Correct, the 7000 will be discontinued in a few months, parts tend to be available for no less than 5 years, but typically they are around for far longer than that. Same goes for the 5000.
The new 5800 series outperforms the 7000 and 5000 in almost every way. The platform also allows for extensive future enhancements including multi tank staging systems, no hard water bypassing designs, Networking capabilities, and much more that the 7000 simply cant be modified to do. The 5000 is basically the 5800, the 5800 has a vastly improved powerhead and a cartridge seal and spacer design making it a much better and more capable valve. The 5000 and 7000 are simply outclassed by the new 5800 series. That being said, we still stock the 7000, we haven't stocked the 5000 for a long time. The 7000 is still an exceptional valve and I suspect we will sell it until the last day we can order it.
Fleck was purchased by Pentair a long time ago. It is Fleck by Pentair, sort of like the Mustang, by Ford.
The 5800 series will be restricted from online resellers. The 5600 series will likely continue to be sold through online resellers. Unfortunately, and as you have read even in the past few posts, the online companies claim to have great service... but many of them lack even the most basic of knowledge and their only intent is to sell stuff, then ditch the service off to Pentair, Clack etc. This is exactly why Clack discontinued allowing their equipment to be sold online, to many garbage companies butchering their product line and then telling end users to call Clack for troubleshooting or problems. I am sure Pentair is also not interested in taking phone calls all day when these problems are supposed to dealt with by the company that sold it. This is becoming more and more common as companies that manufacture items that have high liability and can be fairly complex simply want their equipment sold and installed by companies that know what they are doing. Their will always be the DIY's, those who actually take the time to do it correct and to code, unfortunately, too many people now only look at the price, without considering the actual quality of the product.
