Patent Application

App. No. 10/615,859

Abstract

Claims (32)

1 . A water softening method in which a determination is made whether a valid regeneration in an operational cycle has occurred, which comprises the steps of:

providing a reference cell in a water tank and a spaced sensing cell in said water tank;

sensing the impedance difference of the solution in the water tank between the reference cell and the sensor cell;

if the impedance difference is one of a first, a second and a third state, determining whether a maximum rinse timer has timed out;

if the maximum rinse timer has timed out, determining whether the maximum time limit was a preset time period;

if the preset time period was reached, then triggering an alarm signal indicating that a valid regeneration did not occur.

2 . The method of claim 1 further including the step that if the preset rinse time period was reached, discontinuing the operational cycle.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further including the step that if the preset rinse time period was not reached, discontinuing the operational cycle.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preset rinse time period is 99 minutes.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein said alarm signal is at least one of an audible and a visual alarm indicator.

6 . The method of claim 1 further including after determining that the maximum timer timed out, determining whether the maximum time limit was reached.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the preset maximum time period is 99 minutes.

8 . The method of claim 1 further including making the determination of whether the maximum preset time limit was the preset time limit separately for each of said first, second and third states.

9 . A water softening method in which a determination is made whether a valid regeneration in an operational cycle has occurred, which comprises the steps of:

providing a reference cell in a water tank and a spaced sensing cell in said water tank;

sensing the impedance difference of the solution in the water tank between the reference cell and the sensor cell;

sequentially determining whether the impedance difference is one of a first, a second and a third state;

for each said state, determining whether a maximum rinse timer has timed out;

if the maximum rinse timer has timed out, determining whether the maximum time limit was a preset time period;

if the preset time period was reached, then triggering an alarm signal indicating that a valid regeneration did not occur; and

if the alarm signal is triggered, discontinuing the operational cycle.

10 . A water treatment apparatus in which a determination is made whether a valid regeneration has occurred, said apparatus comprising:

a water tank;

a brine tank;

a conduit for providing brine from said brine tank to said water tank;

a conduit for providing a path for water to discharge from said water tank;

a reference cell in said water tank;

a spaced sensing cell in said water tank;

a circuit for sensing the impedance difference of the solution in said water tank between said reference cell and said sensor cell;

a microprocessor connected to said circuit for aiding in determining if the impedance difference is one of a first state, a second state and a third state, subsequently determining whether a maximum rinse time has been reached, if so, was an upper preset time limit reached, and if so triggering an alarm signal for alerting the user that a valid regeneration has not occurred.

11 . The system of claim 10 wherein further including a display connected to said microprocessor for indicating said alarm signal.

12 . The system of claim 10 wherein said alarm signal is at least one of audible and visual.

Assignments (12)