Upflow Brining vs Downflow Brining

This sure is a hot topic as we inadvertently found out recently.

First of all, it should be realised that what is sometimes referred to as an upflow water softener control valve is in reality an upflow brining water softener control valve. The only function of the control valve that is upflow is the brining cycle of the regeneration process.

Brining is one of the typically 5 cycles in a water softener's regeneration process. Brining is the cycle that saturates the resin beads inside of the water softener's mineral tank with sodium chloride (salt) or brine (salt water). This process frees up the minerals attached to the resin beads and flushes them down the drain. It is the direction of the flow of the brine indroduced into the mineral tank that has caused much debate. For the most part, water softener control valves are configured for downflow brining. The brine is introduced into the top of the mineral bed and forced downward to the bottom where it is picked up by a distributor tube and brought up through this tube to the drain. An upflow brining valve does just the opposite. It forces the brine water downward through the distributor tube to the bottom of the mineral bed, then upward (upflow) through the mineral bed and out the top of the tank.

"So? What difference does that make?", you may ask. Plenty in some people's opinion. When a water softener is busy processing your water it normally introduces the water at the top of the resin bed, the water flows down through the bed and exchanges its ions with the beads. The water then gathers at the bottom of the distributor and flows up through the outlet off the softener. The theory is (and this is just theory; there is no proof according to most experts) the bulk of the minerals trapped by the resin beads are at the top of the resin bed because that is where the water is first introduced. Because a downflow brining valve will force the brine water downward through the entire resin bed, it is suggested that the majority of the trapped minerals at the top will be forced downward through the rest of the more sparsley saturated bed rendering the cycle less efficient (www.pentairwater.com/forums).

Wow, this all sounds great. So why aren't there more upflow brining control valves than downflow? Well, there's a theory going around. Remember, this is just a theory, but I have spoken candidly with engineers at Pentair Water (Fleck) and GE Water Process Technologies (Autotrol) and even they did not offer proof that an upflow brining control valve has any advantages over a downflow brining valve. People want the upflow controller, so why not make them? Supply and demand. People demand the upflow brining valve so the manufacturers supply it. I should say manufacturer because I think only Fleck offers an upflow brining valve on a few of its models. I cannot find any upflow brining valves in the Autotrol parts lists.

Water softener systems and the resin inside the softener is often referred to as "ion exchange" or "an exchange system". The reason for this is simple. The oppositely charged ions in the resin beads and the water minerals are attracted to each other. They actually "stick" to each other. That is how a resin bed removes the hardness from your water. When the brine is introduced to refresh the resin bed, it is actually resetting the neutralized ion charge of the resin beads and carrying the minerals (hardness) away to be flushed down the drain. The concentration of hardness minerals may well be greater near the top of a resin bed but that should make no difference in the way the brine reacts with the minerals adhered to the resin beads. They are still going to be released for discharge no matter which direction the brine flows from. It saturates the entire resin bed. If your system is not releasing all of the minerals during regeneration, then your brine cam needs to be adjusted, not the direction of brine flow.

Water Value Company belongs to the local Lowell Chamber of Commerce. They offer classes and lectures on business in general hosted by organizations and guest speakers with experience and success in all manner of business ventures. Anyway, a recurring theme at these lectures pertaining to marketing is that a business has to offer something unique. Anything. In the water treatment business, many companies will offer systems designed specifically for well water or systems for city water or systems for certain forms of iron treatment. In the local sales world, on-site sales people offer a free year supply of soap or a gift certificate to a hardware store or something like that. Well, it seems that an upflow brining water softener control valve would fill that void quite nicely. Think about it: A salesman pitches his water softener to Mr. and Mrs. America and they argue that they can get the "same thing" from either a local hardware store or an online supplier for much less cost. The salesperson then argues that his water softening system is much better than anyone elses because it is an upflow brining system. They then go on to explain the advantages just as I did above.

Could it be the "gimick" that created the upflow brining control valve? The service or product that stands out above the rest? Because quite frankly, there seems to be no advantage at all to an upflow brining control valve.