SERVICE INITIATION AND REGENERATION CONTROL USING IMPEDANCE RATIOS

摘要

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.