Water Softeners Two vs One

When is a softener too big, and when would two smaller machines be the better choice? This is not just something for commercial or industrial clients, these are very practical solutions for homeowners that have large families and homes, or a lot of water chemistry to deal with.

A single large water softener can be sized for a job for reasons of high flow rates, or a capacity issue. A properly sized softener is an effective solution even if it is large. It will meet the peak flow rate, and it will have enough capacity to make it through each day providing enough softening capacity, while not having to regenerate more than once every three days. This is usually done late at night when no water will be used in the building.

An alternate way is to have two water softeners working together, what we often refer to as twin softeners, can also be sized for high flow rates and large capacity needs. There are two ways this type of softener can be plumbed in.

When configured in parallel they can give us high flow rates and large capacities. Flow rate is usually the most important feature when choosing to use them in parallel. There will be an extra valve in the configuration to stop water flowing through one machine while it becomes exhausted and goes into a cleaning or regeneration cycle. With this set up we can achieve the same results as the single large softener in flow but use less water for cleaning, and it will be more salt efficient.

The other configuration is what we refer to as an alternating set of softeners or twin alt. In this set up only one softener is online at a time and the other is recharged and waiting to return to service. When one becomes exhausted the other automatically takes its place and the first machine goes into the regeneration/cleaning cycle. Capacity is often the main reason for choosing this configuration, and its ability to never have any downtime, softening is available 24hrs a day. This can also be a savings in cleaning water and salt efficiency and reduces the issue of water channelling. Channelling is something that happens more often on larger single systems when the bed is not regenerated often enough.

We have installed many of these systems in these both configurations to help our clients meet their water needs. Whether it was space restrictions, water conservation, salt efficiently or a specif usage need, a twin system was the right choice. They can cost a little more upfront than a single conventional system but remember a financial return on a water softener is something that happens over years and this little upgrade is no exception. Long term it will be a savings.

In the picture is a Clack WS1 Twin Alternating System. It's, a good example of one configuration that we have been installing for many years. Call or write as anytime to see if two might be better than one for you.

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Tagged As: Twin Alternating Water Softeners