How To Check Water Softener Grain Capacity

Once you know the level of hardness in your water and have an idea of how much water you re using it s time to calculate the size of water softener you will need.

How to check water softener grain capacity. The consumer programs the softener as a 32 000 grain system but only programs it to use 6 pounds of salt per regeneration. The grains capacity of a softener is the weight of calcium and magnesium hardness compounds that can be removed from the water before the softener is saturated and must be regenerated. The softener capacity is calculated in three simple steps. A softener is usually sized to regenerate about once per week.

In short 1 3 of the amount of salt used will yield 2 3 of the amount of maximum capacity. 4 people x 75 gallons per day 300 gallons per day. A grain is defined as approximately 65mg about the weight of a cereal grain such as wheat or rye. A quick look online and in many stores will reveal an abundance of 24 000 32 000 48 000 and 64 000 grain capacity water softeners.

To make it easier for you to understand the hardness is measured as the amount of minerals calcium and magnesium per gallon or liter. Softeners in some states are required to have a certain minimum efficiency level. In this case the softener will only remove about 20 000 grains of hardness but the softener will think it has 12 000 grains of capacity remaining and will not initiate a regeneration for several days. If you want to get the most of your water softener and properly size it hardness is the first thing you want to measure and take it from here.

Calculate softener capacity in grains ft3 resin x resin exchange capacity typically 30 000 grains ft3 grains. Daily softening requirement 10 grains per gallon x 300 gallons per day 3000 grains per day. It is possible to regenerate a water softener using a mere 5 7lbs of salt. To make the numbers easier to understand let s say you use 250 gallons of water per day and the amount of grains per gallon is 6.

Multiply that number by the grains of hardness in your water to figure out how many grains need to be removed each day. Convert water hardness from ppm to grains per us gallon total hardness ppm total hardness gpg example. At first glance it would appear that the 24 000 grain system would be ideal using our example above where we re looking for 21 000 grains of total softening capacity. Meanwhile water softeners with nsf standard 44 certification are verified to operate at a minimum efficiency of 3350 grains pound.

In the example above the softener will be removing 3000 grains per day. The higher the number of parts the harder the water is. This makes it easier on your pocket helps the environment and creates less stress on your arm muscles. The size of water softener required.