Upflow vs Downflow valve with iron

sorry. I didn't know that salt would remove bacteria, my mistake

sorry for the short reply previously.darn phone, I have actually seen the efficiancy of a conditioner decline because of bacteria build up on the resin. I guess I just try to tell my customers about preventative maintanance that they can do to keep their systems running.

You have more experience in this business. I can see how bacteria on the resin and gravel could negatively affect efficiency of the softener. Before I started reading about softener maintenance, I thought you could continue using a metered softener until the resin was saturated and could not soften anymore water. Say for example, an arbitrary softener that could soften 2000 gallons before regenerating. I thought you could use the full capacity even if took one or two months. Although it would waste less salt and water, it seems it's not a good idea for that much time to pass between regenerations. I'm guessing because of the bacteria problem for efficiency and health reasons. It seems most softeners regenerate approximately once a week or at most every 14 days. The best compromise would be to regenerate a metered softener depending on the water volume or number of days since last regen (whichever comes first) to keep it clean.

How often do you set your softeners to regenerate or is that only possible with the time clock style valves? I was hoping the electronic metered valves could do both (meter and time).

It is fairly common for bacteria to colonize a softener and you sanitize/disinfect a softener with bleach. Evidence is an odor in the softened water. Salt water does not kill bacteria or the oceans would be bacteria free.

Joe's maintenance is right on IF you remove chlorine on a POE (whole house) basis which IMO again, is not a good idea.

Thanks for the information.

Gary, I was wondering, if a softener/ conditioner has kdf in the resin tank, since the kdf requires a higher flow rate to rinse properly, isn't there a chance of washing all the resin down the drain during backwash? I've seen resin start to flow out the drain at like 3 gpm in a 10x54 tank. Just asking an honest question from someone that seems to know what he's talking about. Joe

Yes it will do that unless you use a top basket to keep the resin in the tank.

Hey, thanks for asking that question because I thought that might happen if the flow rate is high enough. My solution would have been to put a metal or plastic screen to catch the resin beads from the drain pipe. With that kind of setup, you would have to check it and empty any collected resin. Then putting the resin back in the tank would be difficult.

@Gary Slusser
The top basket is a much better solution.