Kenmore 625.348670 - Manual (Page 15)

HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
SECTION 2
15
2B. SOFT WATER SERVICE AND REGENERATION
AUTOMATIC BYPASS
During the brining, brine rinse and backwash cycles
of regeneration, HARD water goes through the
softener valve and to the house pipes. If a faucet is
opened, hard water is there for your needs. However,
you should not use hot water, if possible, because the
water heater will refill with hard water. The softener,
as factory programmed, regenerates from 2:00 AM to
about 4:30 or 4:45 AM (depending on the salt type
setting, page 7), a time when not much water is used.
If you get up early in the morning and you can hear
the softener regenerating, change the recharge start-
ing time. Set the recharge time to 12:00 AM or 1:00
AM (page 7). Then regeneration will start and end
that much earlier and your water heater will not refill
with hard water if a hot faucet is opened.
ELECTRONICS
Two main parts of the softener’s electronics are ¡ a
WATER METER, and © a COMPUTER.
¡ WATER METER — The water meter is in the
softener valve outlet. As water flows through the
meter, it sends electric pulses to the computer. The
computer changes the pulses to a measure in gallons
of water.
© COMPUTER — The computer is part of the
faceplate timer circuit board. It is programmed to
know the softener’s capacity (how many grains of
hardness minerals it will take out of the water before
a regeneration is needed). When starting the soften-
er, page 7, you set it for the grains per gallon (gpg)
hardness of the water.
To find a regeneration pattern best for your needs,
the computer uses: (1) water usage from the meter,
(2) hardness setting, (3) softener capacity, and (4)
time since the last regeneration. The computer
always adjusts this pattern to your water using
habits. It works toward providing you with soft
water for the longest time and at the most efficient
salt usage.
Softening capacity is used as hard water goes
through the softener and hardness minerals are
removed. When the computer determines that only
enough capacity remains to provide soft water up to
the next regeneration starting time (2:00 AM, or as
otherwise set) it will schedule a regeneration. RE-
CHARGE TONIGHT displays until the regeneration
begins. When the regeneration begins, TONIGHT
goes off and *RECHARGE or RECHARGE TIME
REMAINING flashes during the 2- 1/2 or 2- 3/4 hour
regeneration.
* NOTE:
If the CLEAN feature is set to ON, a cleaning
backwash (CLEAN and Bkwsh or Rinse flashes in the
display, along with the minutes of the clean cycle
remaining), precedes the recharge.