Need help tweaking fleck 5600sxt settings

[glazeddonut]

I got this water softener back in 2008. A local company set it up and right away I was running out of soft water. It would recharge and I would eventually have soft water again, but then run out.

I called the company few times and they came out and adjusted settings each time, but I never knew what they did. Eventually it seemed to be working correctly.

Recently I had a problem where some of the resin was coming out into the discharge sink. A guy came out and replaced a part and that took care of the problem. However, when he was here he said my settings were wrong and it wasn't set up to run efficiently. When he was here I had forgotten about the problems we had back in 2008 so I never mentioned anything to the guy. He changed settings so it would only recharge when we had used the correct amount of water.

Well after about a week or 10 days or so I was running out of soft water again, just like back in 2008. I don't understand how this thing works, so I know just enough to really screw things up. I went down and added a SF of 10, but I still ran out of soft water again.

So can someone help me understand what my correct settings should be? I will give all the info I know about my softener, but if you need more info please ask.

Flex 5600sxt digital, I think 28k
.50 gpm and 1.5lb
Flow rate 11.9
Here are all the internal settings:
DF - gal
VT - st1b
CT - fd
NT - 1
C - 28
H - 28
RS - SF
SF - 10
DO - off
RT - 2:00
BW - 12
BD - 60
RR - 10
BF - 7
FM - t0.7

Let me know what other info you need and I will get it to you. Also we are a family of 4 and I assume we use the normal amount of water, but there are 2 teenagers in the house who take long showers sometimes, so not sure if that will make a difference.

Thanks!

 

[ditttohead]

First off you will need to get a HACH 5B test kit.
Actual tank size of your softener, an "I think" is not quite accurate enough.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[glazeddonut]

I ordered the test kit. I do know my area has very hard water, but I will get a specific number when I get the kit.

Here is some more info on the tank size, but I don't know actually capacity (as in 28k, 32k, 64k). In the internal settings it says 28,000. There is a model number listed as FL 30.

The Resin tank measures 10 x 44 and the salt tank measures 18 x 40

Not sure if this info is helpful or not.

 

[Reach4]

Do you get colors or smells from your water? How orange is your toilet tank inside?

 

[glazeddonut]

No colors or smells. Toilet tank has no orange staining. I don't think we have any iron issues with our water.

 

[Reach4]

I went down and added a SF of 10, but I still ran out of soft water again.

Are you saying that you added a cubic ft of 10% crosslinked resin without removing any of the existing resin?

 

[glazeddonut]

No, I was talking about the "SF" internal setting, I think it stand for Safety Factor of 10%.

 

[Reach4]

For now you can improve things with C=25 and SF=15 if this is for two people. This will shorten the time between regenerations. Based on your symptoms, we know you are not regenerating enough. An alternative way to increase the regeneration frequency would be to increase H.

After you get your new hardness numbers, you can do more changes.

 

[glazeddonut]

We are a family of 4.
2 adults and 2 teens, who like to take long showers. Does that change your suggestions?

 

[Reach4]

We are a family of 4. 2 adults and 2 teens, who like to take long showers. Does that change your suggestions?

Yes. SF=27 if you make that change. I tend to like the RC (in gallons of reserve) rather than SF in percent of capacity. That way, if you change H, you don't have to adjust the reserve.

You are expected to get a regen every 3 or 4 days with the numbers I just suggested. Below is a more conventional set of settings for 4 people and good resin. It uses that same BF=7 you have and presumes an actually higher C. There is more than one way to add margin. Decreasing C is one of them. Above I had gone with a pessimistic 25 figuring that your guy's 28 was not pessimestic enough. I now think that your thought that the reserve was too low is right on point. This below uses the RC (gallons) method of entering reserve rather than the SF (percent of capacity) method.

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 8 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 1.25 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Raw hardness = 28 ; including any compensation
People = 4 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 240 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 4.5 ; Computed days ignoring reserve


Fleck 5600SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF1b ; Downflw/Upflw, Single Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
NT = 1 ; Number of tanks
C = 30.0 ; (C=30 normal; C=25 or C=28 would be more cautious choices)
H = 28 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 240 ; Reserve capacity gallons
DO = 28 ; Day Override (won't matter unless you are on long vacation)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 7 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = usually t0.7 ; flow meter, make note of what is there

The backwash times are not critical normally.

 

[glazeddonut]

This is very helpful, thank you. I'll make the changes. I'll also post my water hardness number when I get the test kit.

 

[Bannerman]

How did you establish the hardness level as 28 gpg? As per Dittohead, you will require a Hach test kit.

Is your water source municipal or a private well? If a private well, it could contain iron and/or manganese which will then require the hardness setting to be increased to compensate.

As your unit's softening capacity had been exhausted previously, the softener's total capacity will now need to be restored by performing a 1X regeneration using 22.5 lbs of salt. Even as you had programmed 28K grains as usable capacity between regeneration cycles, there needs to be additional capacity remaining within the unit otherwise hardness will flow through the softener to your fixtures. Assuming it originally contained 1.25 cuft, the total capacity will have been 40K before wear losses and whatever resin was lost through your incident.

Your current BF time of 7 minutes X 0.5 BLFC = 3.5 gallons entering the brine tank. Each gallon will dissolve 3 lbs salt. As such, with your current settings, there should now be brine containing 10.5 lbs of salt prepared for the next regeneration cycle.

Assuming there is adequate salt in the brine tank, you can add (with a pail) an additional 4 gallons of water to the brine tank, wait at least 2 hours for the additional salt to dissolve and then initiate a manual regeneration cycle. This could be done before going to bed as soft water will not be provided while regeneration occurs.

 

[glazeddonut]

The company that originally installed the water softener did a water test and that is where the hardness of 28 comes from.

 

[glazeddonut]

I have an updated water hardness number. I just got the Hach 5B test kit and the number I get is 29.

In the original settings the hardness was set at 28.

So I assume I should go into the settings and make the water hardness setting 29. Are there any other changes I should make?

 

[ditttohead]

Set the hardness on your system to 32.

 

[glazeddonut]

I ran out of softwater again, so I could use some more help.

The softener regenerated on the 7th day and we were 80 gallons into the 240 reserve.
I already adjusted the hardness setting. My hardness tested at 29 and I was told to input 32, so I did that.

My current settings are:

Flex 5600sxt digital, 28k
.50 gpm and 1.5lb
Flow rate 11.9
Here are all the internal settings:
DF - gal
VT - st1b
CT - fd
NT - 1
C - 28
H - 32
RS - rc
SF - 240
DO - 14
RT - 2:00
BW - 12
BD - 60
RR - 10
BF - 7
FM - t0.7

Any suggestions to help me not run out of softwater?

 

[ditttohead]

As a rule of thumb the industry assumes the resins capacity will degrade over time due to contaminant fouling. This will cause on overall loss in the amount of gallons the system can handle. So raising your hardness number to compensate for that may be the easest solution.
Check your resin level and possibly rebed your system.
Lastly, water test kits can only tell us so much. The Hach 5B is one of the bet test kits on the market but many water contaminants can act as hardness taking up ion exchange sites. If you consistently get hardness at the end of the run and you know that the system is running perfectly, simply raise you harndness number in the programming to compensate for this. "Compensated Hardness" is a commonly done to allow for unknowns.