Installation questions for Fleck 7000sxt

[Stephen Hall]

I understand now. Thanks! I will have to decide to go with the 6lbs/cu ft. or 8 before the thing wants to regenerate again. I think I now have enough information to program my softener correctly with the information given above in this thread.

On a slightly related note, I am trying to determine what I should use for the hardness setting. I have seen hardness values as high as 20 and as low as 17 (I think) grains per gallon. I am using a Hach 5B test kit and need some help interpreting the results.

Here is what happens... I measure out one scoop of the powder and one vial of water from an outside faucet and mix them in the bottle. The resulting solution is pink (as expected). I then begin adding drops from the bottle of solution one at a time and swirling the bottle to mix. At about 13 drops the color changes towards blue and then changes back. From then on until 17 drops the color changes to blue and then goes back to a purple color with the purple getting deeper with each drop. At the 17 drop the color changes to blue and then stays that way. I am interpreting that drop as the actual value for the hardness (17 grains per gallon). A search on the web turned up nothing about this color changing back thing. Am I interpreting these results correctly?

 

[Reach4]

I am interpreting that drop as the actual value for the hardness (17 grains per gallon). A search on the web turned up nothing about this color changing back thing. Am I interpreting these results correctly?

I think yes. I think the deal is at drop 13...17, the water is locally blue, but then mixing averages out, so the return to pinkish.

Also test your softened water. Zero drops is the ideal number, but for sure 1 drop should be a definite blue.

 

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[Bannerman]

If the brine is all drawn within the first 16-17 minutes, then 60 minutes should be adequate for the BD cycle. A 60 minute BD cycle is appropriate for most softeners but there is slight efficiently which could be gained by using a smaller injector so that brine draw and slow rinse are slower and extend over an even longer time period.

During the BD cycle, the resin is exchanging sodium from the brine while at the same time releasing calcium, magnesium and possibly iron. The ion exchange process should be done slowly so as to not shock the resin. As such, the entire BD cycle should not normally be shorter than 60 minutes.

It is intended that the brine will all be rinsed from the resin bed during the slow rinse phase of the BD cycle. The purpose of the short Fast Rinse is to repack the resin bed to eliminate any spaces between the resin beads. The resin bed had been expanded during the earlier Backwash cycle so as to flush away debris and to prepare the resin bed to allow the brine to have more complete contact with the individual resin beads. Repacking the bed is intended to ensure service water flow to the home will be forced to flow through the resin bed as opposed to the spaces between the beads.

I will have to decide to go with the 6lbs/cu ft. or 8 before the thing wants to regenerate again

Your earlier comments appear to indicate that the unit is currently programmed to utilize 9 lbs (6 lbs/cuft) appropriate to regenerate 30K of capacity. If you decide to reprogram for 12 lbs (8 lbs/cuft) to increase the usable capacity to 36K, you will need to manually add an additional 1 gallon of water to the brine tank to ensure the next regeneration has enough brine available as the additional water will not be added when the programming change is performed.

 

[Reach4]

Each night the softener compares the remaining capacity with the reserve requirement. If there is not enough capacity left for another day, the softener regenerates. On average, about 1/2 of the reserve capacity will be left unused. That is a bigger deal if you regenerate every 3 days rather than every 9 days.

8 lb/cuft takes 33% more salt to give 20% more capacity vs 6 lb/cuft. So for you, I agree that 6 pounds would be better.

At 6 lb/cuft, here is what I compute
injector , BD minutes, GPM
#00 Injector - Violet , 81.5, 0.17
#0 Injector - Red , 55.4 , 0.25
#1 Injector - White, 39.6, 0.35

If you get no salt taste in the drain after a shorter BD time , the shorter time is good.

With 6 lb/cuft, I would suggest the red over white. With 8 lb/cuft, it is a close call. If I had the violet already and using 6 lb/cuft, I would stick with that and use BD=82.

 

[ditttohead]

I read through this quickly, I apologize if I missed anything but...

Seriously, any company is still recommending 15 pounds per CF regen?!!! And you wonder why salt softeners are banned from so many municipalities. What municipality wants to deal with that much salt load in their waste treatment facility? As to the riser problem, this is common from companies that outsource all their work. Resin in your plumbing, I am going to guess that the system does not have a gravel bed. In order to save shipping costs and to be the lowest online price, companies will play games with equipment and claim the lack of gravel as an actual feature... check to see if the system has a gravel bed. Also find out the exact model number of the bottom screen inside the tank. Their are many 25 cent bottom screens made in China that are absolute garbage. Make sure it has a Fleck or Clack original, and preferably the heavy duty style, not the low cost versions. If it does not have a gravel bed then add one unless it is a vortech tank from Enpress. If you are losing resin through the vortech plate, then... good luck on that. This happens when the riser tube gets knocked out of place during shipping or the assembler did not properly assemble the system internally. Adding a gravel bed is as simple as pouring approx (15 pounds) of #6 or 1/8" of NSF listed gravel over the resin bed. When the system is backwashed, the gravel will fall below the resin thereby adding considerable protection to the bottom screen and enhancing the distribution of water though the system. It will also allow for more of the resin to be used during the service cycle (minimal difference but not incalculable).

 

[Stephen Hall]

Softened water definitely tests at less than a grain per gallon. Solution starts out blue with no drops added. Can't get much better than that.

Dittohead, It is a vortech tank. I do not seem to be getting any more resin in the house plumbing after the first run. A commode was flushed right after I put the system on line after install and before I could go to a faucet and run the water without the screen in place. I have just taken the resin out of my old softener. I decided to save it because I just replaced it less than about a year ago. Also, I am considering buying a larger resin tank and upgrading my system to 2 cu. ft. capacity. In the process of that I see that some of the resin seems to float. Might it be possible that some of it floated in the tank and due to the riser tube being too small it got drawn into the house? Again, I do not seem to be seeing resin anymore.

 

[ditttohead]

Not likely but anything is possible. I would not recommend the Vortech tank in larger sizes than the 10". The resin could be from poor assembly. Resin can get into the riser tube if proper assembly procedures are not followed. This will usually only last for the first day until the small amount of resin is rinsed out of the system.

 

[Stephen Hall]

For future reference, if I decide to upgrade my system, what tank would be a good choice?

 

[ditttohead]

Enpress, Structural, Or USA made Clack tank. Unfortunately there are many really poor quality tanks on the market that are very inexpensive. I would recommend spending the extra $20 on one of the best tanks.