Water Softener RESERVE setting - a misnomer ?

[ByteMe]

Should it be called a "TRIGGER POINT"

As in, when the meter calculates you have this much capacity left (RESERVE number) to soften the water. A regeneration will be done (either immediately or delayed until that night) depending on the type of meter/controller.

Or is it just me? Seems to me most people would think they would always have that much extra.

[ditttohead]

The idea of a reserve is that when your softener is nearing its capacity, once you get into the reserve, the system will initiate a regeneration at your preset time, typically 2:00 A.M. when there is the least likelyhood of water usage. If you did an immediate regeneration, then a reserve would not be needed nor would it make any sense. The normal reserve is 1 days capacity. If a system were to go into the "reserve" capacity at 4:00 A.m. when you are getting ready for work, the system should have enough capacity to make it until the next regeneration window of 2:00 a.m., 22 hours away. This is why a variable brining can be beneficial, if your system is undersized and you do not use up the majority of your reserve. If your system regenerates less than weekly, the efficiency gains of variable brining are typically lost. A properly sized system can be difficult at times, high hardness, excessive water usage, etc, and a twin alternating system should be considered instead if you are unable to make a 5+ day regeneration frequency without using excessively large equipment which has its own unique efficiency problems.

[Gary Slusser]

Should it be called a "TRIGGER POINT"

As in, when the meter calculates you have this much capacity left (RESERVE number) to soften the water. A regeneration will be done (either immediately or delayed until that night) depending on the type of meter/controller.

Or is it just me? Seems to me most people would think they would always have that much extra.

You select the immediate or the delayed regeneration type in programming the control valve.

Fleck assumes 75 gals/day/person on a mechanical metered 5600 with the People Dial. On other valves they allow a percentage selection etc.

As to variable brining, is it quite uncommon and IMO variable reserve is a much better choice and you don't subtract any reserve from the K of capacity your salt dose creates. The computer tracks daily use and eventually has enough data, usually based on the last 7 days, to guess tomorrow's usage quite accurately and then regenerates accordingly.