Well! It’s not an easy task to decide which purification system fits best for your premises. Today, there are many filtration and purification systems in the market, making your deciding process more complicated.
There are dozens of companies that manufacture water filters, and each water filter has its own unique function, cost depending on what it really does and what it really removes. Similarly, It is even harder to know how much time a filter or a water softener would take to give the desired results.
A purifier and a filter do not take much time to generate clean drinking water, and it is a faster process. Whereas a water softener requires a lot of time to generate drinking water. Since water softener involves a cumbersome process of removing hard substances and minerals from the water, it functions at a slow rate.
However, many of us may be aware of the function of the water filter and water purifier, but very few will have the idea about the water softener working condition. This article will briefly discuss how much time exactly a water softener takes to regenerate water.
Table of Contents
Brief On What Exactly Water Softener Does?
To make it clear for you, water softener softenes the hard water. Hard water is the content of high minerals in the water, and it is said water with high minerals is unhealthy and makes the water rough. So water softener works best when it is placed with two water storage tanks.
Do keep in mind all water softeners follow the regeneration water process to clean water. And when regeneration is taking place, both the water storage tank should be left unattended till regeneration completes.
Basically, the water softener in one storage tank softens the water, and the other passes the minerals, and this process revolves for both banks making the water clean for both the tanks. Water softener regenerates using a dual tank system.
Since water regeneration takes time, it is always advised to regenerate water when you are not to use the water in any of the tanks. Regeneration of water takes about 80-95 minutes, depending on the condition of the softener.
How Much Time Does It Take To Regenerate Water And How?
Regeneration is a time consuming process. Since water generates at a low pace, it is said that water regeneration can take anywhere between 80-95 minutes. It also depends on the condition of the softener; if your softener is old, rugged, and shabby, it will take a longer time.
It is also recommended that you at least regenerate your water every 3-5 days to maintain the water quality. If not, then hardness, the roughness will appear, spoiling your water as well as the softener system.
The main idea behind the dual tank system in water softeners is that the ion-exchange method is used to regenerate water in one resin tank while the other is still available to provide soft water from the other tank if need be.
It needs to keep in mind that two tanks are used for the regeneration process, and when it takes place, water should not be used from the tank for that regeneration period.
Remember that a water softener only removes salt from your water; they remove through the ion-exchange method. When the water is removed from the resin, it is said to be soft water, which is further filtered through reverse osmosis, making the water fit for drinking and other purposes.
The prime work of softener is, it flushes out minerals it catches from hard water. Like, hard magnesium and calcium minerals are replaced by sodium, making the water soft. A saltwater solution(brine) helps flush hard minerals.
Steps Involved In Regeneration?
- Filling– Water is filled in the brine tank, which usually takes 10-15 minutes. Here salt dissolves with water,
- Brining– This the place where initial water filling was taking place to fill the resin tank. The accumulated brine water is taken to the resin tank, where the minerals are flushed out into the resin tank. This process takes the longest. It takes anywhere between 30-60 minutes to complete this process. Brine water now moves forward, leaving behind the unwanted water.
- Brine Rinse– This step is performed similarly to the 2nd one. The water in the resin tank is again flushed with less pressure to remove the last few residuals. A whole cycle takes place again. This process generally takes another 5 minutes max.
- Backwash– The resin tank is quickly filled with water again. And it is flushed multiple times to ensure no residuals or contaminants are left. This takes another 10 minutes max.
- Fast Rinse– Again, water is filled in the resin tank fastly, the whole is again flushed out, and a resin bed is created, and the brine is removed. After this process, the water is returned to serviced soft water. This process takes another 10 minutes max.
Conclusion
By far, it is clear that water softener takes little time to regenerate water. It goes through a lot of processes, which makes it take a long time. No matter how new your softener system is, it is clear that it will take anywhere between 80-100 minutes.
We have also gone through the stages of softener to give you an idea of how and why softener is used to remove minerals and hard elements from the water. Basically, a softener removes calcium and magnesium from the water and replaces them with sodium.
So, it does take about 80-100 minutes to regenerate water and goes through 5-6 stages of softening process. To keep the water clean, we should go through a regeneration process at least every 3-5 days.
This will keep the water, storage tank, and its premises free from stains, roughness, and hardness. You should also keep your softener machine maintained, and regular service is needed to function smoothly.
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