Culligan International Company

John VanNewenhizen

Gene Wayman

Kumudika Premathilake

Lance FitzGerald

An apparatus and method for determining the end of a service step and the duration of a brine/slow rinse step in a water conditioner having a bed of ion-exchange material. A sensor probe and a reference probe are positioned in the bed of ion-exchange material vertically displaced from each other. Voltage from each of the probes are monitored over a plurality of time intervals. When the percent increase in the impedance ratio exceeds a pre-specified value the end of a service step is identified and a regeneration cycle is initiated. During the regeneration step, the rate of change in the impedance ratio of the sensor probe to the reference probe is calculated and used to detect two peaks in the rate of change of impedance ratio between the sensor probe and the reference probe, followed by terminating the brine/slow rinse step after both peaks have been detected.

Method for determining the duration of a brine/slow rinse cycle for a water conditioner

A fluid treatment system includes at least one flow-through tank, a treatment device configured for treating at least one of an untreated fluid and a treated fluid and providing the treated fluid to the at least one flow-through tank and at least one sensing device configured for sensing the quality of fluid in the at least one flow-through tank. The sensing device is connected to the treatment device for providing the treated fluid to the at least one flow-through tank upon a determination of a quality of fluids in the at least one flow-through tank being less than or equal to a predetermined fluid quality threshold.

Flow-through tank for water treatment

The present invention provides a controller for a water softener having an ion exchange resin capable of receiving hard water ions from hard water during a softening step and releasing the hard water ions during a regeneration step. The controller includes a processor programmed to cause termination of the softening step and initiate the regeneration step when both a first and a second condition are met. The first condition is met when the resin is saturated with hard water ions, and the second condition is met when current demand for soft water is at or below a prescribed flow rate.

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Mundelein, IL, United States of America

John VanNewenhizen