How does a water softener know when to regenerate (clean itself)?
It depends on the programming of the softener. Alot of the older systems and some current ones go by days. Basically you program these to go every other day or every third day. This method is really unefficient though since it cleans itself whether it needs to or not. Also, if for some reason you use alot more water than usual, you may exceed the capacity and it will not clean itself untill the programmed day. Most softeners today “count” your gallons of water and regenerate based on usage saving salt and water. As water runs through it, a turbine assembly in the outgoing side of the softener “tells” the controls how much water is being used and the controls figure out when it needs to regenerate based on water hardness and capacity.
