Brookfield’s chloride guidance and the 23-grain softener setting
The City of Brookfield Water Utility does more than publish a hardness range. Its chloride-reduction guidance gives residents two specific instructions about the softeners in their basements.
Call (262) 829-5961Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pmWhy a water utility talks about softeners
When a softener regenerates, its brine rinse goes down the drain, and in Brookfield that discharge reaches local waterways. The city’s chloride-reduction guidance exists because of it.
What it asks of softener owners comes down to two adjustments: a setting, and a type of control.
Instruction one: set the softener to 23 grains
The guidance tells residents to set their softeners to 23 grains. That is the low end of the city’s published range of 23 to 34 grains, and it is the number the city wants Brookfield softeners to use.
Read it as written: a setting for city water. A Town of Brookfield home on Sanitary District No. 4 is on a different system that publishes 32 to 35 grains, and the city’s guidance was not written for it.
Instruction two: demand-initiated control, not a timer
The same guidance asks residents to switch from a timer to demand-initiated control. On a timer, a softener regenerates by the calendar; under demand-initiated control it regenerates according to how much water the house has used.
Every softener supplied through this site is demand-initiated, so a new one from here already matches what the city asks for.
Checking the softener you have now
Two things are worth reading off your current unit. The hardness setting, usually readable on the control head or in its manual, can be compared with 23. The control type tells you whether it regenerates on a clock or on use; the manual, or the label on the control head, usually says which.
Write both down before you call. They are the two things the city’s guidance is about, and they say a lot about whether the unit you have lines up with it.
How the guidance shapes a quote
On the call, a city address starts from the city’s figures, the 23-grain guidance included, along with your household and where the water service enters the house. On install day the plumber tests your tap, and the visit ends only when a retest reads zero. If the softener you already own matches both instructions, say so; the call is the place to hear whether it needs replacing at all.
Common questions
Does the 23-grain setting apply in the Town of Brookfield?
The guidance comes from the city utility, for city water. Town homes on Sanitary District No. 4 have the district’s own figure, 32 to 35 grains.
Does Brookfield require a demand-initiated softener?
The city’s chloride-reduction guidance asks residents to switch from timers to demand-initiated control. Every softener supplied through this site already works that way.
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