Kenmore 625.3486 Owner's Manual page 13

SECTION 2
HOW YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
2B. SOFT WATER SERVICE AND REGENERATION
[-2]BRINING: During brining, the brine is moved
from the salt storage area, into the resin tank. Inside
the resin tank, brine cleans hardness minerals from
the resin beads and they are discharged out the
drain. How much brine is needed to clean the resin
depends on:
- -the amount of resin in the softener,
--how fast the brine goes through the bed.
The nozzle and venturi (FIG. 6) make suction to
take brine from the salt tank and put it into the
resin tank. They keep the brine flow down to a very
slow rate to get the best resin cleaning with the
least salt.
[3]BRINE RINSE: After all of the brine is moved
into the resin tank, the brine valve closes. Water
keeps flowing the same way it did during brining
except the brine flow has stopped. Hardness
minerals and brine flush from the resin tank to the
drain. Brining and brine rinse together vary in the
length of time they take, relative to the fill cycle
length.
WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN BRINING AND
BRINE RINSE
hard water hard water
bypass OUTt I IN
drain
WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN BACKWASH
hard water, hard water
bypass OUTt ! IN
drain
resin bed lifted
and expanded
[-_FAST RINSE: Backwash is followed by a fast
flow of water down through the resin tank. The fast
flow packs the resin bed and gets it ready for return
to service (FIG. 8).
After fast rinse, the softener returns to service.
Hard water goes into the resin tank where the resin
bed again takes out the hardness minerals. Soft
water goes to the house soft water pipes.
WATER FLOW THROUGH THE
SOFTENER IN FAST RINSE
brine
[4]BACKWASH: During backwash, water flows
UP through the resin tank (FIG. 7) at a fast rate to
flush iron minerals, dirt and sediments from the
bed and to the drain. The bed lifts and expands for
good cleaning.
13
soft water hard water
OOT ! '"
drain