Possible to use TF-100 To test Water Softener ?

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Pardon me if I'm stating the obvious or re-hashing what's been hashed, but I was curious about this unit.

After skimming the manual (http://products.geappliances.com/Market ... 0283-1.pdf) I see that 15 number is the hardness of the water you are softening, edit: not the amount of softness you want. It doesn't actually test the water and set an amount of softening. What Pup said was true - it softens as much as it can during a regen cycle. There is a knob on the outflow to mix in some hard water if it's too soft. (?!)

The smarts "seem" to come into play where it monitors your water usage along with what you told it about how hard your incoming water is, and adjusts how often it does a nightly regen.

If your hardness is in ppm, the manual says divide by 17.1 to get gpg for the setting.

So if it's regenning every night either it thinks you're using a lot of water, or your water is really hard, or it's malfuncting.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Michael
 
When I read valve, I presumed this was the bypass valve. I have not seen this mix knob feature, and I've not had one on my home softeners. That said, I won't comment further on settings until we see a supply water CH level. Total hardness would be ideal, but a CH reading will be ample.

Thank you for the help Michael.
 
Thanks guys... To be honest I don't know if its recharging every night, I just thought it was cause it asks for a time to do it. I will get a control sample tonight. I was noticing air each morning when I use the faucet so thought it was related. I'm trying to figure it all out... Just not sure if I understand it yet... I thought it woul of made sense to adjust it so its not too soft is all. Thanks for helping me!!!
 
OK control sample:
I had 20 drops of R0010 + 5 drops of R0011 which was red... I had to add 21 (about that) drops of R0012 (12x10=120)

SO I can see if you say if its blue without adding R0012 its soft, and if it needs R0012 its hard (red-blue) but does the 12 mean I need to be on 12 on the water softener or not related?
 

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myrddin said:
OK control sample:
I had 20 drops of R0010 + 5 drops of R0011 which was red... I had to add 21 (about that) drops of R0012 (12x10=120)

SO I can see if you say if its blue without adding R0012 its soft, and if it needs R0012 its hard (red-blue) but does the 12 mean I need to be on 12 on the water softener or not related?
Click to expand...

duraleigh is correct and so is Charlie, but you have something mixed up, I am guessing with a typo. Now, do you mean you had 21 drops or did you have 12 drops as in your calculation? Or was that number a typo?

If it was 21 drops, you have 210 PPM CH, or 12.2 grains per gallon hardness. If you had 12 drops that is 120 PPM CH, or 7 grains per gallon CH. I say it is likely 21 drops, because there is hardly a need for a softener at 7 grains. Certainly not enough for a 40,000 grain unit. Even for 12 grains, that is a huge softener. Nothing wrong with that, but that tells me with absolute certainty beyond all doubt, there is no possible way it should regen every night. I know you said since you weren't sure on that, but here is the deal.

If you have 12 grains of hardness, your softener will process about 3150 gallons of water before it is exhausted. This is also allowing for just having a CH instead of Total hardness number. For a home softener, this is an enormous amount of water. Not bad, just unusually large. If you have 7 grains, it will process about 5500 gallons of water or thereabouts. Both big numbers, so you have in either case a lot of softener. I get about 450 gallons before mine regens. I need your unit, and you need mine. :mrgreen: However, between the wife and infrequent guests, we usually make it to the 5 day mark before it cycles. A tad small, but this is pretty well the norm when you lease a unit (we have a special deal), but it's still average. Based on settings, your softener will regen based on the numbers I gave you. Or, it will regen every so many days, whichever comes first. This will determine when you regenerate and you can change one or both of those numbers. Mine will cycle every 450 gallons or every 5 days, whichever comes first. I do watch it and test, and often I manually regen so I won't go hard before it does. I've done that a lot this summer filling my little pool. I cut my hardness down to less than half to see what it felt like, but not much difference really. Some, but not a whole lot. Look into your manual, make sure your settings are right, and work it from there.

Now here is a tip for you. There is a condition called salt bridge that occurs in your brine tank. A dome will form in the salt somewhere toward the bottom of the tank. When it forms, it will support the salt above, and create a gap so that your refill water will not be in contact with salt. When that happens, the refill water gets no salt and can't regen your resin. It happens more in units with long regeneration gaps as well. Happens in all of them at times, so every week or so use a broom stick or some such thing to jam it down into the salt bed in many places. Do it gently but as deep as possible. You will know you break a bridge as the salt will fall in one place or another, and you can feel that gap when you hit it. Don't forget to do this often. It may not happen for six months, and it may happen 3 weeks in a row. You just can't ever tell. If you need some more info just post back and we will work it from there.

Happy Softening. :whoot:
 
myrddin said:
Wow, great info... It's 21 dros till blue. I need to find the manul and see what it says... I am still trying to consume what you said... I will report back.
Click to expand...

Take a bite at a time. Ask again if you need to. It is my job at work to answer questions like this and I don't mind at all.
 
Good information, thank you very much, search kept me from asking the same question over. :) I do have one question.. what is the difference between CH and total hardness? Is there some fudge factor you can add to CH to come up with close to a total hardness number?

Thanks,
Tom
 
cubsno1 said:
Good information, thank you very much, search kept me from asking the same question over. :) I do have one question.. what is the difference between CH and total hardness? Is there some fudge factor you can add to CH to come up with close to a total hardness number?
Click to expand...
Total Hardness (TH) is the sum of the CH and Magnesium Hardness. An approximation is to multiple CH by 1.5 to get a rough idea of TH.
 
A multiplier of 1.5 will wind up a little to the high side. I would suggest something closer to 1.2. It may sound like splitting hairs, but
it isn't really. Most hardness (TH) in most waters is about 95% Cal and Mag, the overwhelming majority being CH in most waters. The other 5% is everything else...generally speaking. Exceptions exist, but this is the norm.
 
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