You have passed by your water softener a thousand times but for some reason, you glance over to your water softener and notice that it has numbers on the display that are counting down. You haven’t seen this before and wonder why is your water softener counting down?
A water softener will count down the remaining capacity of water that it will be able to soften, the amount of time remaining until its brine is ready, the amount of time left in its current regeneration cycle, or the total amount of time left in its entire regeneration process.
If you see your water softener counting down, it is most likely just keeping track of your water usage so that it knows when to regenerate its water softener resin or it might be performing its regeneration process and it is counting down the time left for part or the entire regeneration process.
Your Water Softener May Be Counting Down The Amount Of Water That It Can Soften.
Most water softeners monitor the amount of water that flows through them so the water softener knows when it should regenerate its water softener resin to maintain an uninterrupted supply of softened water for the home.
The water meter inside of the water softener “Counts Down” the amount of water used from the programmed full capacity of the water softener based on the characteristics of the water being softened.
The full capacity of the water softener is based on the amount of water softener resin that the water softener contains and how much water the resin will is able to remove hardness from.
When you program your water hardness into your water softener, you are letting the water softeners’ computer know how much hardness needs to be removed from each gallon of water that flows through its water softener resin.
When the water softener knows how much hardness needs to be removed from each gallon of water that flows through its resin, it will “Count Down” the gallons of water that are used until it gets near the point where the capacity of the resin will no longer be able to soften your water.
When the water softener has counted down the maximum amount of gallons of water that its resin can soften, it will then regenerate the resin which will reset the maximum amount of gallons available and the water softener will begin to count down the gallons used again.
Your Water Softener May Be Creating Brine To Regenerate Its Resin.
Some water softeners have the ability to use a “Dry Brine Tank” regeneration process.
A water softener that uses a “Dry Brine Tank” will only add water to the brine tank to create brine a few hours before the water softener is set to regenerate its water softener resin.
Unlike a traditional water softener that adds water to its brine tank at the “End” of its regeneration process so that there will be brine ready for the next time that the water softener regenerates, a “Dry Brine Tank” water softener will add water to the brine tank about four hours before the water softener is set to regenerate and it will then count down the time necessary for the salt to dissolve before it starts its regeneration process.
The water softener will add water to the brine tank for just a few minutes and then the water softener will be silent while it counts down the preset amount of time needed for the brine to be strong enough for the water softener resin to be regenerated properly.
Your Water Softener May Be Using Brine To Regenerate Its Resin.
The “Brine Draw” cycle of a water softener’s regeneration process is usually a very long and very quiet cycle that is often counted down on the water softener’s display.
This countdown often will start at up to 90 minutes and count down to 0 as the brine from your water softener’s brine tank is rinsed through the water softener resin to perform the process of ion exchange which removes hard minerals from the resin to allow it to remove more hard minerals from your water.
Although most water softeners bypass the resin tank during the brine draw process, it is best that minimal water is used elsewhere in the home to allow maximum water pressure to the water softener so the water softener resin gets regenerated properly.
Your Water Softener May Be Rinsing Its Water Softener Resin.
After a water softener has used its brine to regenerate its water softener resin, it may count down a rinse cycle towards the very end of its regeneration process to remove as much of the brine from its resin as possible.
The water softener resin rinse cycle may be as little as 2 to 4 minutes as it often does not need to rinse for very long.
If you see your water softener counting down while also hearing a strong flow of water going through the water softener, it may be counting down this resin rinse cycle towards the end of its regeneration process.
Your Water Softener May Simply Be Counting Down Its Regeneration Process.
Some water softeners will “Count Down” the entire regeneration process.
The water softener may begin a count down on its display from the very beginning of the regeneration process that will continue to the very end of the regeneration process.
An entire regeneration process count down could start as high as about 120 minutes for many water softeners but it could vary depending on how the water softener is programmed.
It May Not Be Your Water (Softener) Counting Down.
There can often be other water treatment systems other than your water softener in your home that also may “Count Down”.
An ultraviolet water purifier will often have a count-down timer that will count down 365 (Days) after the ultraviolet lamp has been changed to alert you when it has been a year since the lamp has been changed.
Most ultraviolet water purifier lamps are only warrantied to maintain a strong enough intensity for 1 year from installation and should be changed yearly.
So if you see a count-down display by your water softener that goes down 1 each day, it very well could be that you have an ultraviolet water purifier that has a lamp that needs to be changed once the count-down reaches 0.
To Sum Up:
When your water softener is “Counting Down”, it is simply counting down the number of gallons of water that it has softened so that it knows when to regenerate or the time left of an individual cycle of its regeneration process or sometimes the entire regeneration process.
