Water softner questions

[Utah Utes]

I recently purchased a water softner from a local company. I have the Clack WS-1 valve and have been reading over the manual to ensure I have all the correct settings. I am concerned that some of the settings are wrong.

Is there away to verify the grain capacity? Currently it is set at

48,000, but from my conversations with the company I think it is actual more then that. Also it is set to used 29 lbs of salt per regeneration (seems high). How do I calculated how much it should use? Do I want Normal or Longer backwash? Downflow or Upflow regeneration?

As of a month ago my water hardness was 27 and it is coming off of city water.

Any help would be appreciated.

[David Martel]

Utes,

If you just purchased this from a local company and you are on the local water system why don't you ask them for advice? I agree that 29 lbs of salt used for a regeneration is somewhat high.

Dave M.

[Utah Utes]

I have called the person I bought it from and he wasn't very helpful. I think he may have been busy. The softner has been working fine, I just was wondering if it is working as efficiently as it can. I plan on calling the person again, but I thought I would just throw the questions out there.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The softener we use at work will re-generate after about 8,000 gallons and it does not use 29 pounds of salt. Has your water been tested for hardness? Tat is the staring point you need before making any adjustments. Then you must know the capacity of the softener.

[SJF]

From the information you have given, without being sure, I'll make a guess.

You have a unit with 2 cubic feet of resin which would be rated at 64000 grains total capacity. A full recharge would require 29 pounds of salt. It is common practice to limit the recharge for that size unit to about 16 pounds which reduces the effective capacity before recharge to 48000 grains total hardness. This will reduce the time between recharges by 25 percent but will reduce the annual usage of salt about 30 percent because of increased efficiency.

Since you have 27 grains of hardness in your water, you would then be able to process 1778 gallons of water between recharges (48000 divided by 27). But recharge should be set to occur at a lower gallonage, say 1400 to 1500 to allow for variables and the time lag from the countdown to zero gallons and the later recharge time -- usually 2:00 a.m.

If this is a correct interpretation of your setup, the installer has done a very good job.

SJF

[Gary Slusser]

My slide rule says a 2.0 cuft volume of regular mesh resin requires 17 lb to regenerate 48k of capacity. You need 30 lb for full regeneration;

15 lb/cuft = 60k, 2000 grains/lb. The 17lb and 48k is moderate salt efficiency; 2823 grains/lb and the computer would give you 1777 gallons on the meter.

The Clack WS-1 has varaible reserve, so you/it will rarely if ever run the gallons down to zero. Until I know the rest of the water analysis and how frequently the unit regenerates, I can't say if the dealer/installer did it right or not but from what you are saying he's got it wrong and since he didn't seem to want to talk to you, it doesn't sound good to me.

BTW, if you are using potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride, you're not going to get 48k back into 2.0 cuft with 17 lb; you'll have to increase the salt dose some. And at 29 lb, you aren't getting 60k. So call him back until he talks to you and tells you how to change the settings or comes out to do it. Ya shoulda bought it from me and installed it yourself and it would have been done right, plus you'd know how to change the settings and how to calculate the numbers to use... :)

Gary Quality Water Associates

[Utah Utes]

Gary,

If I would have known about you I would have considered purchasing through you. I am somewhat water softener stupid so I would like some help. Is there a way to verify the the capacity. I briefly talked to the person I purchased the softener from and he indicated that it is a capacity of 55,000. Is there a way I can verify this by measuring the tank or any other way?

Once I know this how do I actually calculate the lbs of salt per regeneration to enter in my Clack Valve settings. (what is the difference between 6 and 15 pounds of salt per cubic foot of resin? Is one better?)

My Hardness is 27. After further review the lbs of salt is currently set at 25.5 lbs. I use regular morton salt pellets, not he Potassium.

I read your last post, but I am not sure what it all means.

Thanks for any help.

[Utah Utes]

I just talked to the individual who I bought the system from. He indicated that the system is a 1.5 cubic foot system or approximately

55,000 grain capacity. He has the setting on the Clack WS-1 for capacity set to 48 x1000 to for a reserve. (I thought that the valve automatically calculated a reserve.) And he had me reduce the salt usage to 15 lbs. Does all this seem to make sense.

Thanks