GE PNSF31Z01 - Manual (Page 7)

About the water softening system.
Customer Ser
vice
Tr
oubleshooting T
ips
Operating Instr
uctions
Safety Infor
mation
For emergency needs, hard water is available to the
home during the regeneration cycles.
However, you
should avoid using HOT water because the water heater
will fill with the hard water.
Automatic Hard Water Bypass During Regeneration
When the water softening system is providing soft
water, it is called “Service.” During service, hard
water flows from the house main water pipe into the
water softening system. Inside the water softening
system resin tank is a bed made up of thousands of
tiny, plastic resin beads. As hard water passes
through the bed, each bead attracts and holds the
hardness minerals. This is called ion-exchanging. It is
much like a magnet attracting and holding metals.
Water without the hardness minerals (soft water)
flows from the water softening system and to the
house pipes.
After a period of time, the resin beads become
coated with hardness minerals and they have to be
cleaned. This cleaning is called regeneration, or
recharge. Regeneration is started at 2:00 AM (factory
setting) by the water softening system timer, and
consists of five stages or cycles. These are
FILL,
BRINING, BRINE RINSE, BACKWASH and FAST RINSE .
Service
Salt dissolved in water is called brine. Brine is needed
to clean the hardness minerals from the resin beads.
To make the brine, water flows into the salt storage
area during the fill stage as shown.
Fill
7
Soft water
OUT
Salt storage
tank (salt
not shown)
Brine
valve
Hard water
IN
Soft water
OUT
Hard water
IN
Resin
tank
Resin
bed
Salt storage
tank
Fill water
Brine
valve