Water Inc HP-Soft-4 - Manual (Page 10)

Control Start-up Procedures
Control start-up, flushing/conditioning and programming procedures may be found in the control service manual
included with your system.
Model
HP-Soft-2
HP-Soft-4
For replacement copies of this manual please contact Water, Inc.
Softener Operation
As water enters the softener, it passes over a resin bed in a special tank. The resin consists of tiny beads of a plastic
called styrene. These beads attract and hold sodium ions and exchange the sodium for hardness ions when
encountered. Over time, the resin becomes saturated with hardness ions and no longer removes hardness materials.
The softener goes into a "regeneration" to flush hardness materials to the drain and refresh the resin with sodium.
Regeneration is typically programmed to take place in the middle of the night when little or no water is in use.
Regeneration consists of four cycles:
1. Brine Draw / Slow Rinse Position
Brine Draw is the process in which brine is drawn out of the brine cabinet and passed through the resin in a
downward direction. This rinses the resin and large amounts of sodium ions replace the hardness ions accumulated
during service.
Slow Rinse. After brine is completely removed from the brine cabinet into the resin tank the brine
valve closes. Water replaces any remaining brine from the resin, flushing hardness ions removed from the resin to
drain.
2. Backwash Position
Backwash is a rapid upward flow of water that loosens the resin bed and flushes iron particles, dirt and sediments
filtered in the bed out to the drain.
3. Fast Rinse Position
Fast Rinse is a fast flow of water down through the resin tank that follows a Backwash. This flushes all remaining
brine from the tank and packs the resin bed for softening efficiency.
4. Brine Fill
Brine is water saturated with large amounts of a salt (sodium chloride). During brine fill, water flows into the salt
storage area after each regeneration and dissolves salt. During the regeneration process, brine solution is drawn into
the resin tank and hardness ions on the resin beads are exchanged for sodium ions.
5. Service
When the softener is In Service, it is flowing water through the system and removing hardness minerals from your
water.