JoeysDad
New Member
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.
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.