Kenmore 625.3882 Owner's Manual page 15

SECTION 2
HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
B. SOFT WATER SERVICE and REGENERATION
AUTOMATIC BYPASS
During the brining, brine rinse and backwash cycles
of regeneration, HARD water goes through the soft-
ener valve and to the house pipes. If a faucet is
opened, hard water is there for your needs. Howev-
er, you should not use hot water, if possible, because
the water heater will refill with hard water. The soft-
ener, as factory programmed, regenerates from 2:00
AM to about 4:00 AM, a time when not much water
is used.
If you start your day prior to 4 AM, you may need
to change the recharge starting time. Set the re-
charge time to 12:00 AM or 1:00 AM (page 1-4).
Then regeneration will start and end that much ear-
lier 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 soft-
ener valve outlet. As water flows through the meter,
it sends electric pulses to the computer. The com-
puter 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 1- 4, 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.
RECHARGE TONIGHT displays until the
regeneration begins. When the regeneration begins,
RECHARGE TONIGHT goes off and *RECHARGE
or RECHARGE TIME REMAINING flashes during
the regeneration.
* Note:
If the CLEAN feature is set to ON, a cleaning back-
wash (CLEAN and Bkwsh or Rinse flashes in the dis-
play, along with the minutes of the clean cycle re-
maining), precedes the recharge.
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