Alcan
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Brine and rinse is as stated. The brine draw rate is determined by several factors including pressure, injector size etc. The actual brine draw should be done in approximately 15 minutes. (please no debate, every manufacturer has a different formula for efficiency etc, this is just a general comment). The brine draw occurs by the softener directing the water through a venturi injetor which creates a vacuum on the brine line, thereby drawing in the brine solution from the brine tank. This dilutes the brine depending on the system design and the injector efficiency. The water in the brine tank should be removed completely in about 15 minutes to allow for proper contact time etc inside the mineral tank. Once the brine is removed from the brine tank the system is now considered to be in "slow rinse". The water is still going theough the injector but is no longer diluting brine, it is just slowly rinsing the resin bed. This should take approximately 30-40 minutes to remove the brine from the tank, the remaining is a safety factor to allow for some variances in brine draw, injector efficiency, etc. It wastes very little water so brine draw time is not usually considered a critical setting except in areas where the waste water must be hauled off, then we will set the brine and rinse cycle a little more carefully. I have posted the common injector sizes for the 7000, the 5600 are very similar in their draw and flow rates.View attachment 17837
The programming manual that came with my unit says to set the BF minutes based on the size of the unit.
For my unit (24,000 grains), it say to set it on 7 minutes.
On the brine draw cycle, all the brine is drawn out in the first 10 minutes of the 60 minute cycle.
So, for the remaining 50 minutes of that cycle, is the brine just stationary in the resin tank soaking the resin ?
If so, then would not setting the BF to less than the 7 minutes for a 24,000 grain unit cause the upper part
of the resin not to be immersed in brine ?
If the brine draw cycle works differently than above, please explain just exactly what is going on during the
brine draw cycle. I have been advised to set my BF to a lower number, yet I am hesitant to do so.
I am trying to program my unit (Fleck 5600sxt, 24,000 grain size) for (in order of importance to me)
1) maximum interval between regenerations without compromising the life of the resin.
2) efficient salt usage
The problem seems to be that even though I have a relatively small unit, my water usage is only 1500gal/month.
After programming and the initial regeneration, with a reserve of 50 gal., I had 2350 gal. to use until the next
regen. The DO was set to 14 days. Well, on day 13, I still had 1600 gal. shown on the meter.
Then, after researching quite a bit, I was informed that when the water has any iron, the regen. interval
should not exceed 8 days. Another source said not to exceed even 4 days, otherwise it will shorten
the life of the resin. The rep where I bought the unit said at least 3 times a month or it will take years
off the life of the resin.
Additionally, one place says I can go with a longer interval if I add a resin treatment to the brine.
Others say no, just regenerate weekly, still others say resin treatment and weekly, and one source says
that if you have ANY iron, no more than a 4 day interval.
So after saying all of the above, I'm at a loss as to how to program the unit properly for my water content,
my water usage, and the size of the unit.
My water is well water, hardness of 8, iron 0.2 mg/L, manganese 0.5 mg/L
What would you recommend ?