My elderly neighbor is under the mistaken impression that he needs to put his softener on bypass immediately before it regenerates, and then return it to soften afterwards. I don't know much about softeners, but I suspect that this could damage the unit over time, at the least, it can't be fuctioning properly. Please help. We have been debating this for the last 2 years.

I have a 10+ year old Kenmore that is fully automatic--it sets the valves as required.

Here is a link to a site that has 1,237,233 user's guides for 5,364 brands. Perhaps you can find the user's manual there.

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Hope this helps.

Mike