FAQ Topic: Treatment FAQ

140mg of sodium is typically in quart of soft water.  In comparison, a slice of bread is typically 70mg of sodium, and a slice of pizza about 1100mg.  The average American takes in about 5000 mg of sodium per day.

A good quality, properly maintained system can reduce most contaminants by at least 90%.  Some situations might even remove 95% or more of the contaminants.

If the water conditioner system is sized correctly and the iron is dissolved in the water, the system will typically remove all iron.  Extreme cases will need a pre treatment of some kind ahead of the softener to properly remove all of the iron.

Every home and water conditioner system will cause some variance.  It is not uncommon to see one occupant of a home using 15-20 pounds of salt per month or a family of 6 use 60-80 pounds of salt per month.  The amount of hardness, iron, and members in a family are the main factors of salt use.  Also, the type of salt saving features in a water conditioner system can impact the overall salt usage.  Once a water test is taken and your equipment is selected, we can give a better estimation of salt usage.  We recommend Dura Cube softener salt to help reduce salt use and for purity.

Champion Water Treatment is one of the only sources in the area that can handle anything to do with water in your home.  We have been dealing with water wells for over 60 years and water conditioning for over 30 years in the area.  We have proven equipment and the knowledge to do the job correctly.

While the water conditioner is running, any other water being used in the house will be unsoftened.  The water conditioner will typically run the 3rd or 4th day of the week from 2 AM to 3:30 AM so it may not be an conflict.  A twin tank water conditioner will have soft water 24/7 because it has a backup tank.

A water conditioner will automatically regenerate the system by initiating a demand meter.  This demand meter counts the gallons of water your household uses and tells the control valve when the capacity of the unit is getting low.  Most newer softeners have the metered regeneration feature which is designed to save salt.  If the unit is not equipped with a meter, it either has a clock which can be set to regenerate the unit on a set schedule of days automatically or the unit is simply a manual unit.  A manual conditioner is one that the homeowner must physically cycle through each individual step.

When a water conditioner regenerates, it will typically behave in the following order at 2 AM.

1. The backwash cycle will start and run for about 10 minutes.  The softener will pump water down the center distributor tube.  This is designed to expand the resin bed and allow foreign debris to escape out the drain of the unit.
2. The brine and rinse cycle begins when the unit draws the brine solution from the salt tank.  The brine works its way down through the resin and up the distributor.  At this time the sodium or potassium exchanges with the iron and hardness which was attached to the resin beads.  The iron and hardness are now forced out the drain of the unit.  The chloride from the brine is not needed and is also forced out the drain.  The brine portion of the brine and rinse cycle lasts about 15 minutes.  The water condition will rinse out any traces of iron, harness, and chloride for the next 45 minutes.
3. The rapid rinse cycle sends water down from the top through the resin and up the distributor for about 8 minutes.  This procedure packs the resin down tightly in the tank.
4. The brine refill cycle sends water to the salt tank to make brine for the next time the water conditioner goes into regeneration.
5. The service cycle is when the water conditioner sets the valve to service which means it is now ready to deliver soft water to be used throughout the home.

The Avantapure and selected Quicksilver systems have upflow brining.  This means that when the unit brings in brine for regeneration, it will enter the resin bed from the bottom instead of the top.  This is a more efficient way to introduce brine to the resin bed in most cases.  This will result in about a third less salt used per regeneration.

A water conditioner has millions of poppy seed sized beads made of poly styrene plastic which naturally attract positively charged ions like potassium or sodium.  Water flows through the beads (mineral/resin bed) and exchanges sodium or potassium for the iron or harness (calcium and lime) present.  The water will then go to a collection point at the bottom of the resin bed and is soft and free of iron.  This process does add a small amount of sodium or potassium to your drinking water so further treatment may be desired usually in the form of a reverse osmosis drinking water system.