Does the Harvey's Softener perform a 'backwash'
When someone asks us this question it is generally because one of our competitors selling an American manufactured water softener has told them that theirs does have a back wash and that ours does not.
To understand the answer fully you need to be aware of the different design criteria used in each country.
In America the water quality varies tremendously from city to city and, even more so, between all the private bore hole supplies. Nearly half of all American water softeners are sold to homes that have a private bore hole supply. The quality of water is unpredictable and many of the supplies have high turbidity (dirt in the water).
To counteract this they design a softener that has a high free board and a back wash. Free board is an area above the resin in the cylinder into which the resin can expand when backwashing during regeneration so that particulate matter that has come into the top of the bed can be released and backwashed down the drain. This was always the traditional way. Effective in dealing with the problems of dirty water but extravagant in consumption of water and salt.
The typical American water softener is tall to accommodate this additional space but as most American homes have a basement with plenty of room this is not a problem over there.
In England the design criteria are different.
Our water supply is virtually all municipal and of very high quality in respect to turbidity. There is no need for a backwash as there is no dirt in the water.
Our design goes three stages further to take advantage of this situation.
We remove the freeboard altogether to enable us to make a very low softener to fit under the sink.
We reverse the flow to upflow service and downflow brine enabling the benefits of increased efficiency due to countercurrent regeneration (long technical explanations needed to explain this one).
We remove the back wash cycle and thus save on water consumption during regeneration.
An altogether better and more elegant solution to making a very efficient water softener to fit under the sink.
(Any ingress of debris enters the bottom of the cylinder and cannot get into the resin due to the screening and is removed during regeneration).
Meanwhile, our competitors have followed our lead with modifications to their softeners to try and emulate us but they cannot change their fundamental design which still incorporates many of the features from their American sold machines.
Ours is a new design for water in England. Better, more efficient, with much more accurate metering and designed for the job!
The best that can be done with our current knowledge and materials.
So don't be sold on something inferior.
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