What is Water Efficient Technology (W.E.T.)?

 

What is Water Efficient Technology (W.E.T.)?

W.E.T. is a more recent innovation in water treatment available exclusively on our Evolve series water softeners. A variety of different settings within your system qualify as Water Efficient Technology. Your water treatment experts may recommend activating just a few, or all five for maximum savings. Its smart technology and advanced calculations allow water treatment to keep up with modern high-efficiency homes. The technology’s exclusivity means  That your Evolve system will outperform any other softener on the market today.

 

What does W.E.T. have to offer?

All water softeners go through a sequence called “regeneration” in order to refresh the resin media inside. This process resets the media’s capability to reduce the hardness minerals in your water and provide soft water throughout your home. During the regeneration cycles, the softener will use salt and water to complete this reset process and that is where the W.E.T. features come into play.

1. Save on Salt – Softener salt is an important part of the regeneration process, but we have a way to make sure it is not being wasted by your system. With Proportional Brining turned on, your softener will reduce the amount of salt used to regenerate the media inside in correspondence to the amount of water treated by the system. If your household is using less water, Proportional Brining will calculate it’s salt cycle accordingly to use only the amount of salt necessary for the system to do its work. 
   
   
2. Reduce Water Usage – After the salt cycle of regeneration, your softener will also perform a couple of rinse cycles, where it draws in water to flush the media bed clean. Proportional Regeneration reduces the water used by your softener during these rinse cycles to match how much water has been treated by your softener.  W.E.T. knows how much water your household is using and will regenerate using only the amount of water it needs, instead of rinsing all of the media inside.
   
   
3. Maintain System Performance – It is possible that continuously reducing the salt and rinse water amounts on a water softener could lead to your softener losing its hardness reducing capacities over time. With W.E.T., there is an answer to prevent these losses. Alternate Regeneration performs a full regeneration using the normal, higher salt amounts and complete rinse cycles occasionally to maintain the system's performance. It’s a lot like mopping your kitchen floors — a quick wipe up of everyday messes is how to keep things looking good, but doing a deep clean every couple of months will really make your floors shine!
   
   
4. Monitor Salt Levels – As we mentioned, salt is important to how your softener functions, but it can be hard to keep track of when you last added salt. With the optional Salt Monitor, you can have your softener measures the salt levels in real time. When the salt levels start to get low, an alert on the system is prompted to remind you when you need to add salt.  This means your softener will never run out of salt, ensuring your system is always running at top performance.
   
   
5. Track Savings –  Not only do the W.E.T. features save the amount of water and salt used by your softener, but the Savings History Screen will also prove it to you. The technology will keep track of how much water and salt it actually used and compares it to a water softener without W.E.T. It will calculate the difference and show you how many gallons of water and how many pounds of salt you have saved with W.E.T.
   
   
   

How does W.E.T. compare to traditional systems?

The features listed above might sound like features that should be offered on every system, right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Traditional water treatment systems act as a one-size fits all when it comes to water and salt usage. This causes the water softener to use more salt and water than the system actually needs.

Think about it like this, the oil in a car should be changed every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. The average commuter takes about 3 months to hit this mark.  Imagine you only use your car on weekends and it takes you 6 months to reach 3,000 miles. You would get your oil changed as needed, every 6 months, right? Since you have control over your oil changes, you get to choose to reduce the amount you spend on them. With traditional water softeners, it is like you are still changing your oil every 3 months even though you’ve only driven half the mileage. This causes inefficiencies and loss of money. Water Efficient Technology will only use what is necessary based on usage, just like you only get an oil change when you need one.

 

How does W.E.T. work?

Don’t worry, we won’t let you scientific and engineer types hanging. We’ll explain how Water Efficient Technology makes your system smart.

Water softeners that are equipped with W.E.T. use innovative technology to monitor and track what your household uses in water. Based on the capacity used to treat your water, W.E.T. automatically adjusts all of its cycle times and proportionately reduces the amount of water and salt used for regeneration. W.E.T. calculates what your house is using in water to determine how much water and salt the system needs to do its job. This means it uses the optimum amount of salt and water needed which reduces waste.

Over time, the system can become fatigued using just the right amount of salt and water. Much like everyone needs a cheat day from their diet to fulfill a craving, W.E.T. will prompt a full regeneration for the system at a scheduled time. This ensures the system maintains its effectiveness in treating your water for years on end.

 

How much can W.E.T. really save?

Based on field research by the manufacturer when compared to other high-efficiency systems, the average salt and water savings for systems that are equipped with W.E.T. is 18%.

The potential salt and water savings, when compared to standard settings, can be as much as 50%.

To put these savings in perspective, let’s say your water softener cleans and regenerates weekly using 9lbs of salt and 30 gallons of water. Every year, W.E.T. could be saving you as much as 234lbs of salt and 780 gallons of water!

 

Are you looking to reduce water usage, prolong salt supplies, and save money?

Contact us today to find out how!