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Guidelines
for Designing
Water Softeners
By Robert Slovak
Summary: Water softener design and setup for regeneration, and of resin produce a bed depth of just un-
can be a confusing thing to learn regardless • It takes up to three hours (depend- der 26 inches (65 cm), which creates the
of the application. Here are basic guidelines ing on temperature) to make a saturated 24" minimum resin bed depth require-
for engineers and technicians to study to gain salt solution in the brine tank. ment of the resin manufacturer. Also be
a fundamental understanding of this process. aware that if the service flow is too low,
Learn this–Resin volume vs. the water can “channel” through the
T
he following is an introductory service flow rate resin bed only using a fraction of the
article offering practical advice The volume of cation resin required resin’s capacity. Use a lower flow limit of
on sizing and setting up water for a given flow rate can be determined no less than 1 gpm/ft3 (8 m3 /h/m3 ).
softeners for residential, commercial and two ways: 1) By the volume of resin
non-critical industrial applications. There which concerns contact time, and 2) by Learn this–Resin capacity vs.
are significant variations and details not the resin bed (the tank) cross section area salt dose
within the scope of this presentation but that concerns pressure drop in the resin The resin capacity for hardness, or
that deserve further investigation such bed. See Table 1 to determine the cross amount of hardness that can be re-
as alternate methods of brining and re- section area of the most popular size moved by cation resin, depends on how
generation cycle programming. Feel tanks. much salt is used (dosage) to regenerate
free to surf the WC&P “archives” at By contact time—Use 5 gallons per each liter or cubic foot of cation resin.
www.wcponline.com for more on these minute per cubic foot (gpm/ft3 ), or 42 The normal range is 6 pounds of salt per
subjects. Meanwhile, read on. cubic meters per hour per cubic meter cubic foot (lbs salt/ft3 or lbs/ft3 ) of
(m3 /h/m3), for continuous flow and 7.5 resin—about 100 grams salt per liter
STEP 1: Select the control valve you gpm/ft3 (60 m3 /h/m3 ) for peak flow. To (g salt/L or g/L) of resin—to 15 lbs salt/
want to use based on the service flow achieve low hardness leakage as re- ft3 (about 240 g salt/L) for standard mesh
requirements of the application—The quired in applications like boiler water resin. The capacity for each salt dosage
first objective is to select a valve that treatment, the flow rate should be lim- can be approximated in the following:
offers acceptable pressure drop from the ited to 3 gpm/ft3 . Low limit salt dosage—6 lbs salt/ft3
inlet to the outlet of the softener at the By resin bed area— Use 10 gpm per (about 100 g salt/L) resin gives hard-
service flow required for the application. square foot (ft2 ), or 25 m3/h per square ness removal capacity of approximately
Use a maximum service flow pressure meter (m2 ), for continuous flow and 15 21,000 grains/ft3 —48 grams of hardness
drop guideline of 15 pounds per square gpm/ft2 (37 m3/hr/m 2 ) for peak flow. as calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ) per liter
inch (psi)—1 bar—for the valve alone. To assure low hardness leakage, limit [g(CaCO 3)/L] or 0.96 equivalents per li-
the area flow to 8 gpm/ft2 . ter (eq/L).
STEP 2: Determine volume of cat- For example, assume the service Medium salt dosage—9 lbs salt/ft3
ion resin required—The volume of cat- flow is 15 gpm—56.8 liters per minute (about 150 g salt/L) resin gives hard-
ion resin is generally determined by (L/min). Based on the guideline above, ness removal capacity of approximately
four things: the recommended resin volume is 15 26,000 grains/ft 3 —60 g(CaCO3 )/L or
a. The service flow rate, gpm/5 gpm/ft 3 = 3 ft 3. The cross sec- 1.19 eq/L.
b. Hardness of the water, tion area guideline recommends a resin High salt dosage—12 lbs/ft3 (about 200
c. The volume of water to be bed area of 15 gpm/10 gpm/ft2 = 1.5 ft2 , g salt/L) resin gives hardness removal
treated, and which corresponds to a 16-inch ( ") tank capacity of approximately 29,000 grains/
d. The number of times a day the (1.4 ft2 ) and a resin volume of 4.6 ft3 . ft3 —66 g(CaCO3 )/L or 1.33 eq/L).
softener can be regenerated (i.e., valves You have the choice of using a 16" tank Maximum limit salt dosage —15 lbs
with flow meters allow multiple regen- with 3 ft3 (84.9 L) or use a normal resin salt/ft3 (about 250 g salt/L) resin gives
eration per day). Usually three times is volume of 4.6 ft 3 (130.2 L) for added ca- hardness removal capacity of approxi-
the practical maximum number of re- pacity to meet future expansion or in- mately 31,000 grains/ft3—71 g(CaCO 3)/
generations per day because: crease in hardness. L or 1.42 eq/L.
• It typically takes up to two hours Bear in mind, the 16" tank with 3 ft3 Notice that even though the salt
dosage more than doubles, the hardness foot of resin has a capacity of 26,000 one-third the amount of resin is re-
removal capacity doesn’t. The higher grains (each liter of resin can remove quired or 3 ft 3 (85 L) for this example.
the salt dosage, the lower the salt effi- 0.060 kg hardness). If you are limited to But let’s check if this reduced vol-
ciency. only one regeneration per day (as with ume of resin can meet the service flow
Bear in mind, the above capacity val- a timer-controlled valve), then a volume rate requirement of 15 gpm. Referring
ues are only approximate. Consult the of 260,000/26,000 = 10 ft3 (about 283 L) to “Resin volume vs. service flow rate”
specifications from your resin supplier of resin is required. This typically re- section, 15 gpm (57 L/min or 1 pm) ser-
for more accurate capacity specifications. quires a 24" × 72" tank. vice flow requires at least 3 ft3 of resin.
Consider multiple regenerations—It’s The flow rate is compatible with the
Learn this–Resin volume vs. important to understand that multiple resin volume required for the hardness
volume of treated water daily softener regenerations can reduce capacity. Now, instead of a 24" tank with
To determine the volume of resin system size and cost. If the application is 9 ft3 of resin, the system can be reduced
by volume of water treated and hard- suited for multiple regenerations per day to:
ness, start by estimating the maximum [you need an alternating multiple-tank 1. A twin-metered alternating soft-
total grains (or kilograms) of hardness system or a cistern (reservoir) that can ener using 16" tanks with 3 ft3 of resin
that must be removed each day. supply treated water for the customer (each regenerates three times every two
For example, assume the water has during regeneration], then a more cost days—about every 16 hours) where con-
a hardness—as (CaCO3 )—of 13 grains/ effective softener system can be de- tinuous direct flow of softened water is
gallon [222 milligrams per liter (mg/L), signed. This is an especially good strat- required
calculated by multiplying 13 grains by egy where cisterns are commonly used 2. A single-metered softener using
17.1]—and that 20,000 gallons (75.8 m3 ) to store treated water before the points a 16” tank with 3 ft3 of resin (which re-
of water must be treated. The total hard- of use (as in Latin America). Consider generates three times per day) where a
ness is 13 grains/gallon × 20,000 gallons using three regenerations per day cistern of treated water is available to
= 260,000 grains—16.9 kilograms (kg)— (roughly every eight hours for continu- supply the customer with a continuous
of hardness per day. ous flow) for the example above. Then, supply of softened water.
At the medium salt dose, each cubic to meet the capacity requirement, only