Going from Kinetico to Fleck 5600 SXT, some confusion,,,,

[JoeysDad]

This is my first post here so please forgive me if I ask about things that have been beat to death.

I'm replacing my 15 year old Kinetico 2030S with a Fleck 5600 SXT which I bought on-line.
I got tired of throwing money into the Kinetico, the price of little rubber seals and seats is ridiculous. I don't need 2 tanks, and I don't mind plugging things into AC outlets.

A little bit about my setup:
5600 SXT with 32000K (1 cu. ft) resin pre-loaded.
2.0 gpm DLFC and 0.5 gpm BLFC according to the tags.
tested hardness: 8 grains/gallon, no measurable iron
I'm going to configure for C = 24000 and 8 lb salt per the lone cu. ft of resin per regen.
I think I need a Brine Fill of 5 minutes to achieve this. (2.5 gal X 3 => 7.5 lbs salt (pretty close))

My main confusion lies in the brine tank side of it.
I hate the brine tank that came with the new unit. When I was unpacking it, I sliced my middle finger open on the razor sharp top edge of the blow-molded tank. The new tank has a square cross section and tapers down to about 9x9 (I think).

I rather like my old Kinetico brine tank. It's 18" diameter round, and also has a 5" high salt grid. I would much prefer to keep using this tank.

The brine-valve tube that came with the Fleck fits into this tank perfectly. It slides right into the salt grid and allows the fill valve to sit at the bottom of the tank (obviously below the grid level).

My first confusion is::: is there any advantage to using the salt grid? I'm naively assuming that it will help prevent a salt bridge at the inlet slots of the brine tube, and that it will help prevent wet salt pellets from caking up. Is there any validity to this assumption? Note that once in operation, given a 2.75 gallon brine fill, the water will never come up above the grid level.

Second confusion: The legs of the salt grid are indeed hollow and there is a hole at the bottom of each leg. In reality, will enough salt be able to feed down through the legs to saturate the water beneath the grid. I assume that the check valve in the pickup will always leave a couple of inches of water after the brine draw, to be added-to by the brine fill?

If getting salt to the water below the grid is a problem, can I raise the level of the salt pickup in order to make sure the water level is above the grid height?

Am I wasting brain cells trying to figure this out and just go file the edges of the new brine tank and shut up?

Thanks a lot for any forthcoming advice,,,, and Happy Holidays.

 

[Reach4]

My first confusion is::: is there any advantage to using the salt grid? I'm naively assuming that it will help prevent a salt bridge at the inlet slots of the brine tube, and that it will help prevent wet salt pellets from caking up. Is there any validity to this assumption? Note that once in operation, given a 2.75 gallon brine fill, the water will never come up above the grid level.

I think the brine will need to come up above the grid to hit the salt, right? There should be a mark midway down the new air check valve that tells how far the brine will suck down during brine draw. If that sucks down so far that the liquid will not top the grid after a brine fill, you will need to raise the air check valve.

If getting salt to the water below the grid is a problem, can I raise the level of the salt pickup in order to make sure the water level is above the grid height?

Yes. That is the solution.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

This suggested setup assumes 2 people. If a different number of people, adjust RC.

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 7.5 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 1 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Compensated hardness = 8 ; including any compensation
People = 2 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 120 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 25.00 ; Computed days including reserve
Fleck 5600SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF1b ; Downflw/, Single Backwash, black cam
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
NT = 1 ; Number of tanks
C = 23.0 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 8 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 120 ; Reserve capacity gallons
DO = 30 ; Day Override (28 if no iron)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 5 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = ____0.7 ; https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/img_fleck5600sxt_flow-png.31592/

 

[Bannerman]

A brine grid will allow a smaller brine tank to be utilized with a larger softener. The majority of the larger volume of brine needed, will remain below the salt platform where there will be minimal fluid displacement from dry salt. Without a grid, the fluid level when displaced by dry salt, may rise high enough to where the safety float is raised, shutting off the safety valve before the appropriate volume of water enters the brine tank.

I'm not familiar with your Kinnetico brine grid but with many, the grid platform is supported by legs with a beer cup shape. The lower portion of the legs will contain holes to allow the water below the platform to enter to dissolve the dry salt which had dropped into the cups legs from above. As the salt in the cup legs becomes dissolved, it will be replaced with further dry salt from above. Even when the liquid level remains below the platform, the water will become saturated with salt regardless.

As only salt within the legs will have contact with water, the dry salt in storage above the platform will remain drier and less likely to partially dissolve and redry which is the primary cause for bridging.

 

[JoeysDad]

Thanks so much to Reach4 and Bannerman for your replies. Your input really helped.

Regarding your suggested settings, I sure will use them.

Regarding my brine tank, I guess my reasoning for using the salt grid was valid.
Yes, the Kinetico grid has hollow legs shaped like beer cups, (AKA red solo cups around here).
They are open to salt at the top, and have a single round hole at the bottom.
My concern is, that the legs sit down against the bottom of the tank and whether the pressure of the bottom
surface of the legs against the tank's bottom will prevent water/brine from getting into and contacting the salt in the cup.

I'm guessing that if I set my air check valve height such that water rises above the grid, that this will defeat the
grid's ability to isolate dry salt and prevent bridging.

Now, when the Kinetico brine valve was in the tank, the intake was also sitting against the bottom, but the level-based
brine control was setup for water to get above the grid. Every Spring, I was forced to empty the tank and clean up the
salt bridges otherwise my salt usage would drop too low.

Any thoughts on this??

 

[Bannerman]

I'm surprised the brine was above the salt platform as the max salt amount specified for the 2030S model is only 1.4 Kgs or about 3 lbs. To dissolve 3 lbs salt will require only 1 gallon water.

There are many softeners that do not utilize a brine grid which do not experience salt bridges. Since you already own a brine grid, it makes sense to use it but its not mandatory if you decide to remove it. Did the K not utilize a brine well (plastic tube containing the brine pickup assembly)?

Suggest drilling 4 - 3/8" holes through the sides of each 'Solo' cup leg to allow the liquid to more easily flow in/out without the holes being too large to allow salt to pass through or to compromise the strength of the legs.

 

[JoeysDad]

Yes, the K utilized a brine well and the brine grid.
From what I recall, the Kinetico unit only pulls a fraction of the brine that is stored in the tank. There are two float adjustments. One determines how much brine is drawn. This was set to draw, maybe 2 lbs of salt for my requirements. The other float determined the level of brine stored in the tank. I measured my float height, and for my salt setting, it was set for 7 3/4" above the bottom of the tank. This level is maintained regardless of the amount of brine draw. So, in my case, the water sat at about 2 3/4" above the grid level.

Since I managed to survive and lead a normal happy life through my 32 years of K ownership spanning 3 softeners, I guess I'll continue to do things the same way, that is, set my air-check valve height to allow a couple of inches of water to soak the salt laying on the grid.

Thanks for your help, and Happy Holidays.