Isobar I Demand (Metered) Control Valve Initial Set up Programming

Setup procedure for water softeners equipped with the metered Isobar I Control Valve. This procedure also applies to Cygna and many other brands of softeners that use a metered electromechanical control valve.

[@Frazzlenodazzle]

Thank you. The company who makes my softener wont get back with me so I searched YT and found you after a lot of digital screens. This is exactly my set up. Thank you so much.

[@didpopup]

I watched other videos about doing the setting, this is by far the best. Clear and direct. It answered my questions.

[@Chris4]

Thanks for the video. I watched several others and couldn't understand how to set the grains/people. Your video was clear as day, thank you!

[@LP-hs6yz]

So much easier than referring to the manual. Thank you.

[@ryanb7476]

Amazing video. Was ready to replace mine as it was old and couldn't obtain a manual as we just got the property, works great now! Thank you so much!

[@SR-pb6kq]

this is the best instruction I've found so far. Thank you.

[@ooopticnerveee]

This video is so helpful. Also realized that someone broke off the meter assembly at some point which may be why my softener has not been working in a long time 😂

[@kwallyg]

Thank you for this quick information. Straight to the point!!

[@teamhorsepower8257]

This is the best video for setting up a softener.

[@jsiniguez]

Thank you. Very nicely explained. I needed mine set, moved into a new Location up north. And your video helped me a lot! Thanks again.

[@dborgman59]

Best video for setting my softener! Very excellent description!

[@lorimetcalf5201]

Thank you! This was super helpful!

[@johnnyyuen3531]

Please re-do the video as your hand covered the turning of the set up. Thanks

[@SA-ho2nw]

Thank you for posting. The other videos are a complete waste of time.

[@consumersgasman8376]

first one Ive watched that expains it so you could understand.

[@mex2fly1]

I don’t understand how to set it up just bought my house and it already had it and I can’t find who to service my unit I live in the Laredo TX area 😓

[@noneya4820]

So just to confirm: it’s the two inner dials that matter, the third outer dial closest to the white dot will adjust right according to the two inner ones? So if it’s just for one person and the hardness is 18, I set the dial with the stick figures to 1 and the smaller dial to 18 right?

[@LP-hs6yz]

I hear ya.

[@kerele4843]

On my unit, the #of people dial and the hardness dial is just 1 piece and is fixed. What setting or number (on the outside dial should I line up with the white dot?

[@watersoft7308]

hello, in order to determine the gallons and set it that way, you will need to know A) your softener capacity, and B) your water hardness. If you know these two things, just take the hardness and divide into the capacity, e.g. 32,000/20=1,600. Subtract 10% from that number, and that's where you will want the white dot to be set.

[@Baumanly]

@watersoft - I have this exact unit and it it constantly draining water no matter what cycle it is in. do you have some common issues that I can troubleshoot?

[@watersoft7308]

Hello, sorry for the delayed response. The symptom you described indicates that either water is leaking past a seal or the piston has somehow come detached from the main gear or from the piston rod. Either way, you would want to rebuild the control valve with a new piston and seal kit.

[@louisfain]

This is only a generic control for many different softener capacities. I’ve seen the same control installed on 30k gr and 42-45k units. Obviously the volume before regeneration setting will be different but I wonder what capacity is the unit calibrated to?

[@watersoft7308]

Hi, sorry for the very late response. To answer your question, capacity is determined by the amount of resin in the tank. When a softener is built, the control valve should be set up accordingly with the correct capacity sticker (as well as the correct size injector and DLFC button) to match the size of the resin tank that it is going on.

[@bunyah]

I have to manually regenerate due to not having a drain. Do I turn the knob to Regen to get it started, or go to back wash?

[@watersoft7308]

To regen immediately, you will need to turn the dial all the way to backwash. Just turn it until water starts to flow through the drain line and let it go from there.

[@watersoft7308]

Turning to regen will tell it to go tonight; turning to backwash will start the regen immediately. Sorry for the late reply!

[@JeanHuangLosAngeles]

Having to try REGEN for the first time in decades of using water softener. This comment (along with the video) is the most helpful. When nothing happened after the knob is turned to REGEN, I thought something was wrong. Your comment cleared it up for me. Thank you!

[@mostoriginalever]

So it will regenerate nightly? Most water softeners its like 2-3 days between

[@watersoft7308]

Hello, no, it will regenerate whenever the "gallons used" hits zero. A properly sized water softener should go at least 3-4 days between cycles.

[@rockymini625]

How do you measure grains of hardness in the water?

[@watersoft7308]

hello, you would need to do a test for total hardness

[@ryanstutzman5876]

What would cause my dial on the right to spin clockwise instead of counter clockwise? Is that normal?

[@watersoft7308]

Hi Ryan, as you use water, it should spin counter-clockwise, counting down the gallons. When it gets to "0" then it should go through a regen that evening, and it will then it will reset the total gallons remaining. If its spinning backward during times of regular water usage, I'm unaware of what could cause that to happen unless the unit is plumbed in backwards, causing the meter turbine to spin the wrong way.

[@ryanstutzman5876]

WaterSoft is there a way I could tell it’s plumbed backwards?

[@watersoft7308]

@@ryanstutzman5876 If you are looking at it from the front, the water should be going in on the right and out on the left.

[@ryanstutzman5876]

WaterSoft is there a way I can tell which pipe from the house flows which direction?

[@riverviewflorida6216]

Thank you for sharing these useful information. How often water softener regeneration? is it different machine to machine? some one told me one week, others said 4 days. How do I know on mine?

[@watersoft7308]

if it's a metered (demand based) softener like this one, you don't tell it how often to regenerate, you just set the people and the hardness, and it determines the number of gallons between regeneration cycles based on that information. If you don't know your hardness, you can test your water to find out.

[@garrybeair5789]

I am assuming the time of day is the time you want it to regenerate? or current time?

[@watersoft7308]

Hello, the time of day should be set to the current time of day. They unit is automatically set to regen at 2am when the time of day is set to the current time, so if you would like it to regen at a different time, you will need to set the time of day accordingly.

[@jstrm53]

@@watersoft7308 thank you

[@jamesmullarkey5851]

Why would water be in where the salt is?? not draining out.

[@watersoft7308]

Hello, there should always be a small amount of water in the brine tank, because the softener refills the brine tank at the end of each cycle in order to make brine for the next regen cycle. The only time that you will be able to observe water getting pulled out of the brine tank will be during the 60-minute "brine/rinse" step. If you suspect that your system is not drawing brine, you can turn the dial to "brine/rinse", leave it there for 15-20 minutes, and see if there is any change in the brine level. If there is, then it's working. If the brine level does not go down at all during this step, then check your brine line connections (at the head and also at the brine tank) and clean your injector nozzle/throat and screen. These are the most common causes of a lack of brine draw. Any kind of flow restriction in the drain line or drain line flow control could also be a possible cause.

[@sucapizda]

Ya, the hardness of the people helped. That's what I screwed up on mine.

[@zigzag5015]

I bought one of these off someone, and there's resin in the valves, is this normal? I'm worried that if we put it in and turn it on, the resin will go into the waterlines.

[@watersoft7308]

It is not normal to have resin inside the valve body. You will want to clean the resin out of the valve body before installation to ensure that the resin does not enter your service lines.

[@zigzag5015]

@@watersoft7308 Thank you, where would the screens be, that keep the resin in the tank, so that I can check to make sure they're good?

[@zigzag5015]

Or a diagram would be helpful to reference.

[@watersoft7308]

@@zigzag5015 there is a screen at the bottom of the tube inside the tank that prevents resin from entering the lines when the water is flowing in a downward direction. There generally is not a screen at the bottom of the control valve.

[@zigzag5015]

@@watersoft7308 Remembering back, the guy was carrying the tank sideways and we think that's why there was resin in the valves, thanks!

[@ES-ge7bb]

Where did you set 2am?

[@watersoft7308]

2am is automatically the time that it regenerates. All you have to do is set "time of day" to the actual current time. If you would like it to regenerate at a time other than 2am, you can just "fool" the time of day setting to move the regen time to be earlier or later. The valve will initiate regen whenever it "thinks" it's 2am.

[@do2715]

How to turn it off

[@watersoft7308]

if you want to turn if off so that it doesn't cycle while you're away, just unplug it. If you want to keep water from going through it, turn the bypass valve behind the head. If it's going through a cycle and you want it to stop, turn the dial to the "In Serv" position. If there's water flowing out the drain line while it's in the "In Serv" position and you want to make it stop, just turn the bypass valve.