| 摘要 |
A portable point-of-use water softener (101). Settings of a valve (119) put the water softener into three different modes: an "off" mode that excludes water from the water softener, a water softening mode, and a regeneration mode. In water softening mode, water passes from a source of the water (123) through a water softening element (117) to a sink for the softened water (125). A plurality of water softening elements operate in parallel in water softening mode to increase the flow of water through the water softener. In regeneration mode, a brine solution flows through the water softening element. The solution is made in a chamber in which water from the source flows at a controlled rate over salt tablets and from there through the water softening elements. The number of salt tablets determines the percent of salt in the brine. The valve includes a number of tubes which connect the components as required for the three modes. The valve selects a mode by pinching tubes as required by the mode. The valve uses a cam with a handle to pinch the tubes, and position of the handle corresponds to each of the modes. |
