Kenmore GENIUS II 625.34867 Owner's Manual page 15

SECTION 2
Mow YOUR WATER SOFTENER WORKS
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 starting
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 softener,
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. RECHARGE
TONIGHT displays until the regeneration begins.
When the regeneration begins, TONIGHT goes off
and *RECHARGE or RECHARGE TIME REMAINING
flashes during the 2-112 or 2-314 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.
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