How much water is used (Autotrol 255/460i)?

[LazerFlash]

We have an Autotrol 255/460i controlled water softening system in our house. Generally speaking, this has been a good, reliable unit that seems to adequately adjust for increases and decreases in water usage; just what you'd expect from a demand regeneration device.

Recently, however, we had issues with our septic field and had to have a new one dug in a new location on our property. (Lots of 'perfect storm' type issues caused the old one to be max'ed out.) Now, my wife is going bonkers trying to find ways to reduce the amount of water that goes into our new drain field.

I know a reasonable amount about softeners, but I am certainly no expert. One question she had - that I cannot seem to find an answer to - is just how much water is used in a "typical" regeneration cycle with this controller. We pretty much have left some of the factory settings, only adjusting for our very hard water (300ppm calcium hardness). The salt dial setting is 12, based upon a 0.75 cu ft brine tank and a capacity setting of 19 (24,000 kilograins). Another question that I had is if I reduce the amount of salt used, would the Autotrol then reduce the amount of water used in regeneration, or are the two factors not linked?

[Akpsdvan]

We have an Autotrol 255/460i controlled water softening system in our house. Generally speaking, this has been a good, reliable unit that seems to adequately adjust for increases and decreases in water usage; just what you'd expect from a demand regeneration device.

Recently, however, we had issues with our septic field and had to have a new one dug in a new location on our property. (Lots of 'perfect storm' type issues caused the old one to be max'ed out.) Now, my wife is going bonkers trying to find ways to reduce the amount of water that goes into our new drain field.

I know a reasonable amount about softeners, but I am certainly no expert. One question she had - that I cannot seem to find an answer to - is just how much water is used in a "typical" regeneration cycle with this controller. We pretty much have left some of the factory settings, only adjusting for our very hard water (300ppm calcium hardness). The salt dial setting is 12, based upon a 0.75 cu ft brine tank and a capacity setting of 19 (24,000 kilograins). Another question that I had is if I reduce the amount of salt used, would the Autotrol then reduce the amount of water used in regeneration, or are the two factors not linked?

Most systems like yours or the Fleck or Clack single valves are going to be using 75-100 gallons per regeneration , part of that is the back wash flow control.. say 3.0gpm for 10 will do 30 gallons so knowing the back wash rate is the first step in coming up with how much water is used in a cleaning cycle.
Changing the salt setting is not really going to change the total amount of water going to the drain by much maybe a gallon or 2 .

[Gary Slusser]

A septic system is sized by the number of BEDrooms; 2 people to each.

So when you look at your family size, usually many fewer than 2 people times X bedrooms, you are always adding much less water to the septic system than it is sized for. So more water is not a problem for the septic, more water doesn't harm any part of the system.

There are many things in the water that do harm a septic system and in a nut shell as they used to say, anything that hasn't gone through you first is harmful. Softener salt is an exception. Grease, fat, oils, paint etc. are killers of septic systems along with garbage disposals.

No you can't change the salt dose lbs and reduce the water used by the softener and if you fool with the settings eventually the softener will not work right. that assumes it was programmed correctly to start with, which many aren't. You can click on my name, then Profile and then my homepage to learn all about programming.