Fleck 5600stx, having several gallons of rusty water after regeneration

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Richvg

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I installed a Fleck 5600stx 48,000 grain softener last March. We get several gallons of rusty water the morning following a regeneration cycle. After several flushes, the water clears up and we don't see the problem again until the next regeneration cycle. RR is 10, BW is 10, BD is 60, and BF is 10. How can I resolve this? Thanks
 

Mialynette2003

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Raise the RR (rapid rinse) to 15. This will allow another 5 minutes of rinsing. If it continues, raise the BW (backwash) to 15.
 

Reach4

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That is an interesting symptom. Let us know what cures it, and if you find a theory of why this happened.

What is your iron content in your well water, and do you take any measures other than the softener?
 

Richvg

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That is an interesting symptom. Let us know what cures it, and if you find a theory of why this happened.

What is your iron content in your well water, and do you take any measures other than the softener?
I had the water hardness and iron tested by a local company before I chose one to buy and install myself. Hardness is 28 and iron is 2.5. I set the hardness factor to 42 to account for the iron.
 

ditttohead

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This is a common problem when using a softener for iron reduction (which should not be done...)
For your application a chemical drip system should be installed in the brine tank. These drip systems will acidify your brine allowing it to clean your resin much easier. For iron reduction you need to run your softener at a very inefficient setting (higher salting) than would be done if you did not have iron.

I would strongly recommend considering an iron reduction system ahead of the softener.
 

Richvg

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This is a common problem when using a softener for iron reduction (which should not be done...)
For your application a chemical drip system should be installed in the brine tank. These drip systems will acidify your brine allowing it to clean your resin much easier. For iron reduction you need to run your softener at a very inefficient setting (higher salting) than would be done if you did not have iron.

I would strongly recommend considering an iron reduction system ahead of the softener.
Thanks for your input. The system I replaced was a 20 year old timer unit with a 32,000 resin tank. I never had this problem with rusty water right after regeneration or during normal use. It seemed to take care of the iron okay.
 

ditttohead

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Older systems used a ton more water and salt. That is why extending the rinse cycle tends to help. Also, water quality changes. Regular testing of your well is important.
 

Richvg

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Thanks for all the great advice. I have another thing that has been bugging me. I purchased a 48,000 grain system but when I look at the master control settings, I see the "C" is set to 37,000. I asked the company I purchased it from about that and they said it was set by the factory and I shouldn't be messing with the master control settings. What do you think?
 

Reach4

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I purchased a 48,000 grain system but when I look at the master control settings, I see the "C" is set to 37,000. I asked the company I purchased it from about that and they said it was set by the factory and I shouldn't be messing with the master control settings. What do you think?
I would set C=30 and adjust the BF accordingly. That gives 6 pounds per cubic fit of resin, which is a reasonable tradeoff in salt efficiency vs hardness leakage. That is a very common topic in this forum.
index.php

Note that the leakage number is in ppm, and there is 17.1 ppm per grain. Less than 1 grain is soft enough for most households. It is not all that simple, but that is a lot of it.


Here is one example. https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/5600sxt-reduce-salt-use.67526

So why do they call it a 48000 grain unit? It is possible to get that with a lot of salt use. So the sales/marketing people chose to use that high number, because they are marketing people. After a while it became a convention. So if later an engineering-minded person wanted to sell softeners, he would have to go for the convention if only to let people compare. So what "48000" really means today is that the softener uses 1.5 cubic ft of resin. 8 or 10 lb/cuft is not unreasonable either, and 40000 would require almost 10 pounds of salt per cuft. It is still not nearly as bad as C= 48000 would need.

This is a lot better than the vacuum cleaner sellers who call a vac that you can plug into a regular wall outlet a 5 HP vacuum cleaner. That was and is just an out and out lie IMO.
 
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ditttohead

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Low salt settings should be avoided when using softeners for iron reduction, then again... softeners should not be used for iron reduction in the first place. If low salting is going to be attempted, acidifying the brine is very important.
 
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