Fleck 7000 SXT questions

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mislora

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Just installed 40k grain Fleck 7000 SXT. We ran a recharge after install and then tested the cold water hardness with the Mach 5b test. The water was purplish once the pink granules were added and then turned blue with one drop of solution so I am guessing it's set correctly.My question is that the softener recharged last night or at least was running although we barely used any water. It shows we have about 680 gallons after a recharge. Last night we had 615 left. It still decided to run. My settings all appear correct. It came programmed for use by the company we bought it from. Went with premium resin. Here are my settings, do all softeners make noise every night? Thanks

DF= GAL
VT=df2b
CT=FD
C=24
H=30
RS=SF
SF=15
DO=8
RT=245AM
B1=6
BD=50
B2=0
RR=6
BF=15
FM=t1.2
 

Reach4

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On the early regen, you may have pressed the Extra Cycle button to schedule a regen.

index.php
In that case, the service icon (faucet icon) will flash to indicate that a regeneration is queued.
2. To cancel a queued regeneration, press the Extra Cycle button.

Regarding your settings, what does the label on the controller say your BLFC number is? https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/fleck-7000sxt-fine-tuning.60753/#post-457144 shows a photo of such a label.
 

Bannerman

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Your unit appears to contain 1.25 cu/ft of resin as you mention 40,000 grains capacity.

In addition to R4's question with regards the BLFC (Brine Line Flow Control) number, what is the raw water hardness amount?

How many people reside in the home?

Does the raw water have any iron or manganese content? If on municipal water, it will be chlorinated so iron will have been oxidized and should not be a further concern whereas if on a private well, iron maybe present and the softener settings will need to compensate.

Since you have a new device, the resin was not utilized so your Hach 5B test after the initial regeneration, did not prove the settings as correct as the same results would likely have been achieved without regeneration.

Hopefully, 2.5 - 3 hours before starting the regeneration, you manually poured at least 3 gallons of water into the brine tank to dissolve enough salt for the initial regeneration.

Programming the correct specific settings is usually the responsibility of the person completing the install. As I doubt the supplier would know all of the information required, the controller will have been set with some generic factory settings, not necessarily appropriate for your specific requirements.
 
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mislora

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Hi my hardness prior to install was 31 gpg. The Mach 5b was taken after the install and after the regeneration including the 4 gallons we added of water.

The blfc number is 0.25 I think, it's hard to see back there right now. When purchasing the unit the company asked for my hardness, iron, water use, people in the home etc and did program all the correct settings into the head, they also attached the bypass valve for me. The only thing I had to do they said if wanted was switch the time from 2am regeneration time to any other time I wanted. I do have 1.25 resin in the tank. We have 2 people in our home. We are on a city well. Low iron but high chlorine which is why I went for the better resin due to the chlorine.
 

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Much of Mislora's info is on https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/confused-about-which-water-softener.61731/ thread. The water is from chlorinated city water, but city's report showed some iron in range 0 to 2.3. I expect that iron would be zero by the time it gets to the house.

Mislora, since you have a Hach 5B test, I suggest you test your incoming water. But instead of counting out 28 or 3o drops, make a test solution of half unsoftened water and half distilled. Then double the number of drops to get your reading.

Attached is my suggestion based on what you posted, not really paying much attention to the backwash, rinse, and brine draw times meaning that those appear to be less critical. Your unit was set up for 8 pounds per cubic feet, which I matched. The big diffrence is the BD. At 6 pounds/cuft, you would have C=25 and BF=10. With 8, you have C=30 and BF=13.333 which you could round up or down based on testing late on the night you expect to regenerate. So if you leave C=30, I would at least drop BF down to 14 from its current 15.

The RS =cr automates the reserve based on experience. The 15% reserve is maybe a tad wasteful.

DO=21 is presuming that the iron is gone by the time it hits your house.
 

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mislora

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Much of Mislora's info is on https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/confused-about-which-water-softener.61731/ thread. The water is from chlorinated city water, but city's report showed some iron in range 0 to 2.3. I expect that iron would be zero by the time it gets to the house.

Mislora, since you have a Hach 5B test, I suggest you test your incoming water. But instead of counting out 28 or 3o drops, make a test solution of half unsoftened water and half distilled. Then double the number of drops to get your reading.

Attached is my suggestion based on what you posted, not really paying much attention to the backwash, rinse, and brine draw times meaning that those appear to be less critical. Your unit was set up for 8 pounds per cubic feet, which I matched. The big diffrence is the BD. At 6 pounds/cuft, you would have C=25 and BF=10. With 8, you have C=30 and BF=13.333 which you could round up or down based on testing late on the night you expect to regenerate. So if you leave C=30, I would at least drop BF down to 14 from its current 15.

The RS =cr automates the reserve based on experience. The 15% reserve is maybe a tad wasteful.

DO=21 is presuming that the iron is gone by the time it hits your house.
Thank you very much. So it is safe for my tank not to regeneration for 21 days if we don't use alot of water? I am just trying to understand so I don't goof things up. Also the rs cr setting, that is ok too?
 

mislora

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Also why is my c 24 vs your 30? Sorry I am trying to learn, not questioning you.
 

Bannerman

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The hardness setting is currently 30, not 31.

The capacity setting (C) is 24,000 grains but the brine fill (BF) 15 minute setting X 0.25 BLFC = 3.75 gallons. As each gallon will dissolve 3 lbs/salt = 11.25 lbs/salt per regeneration.

As a salt efficiency setting of 6 lbs/cu/ft will regenerate 20,000 grains, you should therefore require only 7.5 lbs/salt to regenerate 25,000 grains with a 1.25 cu/ft. To dissolve 7.5 lbs/salt would require a BF setting of 10 minutes.

Two people will typically utilize 120 gallons/day. That is 120 X 31 grains = 3720 grains/day required.

With 25,000 grains usable capacity / 3720 grains = 6.72 (6) days between each regeneration. Without iron in the water, you could go longer to regenerate by using slightly more salt to regenerate some additional capacity.

As 8 lbs/salt can regenerate 24,000 grains in a 1 cu/ft unit, you therefore could regenerate 30,000 grains with 10 lbs/salt. That would require a BF setting of 13.33 minutes (round up to 14 minutes).

At a usable capacity of 30K divided by your 3720 grain/day requirement = 8 days between each regeneration.

A further recommendation is to increase the Brine Draw (BD) setting from 50 minutes to 60 minutes as it should be approx 4X the length of time required to draw the brine from the brine tank.

Additionally, you could increase the DO setting to 14 as that will force a regeneration in 14 days if the usable capacity hasn't been used in that time (ie: if you've been away).

Edited to add: R4 submitted his post while I was writing mine.
 
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Reach4

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It would be very surprising to have iron getting to your house with your chlorinated water.

RS=CR is better than the alternative for most people. It bases its calculation on experience.

Each regeneration is good for 1000 gallons with C=30 and H=30. RS=SF and SF=15% would say that the unit will count down from about 850 gallons. Once it has counted those gallons as being used, it will schedule a regeneration for that night.

SF=rc and RC=120 would count down from 1000-120 gallons= 880 gallons before scheduling the regen. This is better than the RC=SF because the gallons held in reserved stay the same if you change your C or H numbers. The RS=SF would change the reserve amount whenever you changed C or H.

All 3 ways work.

Edit:
"Also why is my c 24 vs your 30? Sorry I am trying to learn, not questioning you."

Question me. I make mistakes, and I think I did so here thinking that the original was also C=30. Oops. Still, you can choose either C with the appropriate BF. And 8 might be the better choice in this case depending on how much water you turn out to use.

Do get a bright flashlight to confirm BLFC = 0.25 GPM.
 
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mislora

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It would be very surprising to have iron getting to your house with your chlorinated water.

RS=CR is better than the alternative for most people. It bases its calculation on experience.

Each regeneration is good for 1000 gallons with C=30 and H=30. RS=SF and SF=15% would say that the unit will count down from about 850 gallons. Once it has counted those gallons as being used, it will schedule a regeneration for that night.

SF=rc and RC=120 would count down from 1000-120 gallons= 880 gallons before scheduling the regen. This is better than the RC=SF because the gallons held in reserved stay the same if you change your C or H numbers. The RS=SF would change the reserve amount whenever you changed C or H.

All 3 ways work.
Thanks so much for the lesson. I will go set those in the control now. Thanks!
 

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I cannot make-out the test result included in the other thread as the chart is too small and will not enlarge. While I had read that thread, I did not associate with this thread. Thanks for the link and reminder.

I expect, the numbers indicated for iron, would be equivalent to any indicated for bacteria content, that is, in a sample direct from the well, prior to chlorination. Iron should no longer be a concern as the chlorine should have oxidized and precipitated it out before it reaches your home.

I do notice that the hardness result stated in the other thread was lower and the number of residents was 3. Also discussed was either a 1.5 or 2.0 cu/ft softener as a larger unit can provide increased salt efficiency by extending the interval between regeneration, particularly with an additional resident.
 

mislora

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I stated 3 because we want to have a child soon and don't want to have to upgrade. The company I purchased from said to keep the number at 2.

The hardness result of 28 was given to me by an in home water test from a company who came over, kinetico. I then purchased the Mach 5b as recommended and got consistent higher readings.

Hope that helps make sense of it. At 2 people every company recommended 32k grain and at 3 they said I would be fine at 40k grain if I wanted.
That's why I chose it. That and I got a great price.

I cannot make-out the test result included in the other thread as the chart is too small and will not enlarge. While I had read that thread, I did not associate with this thread. Thanks for the link and reminder.



I expect, the numbers indicated for iron, would be equivalent to any indicated for bacteria content, that is, in a sample direct from the well, prior to chlorination. Iron should no longer be a concern as the chlorine should have oxidized and precipitated it out before it reaches your home.

I do notice that the hardness result stated in the other thread was lower and the number of residents was 3. Also discussed was either a 1.5 or 2.0 cu/ft softener as a larger unit can provide increased salt efficiency by extending the interval between regeneration, particularly with an additional resident.
 

Bannerman

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At 2 people every company recommended 32k grain and at 3 they said I would be fine at 40k grain if I wanted.

While they are technically correct, I expect they didn't explain that salt efficiency increases as the same usable capacity is provided by a larger unit.

For example, a 1 cu/ft unit would require 15 lbs/salt to regenerate 30K of usable capacity. Your 1.25 cu/ft unit requires 10 lbs/salt while a 1.5 cu/ft unit needs only 9 lbs (@ 6 lbs/cu/ft) to provide the same capacity of hardness removal every 8 days. A 2 cu/ft unit would need 12 lbs to regenerate 40K grains which would allow regeneration every 10.75 (10) days with 2 people.

As a quality softener often has a service life of better than 2 decades, a small difference in salt efficiency can have substantial environmental impact over the service life of the unit.

In sizing a softener, it is generally efficient to regenerate no more than 1X per week. While you can achieve that with 2 people at a salt setting of 8 lbs/cu/ft (10 lbs total), regeneration frequency will need to increase if an additional person is added.
 

mislora

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One more question. It seems my new unit is leaking. It is leaking from where the head unit attaches to the resin tank itself. My dad came back out tightened it as much as he could, still leaks a bit. Not sure what to do, obviously would prefer no water to escape. It's only a few drops but eventually could be worse. Should I contact the company to replace, should I ask for the control unit or tank. If it's the tank, should they provide new resin as it will be a pain to move the resin from one tank to another? Thanks
 

Mikey

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The seal at that tank-control head joint is effected by an o-ring, not the threaded joint, so it shouldn't need to be tightened that hard. Check to make sure the o-ring is inded present, and undamaged. The o-ring and the control threads should have been lubricated at installation time as well, with a Dow Corning product I don't recall right now, but I'll look for a reference and post it later.
 
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Mikey

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ditttohead

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The 0-ring can easily fall out during assembly if the company is not experienced, this is actually very common. Do not tighten the head, you can damage the neck/valve.

Remove the valve head and inspect to see if there is an o-ring in the valve, you will see an o-ring groove if it is missing. Even without an o-ring, the system will almost seal, but will inevitably leak.

And as stated above, dow release compound 7 I the only lubricant that should be for this o-ring, no Vaseline, Dow 111, etc.
 

mislora

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Yep, O ring wasn't there. My dad needs to. Comeback. Thanks! They are sending me one overnight. Thanks so much, all of you are so helpful, I really appreciate it.
 
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