none run at the same time. My water hardess is at 23 so something isnt working right. I placed a service call and was told the neutralizer and softner were running out of the same salt tank so we should do a resin rebed and get another salt basin. For the meantime I asked if they can just run at different times which I didnt get a clear answer to. I was messing with the dials now I dont know what times and days they were set to before :/ help?! This is the first time owning a water softner.

 

[Reach4]

You might start by posting some photos of what you have. If you have any easy-to-remove covers, remove those.

To upload to this site, the photos must be 200KB or less and 800 pixels max width and height.

What do you know about the water? City, well? Nitrate levels... nitrate treatment is fairly uncommon I think.

What is pH of untreated water?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

Hi thanks for the tips. We have well water. Wr had the system serviced before purchasing the house because of the ph level so it was fine not sure what it is now. I do know the service guy from the water company had to drop 23 drops to turn the test blue so our water is not being softened. He suggested adding another salt tank and resin rebed. I just want to adjust the riming correctly for now and will probably try adding the extra salt bin before going ahead with the resin rebed

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

This is the acid neutralizer

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

Water softner

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

Nitrate

 

[Reach4]

OK.

A neutralizer is not going to be hooked to a brine tank.
I don't know about nitrite filters.

For those units, the regenerations will happen when the time on the control is 2 am. To get a unit to regenerate at 4 AM, for example, you would set the time o that unit to indicate 2 hours later than the actual time. So at 4 am, the unit will read 2 am.

A neutralizer backwash is probably over in maybe 15 minutes. A softener regeneration is probably about 90 minutes.

This may provide some to the information you need.

For the softener, you might start with once per week. For the neutralizer, also once per week, but choose a different night. If you choose a different night, the times could be the same.

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

OK.

A neutralizer is not going to be hooked to a brine tank.
I don't know about nitrite filters.

For those units, the regenerations will happen when the time on the control is 2 am. To get a unit to regenerate at 4 AM, for example, you would set the time o that unit to indicate 2 hours later than the actual time. So at 4 am, the unit will read 2 am.

A neutralizer backwash is probably over in maybe 15 minutes. A softener regeneration is probably about 90 minutes.

This may provide some to the information you need.

For the softener, you might start with once per week. For the neutralizer, also once per week, but choose a different night. If you choose a different night, the times could be the same.

Ok so now my softner says 7pm if I want it to go on at 5am what time should it say now? The nitrate and softner are both connected to the brine tank so I want to program them at different times

 

[Reach4]

Ok so now my softner says 7pm if I want it to go on at 5am what time should it say now? The nitrate and softner are both connected to the brine tank so I want to program them at different times

Let's say the clock on the wall also says 7 pm. So you would then want to set the softener clock to 4 pm (2 hours slow) to get the softener to fire off at 5 am. It would finish about 6:30 am.

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

Ahhh I gotcha thanks! Just one more question. Does the acid neutralizer have to regenerate everyday? I see there are tabs where I can select which days for it to regenerate

 

[Reach4]

I expect the acid neutralizer could backwash once per week or less often. Your controllers can only schedule a maximum of 7 days. You might regenenerate every Tuesday, for example.

Your softener might need regeneration once per week or twice per week if you use a lot of water. You could regen every Saturday, or every Saturday and Wednesday if needed.

The 7 day wheel is called a skipper wheel. Most of the tabs will be pulled out, and you will push in for the day or days you want regen to happen.

 

[Stephannie Grullon]

Great thanks for all the info! Its very helpful.

 

[ditttohead]

Nitrate reduction systems are anion based regenerable units that work very similar to a traditional salt softener. Sharing the brine tank is acceptable assuming they both use the same amount of regenerant. The regen times need to be offset by about 3-4 hours in the case that they happen to regenerate on the same day.

Calcite filters, weekly is acceptable unless you have high levels of iron you are trying to control with the calcite, then more frequent backwashes may be beneficial.

 

[Reach4]

Just thinking...

If the pump had enough capacity, imagine scheduling the calcite backwash at the same time as some phase of the softening, such as brine fill or brine draw. The lower pH water at those times could be an advantage to the softener. Yes, that is a big if. Also, trying to match cycles so closely with mechanical timers.

Also, what advantage would a backwashing nitrite filter have over an RO for just drinking water, which could remove nitrite and more? I guess the RO is more volume limited, and the membrane and other associated filters are a maintenance item. And few people have an RO water faucet for the bathroom.