Commercial installation vs DIY (replacing existing IQ-0820 system)

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rnsmithtldiy

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Commercial installation vs DIY (replacing existing Ionics IQ-0820 system)

I have an Ionics IQ-0820 system (about 5 years old) that I am considering replacing -- because, frankly, it is very expensive to maintain. It is going to cost me nearly $200 for a service call and that does not include any of the parts and other things that may need replacing, rejuvenating, etc. It hasn't been working well and I don't think it is recycling properly (practically no water in the brine tank), but just discovered that this recycle process may take 3 hours, so maybe I haven't allowed enough time for it to go through a manual recycle.

Anyway, I have looked through some of the threads and, for instance, since there is a lot of references to Fleck systems, I was wondering about the large difference in prices that I am seeing. For instance, I have seen guys mention installation of a Fleck 5600 or 7000 system for maybe $1,500-$2,000 -- with comments from others that these prices are reasonable. Yet, I also see the Fleck 5600 & 7000 system prices (with free shipping) quoted in the $500-$700 or $800 range. So am I looking at the same systems. Is there that much markup on having the systems professionally installed.

Since the next service call is likely to run $300-$400 or more if the controller is bad (they complained that there was some problem with the resin in the tank the last time they came out, and that was 2-3 years ago), I was thinking that I might just apply that amount to a new system and just dump the Ionics. One big complaint against the Ionics is that you can't get information on how to maintain or set up the system -- the manual says don't touch it, call your dealer/installer. I don't like this at all. I am looking for a system that I can maintain myself.

So could you give me a little help on this price differentiation business and comments on my replacement plans, and even on what kind of systems I should/could be considering would help me out a lot.

ron in round rock
 
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ditttohead

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If you can do basic plumbing, you can probably replace the system yourself. I would recommend avoiding the companies that are pushing only price. Buy from a company that has a real location, not a PO box, a UPS store, or from a house.

Installed prices in the 1500-2000 with a RO, the liability insurance, the licensing, certifications, etc are worth it in my opinion.

Are you on a municipal supply or a well? What are your basic water conditions?

The Fleck valves are the most popular with the commercial and industrial guys, the same design goes into their residential systems.

They are very easy to service and maintain, but the best part is, they rarely need any service. See my link below, it is a short video on a complete 7000 teardown.
 

Gary Slusser

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rnsmithtldiy, if your control valve looks like the one at the link below, you have a Fleck valve.

http://www.generalionics.net/

Ionics also used the Clack WS-1 control valve. You should be able to get parts for either and resin from www.softenerparts.com.

You can unscrew the control valve from the tank and pour out the media in the tank and replace with sodium form resin. The volume is dictated by the size of the tank and anyone selling resin can tell you the volume if you tell them the model number of the tank which is somewhere on the tank; usually on the side down toward the bottom on an imbedded label in the clear epoxy.

From the Ionics link above, the hygiene part should be silver impregnated charcoal/carbon. Your charcoal will be all ground up in the resin and that is probably why you've been told the resin needs to be replaced, but if you could separate the resin and carbon, the resin would be fine. I'd buy new resin rather than trying to separate the two. The charcoal is not needed and should not be used with resin anyway.

That softenerparts site has a lot of videos and instructions showing you how to rebuild a control valve. ditto has errors in his Clack WS-1 video and I doubt he's corrected them yet. He is also wanting you to buy from a local dealer or wouldn't be going on about not buying from a dealer that doesn't have a store front location. like online dealers. The fact is many independent dealers selling Autotrol, Clack or Fleck valved equipment don't and there is no difference in a softener from them or a dealer with huge overhead selling out of a store front location but price.

You can install a new softener without soldering if you buy the right fittings or... in a half hour of practice you can learn to solder by watching the video linked below or other youtube videos that will be listed after watching the How To Solder Oatey video. Oatey is a very old and large company that makes all types of soldering materials etc..

If you want to check your solder job while practicing, after soldering a fitting remove the fitting and see if solder covers all the surface area of the tubing that was inside the fitting and then the surface in the fitting. If so ya did it right. You can reuse those practice fittings and tubing.

http://www.oatey.com/technical-info/how-to-videos
 

rnsmithtldiy

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Are you on a municipal supply or a well? What are your basic water conditions?

The Fleck valves are the most popular with the commercial and industrial guys, the same design goes into their residential systems.

Dittohead - Thanks for the response. Sorry so late in getting back to you, but had a busy weekend. Anyway, in answer to your question, I think the water conditions are pretty good. Pretty new water treatment plant in our development and their site indicates average hardness is around 180-189 mg/L which I think puts my hardness around 10.5-11 grains / gal. I am having trouble figuring out the size of my current system (I think they left the various sizes out of the sales slips on purpose), but I have a 4-bedroom house, 3 bathrooms (only 2 baths/showers) and currently servicing 3 people. You mentioned not buying a new system from some guy selling systems out of his house, but it is kind of hard to tell what size outfit they are because they can make their web site look pretty nice. Any suggestions on identifying the reputable vendors. I thought about just replacing the control valve (if I determine mine is bad), but I think I read somewhere that Ionics has a non-standard tank opening, probably to prevent you from doing just that -- which is why I am considering replacing the whole system. Plus there is the problem with the darn Hygene Bacteriostatic Filter Media that they put in the tank along with the resin, which is something I can't replace myself because it appears to be a proprietary and controlled/licensed substance. ron in round rock
 

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rnsmithtldiy, if your control valve looks like the one at the link below, you have a Fleck valve.

http://www.generalionics.net/

Ionics also used the Clack WS-1 control valve. You should be able to get parts for either and resin from www.softenerparts.com.

You can unscrew the control valve from the tank and pour out the media in the tank and replace with sodium form resin. The volume is dictated by the size of the tank and anyone selling resin can tell you the volume if you tell them the model number of the tank which is somewhere on the tank; usually on the side down toward the bottom on an imbedded label in the clear epoxy.

Gary, Thanks a lot for the response. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but I had a busy weekend. Anyway, regarding the link you sent about a picture of a control valve, the link get me to the General Ionics web site, but there is just a picture of a girl drinking water there, and I can not find any close-up of any control valves. However, the picture of the girl drinking water does match the picture of the girl drinking water on the side of my water tank -- and pictures of Ionics tanks that I did find seem to match what my tank looks like.

I don't know about the Clack WS-1 control valve, but on the water sofenerparts web site, it was not very encouraging about finding Ionics control valves. As near as I can tell, Ionics uses non-standard sized control valves with non-standard sized tank openings, so there is very little trading around that can be done. In fact, on the softenerparts site, they pretty much tell me to go to my Ionics dealer for these parts -- which is what I was trying to avoid and was the point of my question/post (the reason I am considering replacing the Ionics system rather than pay a bunch of money to get it fixed if it is broken (which I have not totally determined yet).

That darn proprietary Hygene Bacteriostatic Filter Media is another problem. It appears to be a controlled substance and you can't buy it because it must be handled by a licensed installer -- another thing I don't like, at all. As near as I can tell, nobody raves about its capabilities, except Ionics itself -- and I don't know why I really need it. I have been also considering on empting the tank and just replacing everything in it with just the standard Resin that everybody else is using. Can I do that. Was that the point of your 2nd paragraph.

As far as replacing the entire system, some of the on-line prices look pretty good -- and none of the ones I looked at seemed to be a guy selling systems out of his house, but it is kind of hard to tell with web sites now-a-days. However, since I am after something I want to get and maintain myself, I do not want to pay for any overhead and servicing that I don't want or hopefully need -- and about the only place I can get that is on-line and not at any of the local water softener dealers. The Ionics system was installed on a water pipe Loop in my garage and I think I can handle the installation myself, as well as the maintenance -- particularly because a reasonably quality system should run pretty flawlessly for 5-10, maybe 15 years. I don't know what a stand-alone control valve runs, but I figure that is the maximum liability/cost associated with my plan. Any comments there.

In fact, I would appreciate any follow-up comments. Like what approach would be the best plan. Again, I think I make a big mistake when I bought the system (probably thought they were more complicated than they really are) and I feel it is not a system that I can maintain myself -- the Hygene Bacteriostatic material being one of the biggest (and costly) problems. I am pretty convinced a service call will run over half, maybe more, of what a new system will cost. And I haven't even mentioned the programming of the system -- again, something that I can't do myself because the manual merely refers you back to your Ionics dealer for that task (i.e. Don't touch the dials - call your Ionics dealer).

So can you give me some more advice, encouragement. Sorry for the long post. ron in round rock
 

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Ron in round rock, a picture of the front of your control valve would be nice....

Yes replace the resin and charcoal with new resin. Or replace the whole softener for not too much more than just the cost of a new valve.

Buy online, even if the guy lives in a motor home and sells softeners as he travels around the country (as I did for years, for close to 20 yrs before that I worked out of my garage/house). On that web site I linked to above, below and to the right of the girl with the glass of water is a blue 'thing'. It is the front cover of the control valve that GI sold for decades. It was a Fleck 2500 (brass) and then 2510 (plastic) then they went to Clack. I rebuilt a fair number of their 2500s.
 

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Ron in round rock, a picture of the front of your control valve would be nice....

Yes replace the resin and charcoal with new resin. Or replace the whole softener for not too much more than just the cost of a new valve.

Buy online, even if the guy lives in a motor home and sells softeners as he travels around the country (as I did for years, for close to 20 yrs before that I worked out of my garage/house). On that web site I linked to above, below and to the right of the girl with the glass of water is a blue 'thing'. It is the front cover of the control valve that GI sold for decades. It was a Fleck 2500 (brass) and then 2510 (plastic) then they went to Clack. I rebuilt a fair number of their 2500s.

Gary- Thanks again for the response. Attached, I think, are pictures of my system setup. I am getting a real education looking at all of the You Tube videos and reading all sorts of stuff about softeners. But instead of understanding it more (which I am), it is also causing me to have a lot more questions (tank capacity, resin capacity, lbs. of salt regeneration settings, etc.) -- like a recent article I read seemed to imply that if you push your system to its capacity, you can be using a lot of salt whereas if you back off on the amount of salt used in the regeneration, you can, for instance get 2/3rds the max capacity of the system for 1/3rd of the salt (i.e. it is not linear). Am I sort of on-track here.

Anyway, I still don't understand how to control this salt dosage business. Is it based on the time of the backwash, brine insertion, or what. Regarding my particular system, I can't see any other control over what is going on other than the timing of the different cycles -- or am I missing something else here.

I finally found enough notes that I think I now know how to do some basic programming of my system. For instance, regarding the pictures, I THINK my system was set up for 2 people with a water hardness of 10 grains / gal and a regeneration cycle set to 1400 gallons -- is that right. But I am still having a problem understanding the people and hardness settings in relationship to the 1400 gallon setting -- again, is that just a time adjustment. I can't quite figure out how this ties together unless the little clear plastic things on the people dial have something to do with the regeneration time. As you can see, I am pretty lost.

AS near as I can tell, the timer pictures seem to coincide with some of the Fleck 2510 timers. That is also nice to know, but frankly it hasn't helped me out a lot in understanding what is going on. And back to your comment about replacing the resin or the system -- yes, I want to do that. I have pretty much decided that I am either going to fix this system MYSELF or replace it with a system I can maintain myself. (I just found the receipt for my last service call and the guy put 3 lbs. of that Hygene carbon in for a IQ-1030 system ($225) EXCEPT that I have a IQ-0820 system that is only supposed to have 2 lbs. of the Hygene stuff.)

My last comment is that I am not sure if the system is broken or not. I have always had the water above the salt in the brine tank and became alarmed recently when I couldn't see the water any more. I have since learned that the salt level should be above the water -- which is great except how do you know where the water level is if you do that. Anyway, after panicking, I tried to run the system through a manual regeneration and the back wash cycle was taking such a long amount of time, over an hour when I manually advanced the timer dial to proceed to the next step (it did not appear that the white dial on the back of the timer was moving). Anyway, maybe I reacted too soon and did not allow the back wash to finish on its own, but over an hour seemed to be a pretty long time. So is this normal -- and if not, how can I really determine if the regeneration cycle is really working. OK, too long a post again, DSC_4945.jpgDSC_4947.jpgDSC_4948.jpgbut again, I am kind of lost here. ron in round rock
 
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ditttohead

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Dittohead - Thanks for the response. Sorry so late in getting back to you, but had a busy weekend. Anyway, in answer to your question, I think the water conditions are pretty good. Pretty new water treatment plant in our development and their site indicates average hardness is around 180-189 mg/L which I think puts my hardness around 10.5-11 grains / gal. I am having trouble figuring out the size of my current system (I think they left the various sizes out of the sales slips on purpose), but I have a 4-bedroom house, 3 bathrooms (only 2 baths/showers) and currently servicing 3 people. You mentioned not buying a new system from some guy selling systems out of his house, but it is kind of hard to tell what size outfit they are because they can make their web site look pretty nice. Any suggestions on identifying the reputable vendors. I thought about just replacing the control valve (if I determine mine is bad), but I think I read somewhere that Ionics has a non-standard tank opening, probably to prevent you from doing just that -- which is why I am considering replacing the whole system. Plus there is the problem with the darn Hygene Bacteriostatic Filter Media that they put in the tank along with the resin, which is something I can't replace myself because it appears to be a proprietary and controlled/licensed substance. ron in round rock



Proprietary systems can get costly. The Ionics systems are top of the line, but they also try to lock you in to their equipment with some proprietary components as you have found out.

Any non proprieatary Fleck, Autotrol, or Clack based unit will do just fine for you and the cost to maintain these systems is minimal. In general, the Fleck valves only need to be rebuilt every 5-20 years depending on use and water conditions.

I wont go into the old argument about why purchasing an expensive piece of equipment from a reputable source that has an actual physical address and does not simply have equipment drop shipped from another company blah blah blah. It is not important and someone else will waste too much time trolling. You need to make the ultimate decision as to where you want to spend your money and is an extra few dollars to hava a local company sell, service, and install it for you. This is an old and tired argument that is simply boring. You can always ask the local company to give you a better price, they are usually willing to lower there price rather than lose the sale.

As to a properly sized unit, are happy with your current system size for flo rate? It is unlikely you have ever noticed any pressure drop with it when it is working properly.

Are you sure the system is only 5 years old? Open the timer cover on the right, it is hinged and will swing forard. There is usually a white sticker with the manufacturing date on it.

Considering the continual excessive costs associated with your system, I personally would replace with a simple 1.5 or 2 Cu. Ft. 7000 system, or a 2510SXT, I would not recommend the 5600. It is a great valve, but it is not the highest flowing valve. There are many other valves out there, but be wary. Many companies make knock-offs of the Fleck valves, and they do not even come close to the quality of the Fleck valves.
 

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rnsmithtldiy, you have a very expensive yet high quality softener (other than their mixing carbon with resin). Most of the parts should be stock Fleck 2510 and you can buy them from any local or internet dealer, well driller or plumber that sells anything Fleck, Autotrol or Clack that will sell to you. You should be able to get a better service manual than they provided too.

That SS tank's opening and the valve's base will probably not be industry standard 2.5" dia with 8 threads per inch.

If you haven't yet, you should visit the sizing page on my web site. All your questions will be covered there. A link to the sizing page is in my signature.
 

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Any non proprieatary Fleck, Autotrol, or Clack based unit will do just fine for you and the cost to maintain these systems is minimal. In general, the Fleck valves only need to be rebuilt every 5-20 years depending on use and water conditions.

As to a properly sized unit, are happy with your current system size for flo rate? It is unlikely you have ever noticed any pressure drop with it when it is working properly.

Are you sure the system is only 5 years old? Open the timer cover on the right, it is hinged and will swing forard. There is usually a white sticker with the manufacturing date on it.

Considering the continual excessive costs associated with your system, I personally would replace with a simple 1.5 or 2 Cu. Ft. 7000 system, or a 2510SXT, I would not recommend the 5600. It is a great valve, but it is not the highest flowing valve. There are many other valves out there, but be wary. Many companies make knock-offs of the Fleck valves, and they do not even come close to the quality of the Fleck valves.

Dittohead- Thanks again for the advice. I understand what you are saying about equipment and go along with you on the importance of local purchasing IF you want the system installed and serviced by them. However, that is not my situation. I want to install and more importantly service the system myself. Since, in my situation, I would be replacing an already installed system, I think I will be able to handle it -- particularly since they have already done the bulk of the plumbing work in installing the IQ-0820 system. I particularly feel more comfortable doing this because of all the support that is available via the Internet (i.e. Forums like this and the You Tube's). I plan on following this note up with some more pictures of the current installation (valve, pipes, etc.) and hope to get some more tips regarding installation of a new system.

I guess I was sort-of happy with my current system, but things have changed since I purchased it -- which by the way was 6 years ago. I could not find any manufacturing sticker, but I do have the original receipt and the system was installed 11-9-07.

However, now things are getting cloudy -- I have no idea about the size of the system I currently have. I have all of the original receipts, and yet none of them give me any clue as to the size and capacity of the system. The tank is about 42 inches tall and has a circumference of 27 inches (yielding an outside diameter of 8.6 inches). I think I did manage to find a reference to the IQ-0820 system saying the tank is 8 inches (that is what the 08 of the 0820 means, which you probably already know). Doing some math (pie x r- squared x height = 2110 sq in / 1728 = 1.22 cu ft) -- therefore I would guess that this is a 1 cu ft system, but I can't find that stated anywhere. From this information, one can determine the grain capacity, can't they.

As mentioned earlier, I have a 4 bedroom house with 2 1/2 baths and three people (two when the IQ-0820 was installed 6 years ago). I am fighting through the various formulas now to try and determine what sized system that I need. I plan on oversizing it, for at least 4 people (thinking of resale in the future) plus some of the things I have been reading leads me to believe that buying a larger system and under-utilizing it capacity-wise is more economical because the salt dosage used in the regeneration cycle is non-linear (am I understanding that correctly).

So more help in this area is appreciated -- as was your suggestions on systems to consider in your above note. Again, thanks. ron in round rock
 

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If it were mine, I would probably go through the valve and change out the tank media for straight up resin with a gravel bed.
 

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rnsmithtldiy, you have a very expensive yet high quality softener (other than their mixing carbon with resin). Most of the parts should be stock Fleck 2510 and you can buy them from any local or internet dealer, well driller or plumber that sells anything Fleck, Autotrol or Clack that will sell to you. You should be able to get a better service manual than they provided too.

That SS tank's opening and the valve's base will probably not be industry standard 2.5" dia with 8 threads per inch.

If you haven't yet, you should visit the sizing page on my web site. All your questions will be covered there. A link to the sizing page is in my signature.

Gary, Thanks for the response and help here with my system. I am not sure how to approach the possibility that the tank's opening and threads not being an industry standard. Do I order/buy a new control unit, and if it doesn't fit, send it back.

That problem aside, I guess my first step is to determine if my controller it "really" broken. As I said earlier, when I activated the Manual Regeneration, it seemed to take an inordinate amount of time (maybe an hour in the first backwash cycle before I manually advanced the dial myself to the next brine cycle). So is the way to trouble shoot this is to start another Manual Regeneration cycle and just let it run for a very long time and see if it ever advances to the next cycle on its own. Just how much time should I give it, or what should I be looking at during this backwash period. I.E. During the backwash, I repeatedly looked at the back side of the control unit, where there is a big white dial, and it did not appear to be moving -- but again, I don't know if I should be able to see it move or not.

Just a couple of notes from a few days ago when I was playing around with Manual Regeneration cycle. First of all, during the backwash, the drain from the tank just dumps into a drain pipe in the garage, I think specifically set up for water softeners (very nice). Anyway, the water exiting from the hose coming from the tank was clearly visible -- and was making a lot of noise. Upon closer inspection of what was going on, I discovered that when the installer attached the drain hose to the exit drain, they used those little plastic cable fasteners to hold the hose in palce and they had tightened the plastic straps so tightly that over the years, the drain was pinched and completely collapsed and the water coming out of the hose was hardly more than a large trickle (making a lot of noise because of the pressure forcing the water out). When I cut the cable straps and allowed the hose to open up, a lot of water began to flow out of the hose. Since I don't understand just yet if the backwash cycle is based on time or is it sophisticated enough to be measuring the water used -- but could this problem caused some other problems -- or could this have anything to do with the long amount of time in the backwash cycle, or is an hour a long time for a backwash (and of course, I may be slightly exaggerating the backwash cycle time, but it seemed very long to me and was not much less than an hour, if less at all).

Regarding the Brine Draw and later the Brine Rinse, I unhooked the line going to the brine tank during the Brine Refill cycle so I could check the water flow. The Brine did get drawn out of the brine tank and the brine tank did get refilled (although the water running out of the hose going to the brine tank was pretty weak -- i.e. very little water pressure to speak of). So that part works, I guess, but again, I don't know if there should be a lot of water pressure in the Brine Refill cycle and I don't see how it can be controlled other than a timed cycle.

As far as me keeping the salt below the water level, I have come to think that has to do with the salt dosage or saturation level more than anything (i.e. I don't think I broke anything there, did I). And I am still trying to figure out this salt dosage/saturation business as that comes into play big time in the regeneration cycle, doesn't it. And I still don't know how it is controlled -- is it by time.

So anyway, I would appreciate some tips on how to troubleshoot the Manual Regeneration cycle -- which I assume if it works, as normal, the automatic regeneration cycle should also be OK. Is that a good assumption. I feel like I want to get up at midnight (well I am always up at midnight) or 2 am (up then sometimes) to witness the automatic regeneration cycle when the water usage dial goes to zero -- although I have thought of changing the Time of Day so that the 2 am (they told me that's about when the regeneration occurs) will occur at a more reasonable hour.

Does the above make any sense. Have I laid out a reasonable approach or should I be using a different approach. Thanks again for the help. ron in round rock
 

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The tank dimensions can be used to determine the capacity, but your calculation includes the domes/ distribution spacing ... You have a shrt dome true stainless tank, and many companies will slightly overfill the tanks to keep cost down. A more accurate measurement excludes the dome portions of the tanks. So an 8x42 tank would have a useable capacity of approximately .7 cu ft. of media space assuming a 50% freeboard (2/3 media 1/3 empty tank).

If you plan on doing it yourself, it is fairly simple but a few things need to be done. First, get yourself a good quality test kit. The Hach 5B is the most highly recommended test kit here for hardness testing, it is simple, inexpensive, last a long time, and is highly accurate. If you are on a municipal supply, pull the water report. Most municipal supplies are fairly good, since they have to meet certain standards. If you are on a well, then regular proper testing is recommended, though not required.

The system has 2-1/4-16 thread neck (if I remeber right) so a replacement valve will not work. The special media for bacterial control is nothing more than silver impregnated GAC. I would not bother with replacing or replenishing it in the future.
 

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Since I don't understand just yet if the backwash cycle is based on time or is it sophisticated enough to be measuring the water used -- but could this problem caused some other problems -- or could this have anything to do with the long amount of time in the backwash cycle, or is an hour a long time for a backwash (and of course, I may be slightly exaggerating the backwash cycle time, but it seemed very long to me and was not much less than an hour, if less at all).
The backwash depends not only on the amount of water but also the force and velocity of the water. It needs to be able to lift up the media. So your opening the path should help significantly.

Flow rate during the refill cycle would normally be low. It gets restricted, and the restricted flow is timed to get the refill right, or the amount gets measured -- I am not sure which for a given system. When your system is set up to deliver more or less salt, the refill amount is changed. It is OK for the salt to be higher than the water level most of the time. The assumption is that the water will be salt saturated by the time of the regeneration.
 
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rnsmithtldiy

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The tank dimensions can be used to determine the capacity, but your calculation includes the domes/ distribution spacing ... You have a shrt dome true stainless tank, and many companies will slightly overfill the tanks to keep cost down. A more accurate measurement excludes the dome portions of the tanks. So an 8x42 tank would have a useable capacity of approximately .7 cu ft. of media space assuming a 50% freeboard (2/3 media 1/3 empty tank).

If you plan on doing it yourself, it is fairly simple but a few things need to be done. First, get yourself a good quality test kit. The Hach 5B is the most highly recommended test kit here for hardness testing, it is simple, inexpensive, last a long time, and is highly accurate. If you are on a municipal supply, pull the water report. Most municipal supplies are fairly good, since they have to meet certain standards. If you are on a well, then regular proper testing is recommended, though not required.

The system has 2-1/4-16 thread neck (if I remeber right) so a replacement valve will not work. The special media for bacterial control is nothing more than silver impregnated GAC. I would not bother with replacing or replenishing it in the future.

Dittohead- Thanks -- this is the kind of information that I need -- stuff that I can not find anywhere else on the web, at least so far. I did not measure to the top of the dome -- the 42 inches are to a little below where the dome starts. I know/think the calculation of 1.22 cu ft inside the tank is pretty accurate, but the 1 cu ft of resin was just a guess. And yes, I knew the guess of 1 cu ft of resin was probably suspect since on one of the You Tubes I watched (just a plug here for a 3-Part You Tube video entitled "How a Home Water Softener Works" by Mr. Water, Scott Handy -- the best tutorial of all of the ones I have seen so far) showed the resin level only filling up half the water tank. Thanks a lot for straightening me out there and verifying what I was wondering about. I don't think I have seen any systems that I can remember being that small. It is still troubling/upsetting to me that all of this stuff (sizes, capacities, specs, etc.) is not readily available and accessible. I am getting the feeling that this is truly a controlled market -- i.e. don't do or touch anything, just call us.

OK, I take the "that small" remark back. At a max dosage of 2,000 grains (15 lbs of salt / cu ft) times .7 gives me a system capacity of around 21,000 grains -- so maybe this is a 20,000 grain or possibly a 24,000 grain system. Have I got that right. Again, if ticks me off that this information is not readily available for this system configuration. Once again, I am confused as to how the salt dosage/saturation limits are determined and controlled, particularly for my system since I don't see any way of programming that into the regeneration cycle.

I did get the average hardness of the water off of my water utility web site and they referenced a Water Quality paper that is supposed contain other content (iron, manganese, etc., but a test kit is still a good idea.

Yes, I have decided that the resin must go and I am definitely going to replace that IF/ONCE I determine whether or not my system is really broken and un-fixable (by me). However, it appears that I am still hung out to dry on what looks like a non-standard tank hole and thread size. Are there any alternatives there, like some sort of adapter ring.

Thanks for the help. ron in round rock
 

rnsmithtldiy

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The backwash depends not only on the amount of water but also the force and velocity of the water. It needs to be able to lift up the media. So your opening the path should help significantly.

Flow rate during the refill cycle would normally be low. It gets restricted, and the restricted flow is timed to get the refill right, or the amount gets measured -- I am not sure which for a given system. When your system is set up to deliver more or less salt, the refill amount is changed. It is OK for the salt to be higher than the water level most of the time. The assumption is that the water will be salt saturated by the time of the regeneration.

Reach4- Thanks for helping out. Yes, you can tell I am confused about all of this. When I opened up the drain line used during the back wash cycle, that had to make a big difference, at least in my mind. I am hoping that by the time I get through with all of this, I will "really" understand what is going on. My posts are rather long, but I get anal about this stuff and it bothers me when I don't know what is going on and totally have to relay on what the service people tell me. Now that I am seriously looking into this, it also bothers me that I wasn't somewhat closer to my current level of understanding when I originally purchased the system -- I probably would have opted for a different system. ron in round rock
 

ditttohead

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An adapter ring was made for that tank many years ago but it had a very high failure rate and has since been discontinued.

The people dial with hardness etc is typically ignored. Most newer electro-mechanical system do not have that sticker. It is used to set the reserve capacity. Now we just simply determine the system capacity based on the salt setting, then minus 60 gallons of water per person in the household per day.
 

Gary Slusser

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Ron, all the regeneration cycle positions are timed and flow controlled. The salt saturation is usually finished in 2-3 hrs after refill and we get 3 lbs per gallon of refill. That white dial with the pins and holes in it you mentioned on the back of the timer controls the time. It usually says 2 min/hole or pin. Yours may be different. So write down the number of pins/holes I.E. 5 holes, 6 pins, 2 holes, 5 pins, 2 holes 2 pins xx holes for us.

If that pin wheel does not rotate (in backwash etc.) at that X min per hole, the motor is not working or there is something else wrong like a contact switch or loose wire connection. Make sure you power to the valve.

In case you want or need to replace your control valve, here is a link to SS tank adapters;
http://www.apwinc.com/tankadapters-ss.html. Guaranteed to not break... Tell them I sent you.

Actually if it was my softener and not working I'd replace the whole thing and advertise the old one for say $200 for someone with a smaller house. BTW, you need to size and program for the max hardness in your 'city' water because at times they will be mixing water sources and your hardness will fluctuate and the softener will let hard water through. Then you would need to do 2 manual regenerations at 15lbs/cuft one after the other with no water use during or between the two regenerations to get all the capacity back in the resin (30k/cuft). Otherwise you would not get 0 gpg soft water until you do them.

Undoing the cable ties on the drain line may allow carbon out of the resin tank during backwash unless there is a top basket in the tank. If that happens you'll get carbon up in the valve and might have to take it apart to clean it out. So closing the main water shut off valve all but closed may be a good idea while testing the valve operation. Backwash usually is no more than 15-20 minutes. Brine draw/slow rinse can be 60 minutes or more. Rapid rinse like 5-10 minutes and refill maybe up to 15 minutes.
 

rnsmithtldiy

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Ron, besides hardness, get the iron number too if you can.

http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.asp?page=347
http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/docs/final_ccr_2012.pdf shows hardness levels of 180 to 304 ppm with no mention of iron. Maybe iron is low there.

Reach4- Yeah, you noticed that too didn't you. I sent a note to our Utility Dept. yesterday asking if they could get me the iron content. Monica (who has given me good support in the past) got back with me saying she is going to work on getting me this information, but will be out tomorrow (Friday) -- but will get back to me early next week with what she finds out. ron in round rock
 
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