W.E.T. - What is Water Efficient Technology?

If you are shopping for a new appliance for your home, chances are that one of the deciding factors of your purchase is its efficiency. Imagine that you’re looking for a new air conditioner to beat back some of the summer heat and have it narrowed down to two different models. Both are comparatively priced, but one promises to use 18% less energy over time, saving you money in the long run. It’s a pretty easy decision to make.

In fact, it’s almost expected that efficiency is factored into everything that we put into our home. Our appliances should work their hardest to help save energy and water at every chance. This translates to money savings and less environmental impact.

This mindset is no different when considering our home’s water treatment. Like our high-efficiency air conditioner scenario, what if your water softener could use less salt and water over time?

W.E.T. Compared to Traditional Equipment

The philosophy behind W.E.T. is using only what you need. Traditional water softeners regenerate once a preset number of gallons have been treated or a specific number of days have passed. A softener with the W.E.T. feature enabled will regenerate based on your home’s water usage. This ensures that your water softener is only regenerating exhausted media.

In a lot of ways, W.E.T. programming works very similar to preparing for a summer barbecue with friends or family. Imagine that you’re in charge of cooking and you’re putting together a grocery list. The very first thing you would do is find out how many people are coming so you can buy the correct amount of ingredients. You want to make sure you’re buying enough food to ensure that everyone’s full and happy, but not too much. The last thing you want to do is throw out or waste extra ingredients that you’re not using.

What is W.E.T.?

Water Efficient Technology, or W.E.T., is a series of features available on WaterCare softeners that examines water usage and adjusts settings automatically so that upon regeneration, your water softener is only using the amount of water and salt that is needed to sufficiently recharge the media inside.

W.E.T. enabled units use a complex programming algorithm that examines the amount of media that has been used inside, taking into account your home’s unique water conditions as well as your daily salt and water usage. Typical “high efficiency” water softeners will use enough salt and water to regenerate the entire tank full of media.  With W.E.T., your softener will automatically adjust its regeneration cycle to make sure it’s only using the amount of water and salt that is necessary, saving you money!

There are five specific features that W.E.T. employs to help you save:

1. Reduces Salt Use: W.E.T. uses a programming feature called “proportional brining.” The amount of brine solution made for each regeneration, which is made from water combining with the salt in your brine tank, is dependent on the amount of exhausted resin. This results in less salt being dissolved for each regeneration.
2. Reduces Water Use: Similar to proportional brining, W.E.T. programming adjusts the time of rinse cycles during regeneration, which we call proportional regeneration. So, instead of needing enough water to rinse all of the media inside, W.E.T. knows how much has been used to soften your water and will draw in the rinse water accordingly..
3. Maintains Your Softener: While the salt and water savings associated with W.E.T. programming are hugely beneficial, it’s still necessary to occasionally refresh all of the media in your softener tank. In order to reduce system fatigue, W.E.T. will initiate a full regeneration cycle occasionally to make sure that your softener will stay up and running for years. This ability to program both low salt and rinse settings AND alternating full regenerations is unique to the industry.
4. Monitors Salt Levels: With the additional salt monitor installed, the salt level in your brine tank is tracked in real-time. Salt is a very important part of your softener’s performance, and it’s sometimes hard to remember to add more on a regular basis. With our monitor, audio and visual alerts are triggered when salt levels become too low, ensuring that you have enough notice to refill your tank before it affects your water softener’s performance.
5. Monitors Your Savings: With W.E.T. enabled, you can see just how much salt and water you have saved right on your softener screen. This history screen displays how many gallons of water and pounds of salt that you’ve saved since the W.E.T. feature was initially activated on your softener.

How Does it Work?

Once enabled, W.E.T. works behind the scenes to track, monitor, and adjust your softener’s regeneration cycles based on previous water usage. Even during periods of irregular water usage, W.E.T.’s algorithm can adapt and adjust accordingly.

Due to the fact that all of the media is not always refreshed during regeneration, W.E.T. programming will provide routine maintenance on your media by initiating a full regeneration occasionally which can prevent your system from experiencing fatigue.

How Much Savings Will I See?

While the amount of savings that you may experience is dependent on a number of factors, including water quality and usage, the system is capable of saving you up to 50% on salt and rinse water used. Field research has confirmed that W.E.T. equipped systems save, on average, 18% in salt and water use when compared to other high-efficiency systems.

If you would like to learn more about how W.E.T. programming can help you save on salt and water costs, look for the W.E.T. logo on WaterCare softeners or contact your WaterCare dealer today!