Rain Soft EC4 Serie Manual Del Usuario página 13

An Overview of the Regeneration Process
Your RainSoft EC4 Water Conditioner performs a periodic regeneration cycle to clean itself and restore its
capacity. How often it regenerates depends on your water use, incoming water hardness, and several other
factors, but 1 - 2 times a week is typical. An automatic regeneration will never occur more than once in a day,
and is programmed to occur at a time when you are unlikely to be using water (late at night in most cases).
The time of regeneration is adjustable through the control board. Here is an overview of the regeneration
process:
Brine Tank Fill
The first step in preparation for the regeneration is to add water to the brine tank. The amount of salt the
conditioner uses in its regeneration is directly related to the amount of water added to the brine tank. The
salt will only dissolve into the water until it reaches a point of saturation, then no matter how much longer it
sits, no additional salt will dissolve. Many softeners add a fixed amount of water to the brine tank at the end
of each regeneration cycle. With that type of unit, the water sits in the tank until the next regeneration,
usually for several days.
Your EC4 uses a more sophisticated and efficient approach called "proportional brining." The computer
continually monitors your water use and decides if regeneration is needed today. If regeneration is needed,
the computer moves the valve to the brine refill position about two hours before the scheduled time of regen-
eration. You may hear the motor running and some water flowing at this time. Because the computer knows
how much water you've used, it calculates the exact amount of salt that will be needed to completely restore
the system capacity. Then it adds just enough water to the brine tank to dissolve that much salt. So you can
say it creates brine in proportion to the amount of capacity you need to restore - it doesn't waste salt.
EXAMPLE: If the time of regeneration is set for 2:00 AM, you may hear the system apparently start to regen-
erate at 11:45 PM. What it is actually doing is running the brine fill cycle. It will fill the brine tank for a few
minutes, then return to its normal home position for 2 hours. The actual full regeneration cycle starts at 2:00
AM as scheduled.
Soak Cycle
After adding water to the brine tank, the valve returns to home position and waits for two hours. This gives
the salt plenty of time to dissolve and ensures that an accurate salt dose is used. The system is still providing
treated water to your home during this cycle.
Backwash Cycle
At the exact time of regeneration, the valve moves to its backwash position for the start of its actual regener-
ation cycle. In the backwash position, the normal flow through the pressure tank is reversed, with water
flowing from the bottom up, so that the softening mineral is lifted and cleaned. This removes any dirt or
particles that have accumulated on the top of the mineral bed. As is true of the entire regeneration cycle, all
the water flowing through the tank at this point is sent directly to the drain. None of the regeneration water
enters your supply pipes. If you use any water during regeneration, the system provides you with untreated
water that completely bypasses the tank.
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