Fleck 5600sxt help needed

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Jason123456

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I am having issues with this system. New to the softener system. The water has gotten very rusty looking. We are on well water with iron in it. Not sure how much Ppm of iron. The settings are set as per manufacturer specs but the brine tank is almost full of water. Just over half?? The drain line was linked closed by the previous owner? Should it be going to a drain and not be kinked? The brine draw issue and level in the brine tank ,could it be associated with the kinked line or not?
 

Mikey

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My vote would be yes, and yes. You could try un-kinking the line, do a regeneration, and watch the brine level as it goes through the regeneration. Also, get your water tested ASAP and post the results here. If you've got a lot of iron, and a softener only, you may be killing the softener media.
 

Jason123456

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No water tests yet but here is what I did *the drain line is now flowing and not kinked anymore * Checked the brine line for plugage and it was ok. The brine flow control 50 was sidewase in the fitting and the hole was almost plugged off so I cleaned it out and straightened it out. There was no screen in this area * Then I checked the injectors. They were ok and the screen is clear and in place. I now have a couple of question




1. *If there is a flow from the drain while in backwash and rapid rinse mode does that mean the drain line flow control is. Good?




2. *When the unit is in brine draw should the valve be making noise?( there is no noise) it is very quiet
* * *
3. *Could the brine valve seat be worn out? *How would I know. Will I have to take the top of the valve off




My settings are. *Not sure how much brine and/or salt should be used




Bw 10
Bd 60
RR 12
Bf 12.*
 

ditttohead

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The brine line flow control... the numbers must face the valve. Please be sure this is correct.

Drain flow rates should match the drain line flow control. What size tank do you have? Anything unusual (Media guard, turbulator etc?) inside the system?

Brine draw can be quiet, but water should be running to the drain and you should notice the water level in the brine tank going down. You can remove the brine line from the valve and you will notice it has considerable suction.

Brine valve worn? It will usually last for many years, but if it is excessively worn, it may leak to the brine tank. With the valve in the service position, no water should be dripping to the brine line. Remove the brass compression ut and check it there.


Your setting would indicate 12 minutes of refill at .5 GPM, 6 gallons of water, x3 = 18 pounds of salt per regeneration. What size system do you have?
 

Jason123456

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The numbers are facing the right way now. Does this make a difference? Water was spraying out before when I tried to remove it. But it was sidewase in there. And after straightening it out it was not spraying any more. I will check it for suction if there is no suction or water spraying out when it's in brine draw what will that mean.

The tank is 64000 grains. There is no leakage from the brine inlet after taking off the line with the valve in service.

There was a bit of a salt bridge in the brine tank that I broke through. Should this help. I took the float assembly out today and checked it for movement and it seems to move ok. And the check ball moves freely with no problems. There is no salt grid in the brine tank. Should there be one in it some tanks seem to have them and some don't ??
 
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ditttohead

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The DLFC and BLFC buttons are directional.

64000 grains, be sure to set it for a more realistic 48000 grains, read through some old posts, it is discussed often here as to why etc.

Salt bridge in brine tank, no problem, just break it up like you did. Brine grid, not needed, they are used for marketing purposes (wow, ours has a brine grid!) and to allow for the use of smaller, more compact brine tanks. The vast majority of commercial units do not have brine grids. I have also installed 60" diameter brine grids when space was not available for a properly sized non gridded brine tank.

Hope this helps.
 

Gary Slusser

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The correct salt grid usually prevents salt bridging. Usually keeps the salt tank cleaner too because keeping the salt up out of the water causes much less 'sediment' build up in the bottom of the tank and then much longer time until the tank would have to be cleaned of built up sediment.

In many cases 18 lbs of salt is the factory default setting.
 

Jason123456

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Ok I took the brine tube off of the valve and no water was coming out. Then input the valve into regen. Back wash went good water comming out of the drain line then I stepped it through to brine draw with the brine line off of the Valve and water started spraying out of the brine connection no suction there? Big time spray. So I stepped it though to the end. Not sure what that means but any help would be great
 

ditttohead

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Brine draw issues can be caused by many problems. Worn valve internals, a clogged injector, back pressure from the drain are just a few possible problems. Check out my Youtube channel below, I have not posted 5600 rebuild video yet, but the proflo 5000 is very similar.
 

Jason123456

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Oh here's an update,

We had a water softener guy here last week and he went through everything Injectors, brine flow limiter, drain flow limiter and valve seals etc. and still would not draw brine from the brine tank. Sprays water out when in brine draw and it turns out the resin in the softener is packed with crap in the bottom, Iron sediment from the past years. I think its around 8 years old. Turns out that he has done work in this house in the past and there use to be a iron filter here but not now, Using the softener as a iron filter/softener?? Not to good a 14" tank that regens every 3-5 days because of iron fouling the resin lotsa salt wastage si not good for septic systems right??. So today I am getting a iron filter system and a smaller softener tank that he is going to put in for me. Ill keep you posted on how things go.
 

ditttohead

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Good choice. Softeners used for iron removal is common but should not be done if it can be avoided. They are highly inefficient and the problems you are having are common. Resin fouling, excessive salt usage, etc.

Let us know what you get.
 

Gary Slusser

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Oh here's an update,

We had a water softener guy here last week and he went through everything Injectors, brine flow limiter, drain flow limiter and valve seals etc. and still would not draw brine from the brine tank. Sprays water out when in brine draw and it turns out the resin in the softener is packed with crap in the bottom, Iron sediment from the past years. I think its around 8 years old. Turns out that he has done work in this house in the past and there use to be a iron filter here but not now, Using the softener as a iron filter/softener?? Not to good a 14" tank that regens every 3-5 days because of iron fouling the resin lotsa salt wastage si not good for septic systems right??. So today I am getting a iron filter system and a smaller softener tank that he is going to put in for me. Ill keep you posted on how things go.
First, I don't think there is any control valve that will not have water spray out of the brine line fitting after you have disconnected the brine line from the valve as you step the valve from backwash to brine draw/slow rinse. That usually happens until the valve gets fully into that cycle position. Water usually sprays out when going from the rinse position to the refill position also; unless refill is part of the rinse position.

This blocked resin as a cause for no brine draw/slow rinse is pure BS. Unless the control valve is upflow service, which I've never heard of, his "softener is packed with crap in the bottom" doesn't happen. The iron crap is on the top of resin. You block resin up anywhere, or top or bottom baskets, you lose flow (and pressure) in the house, you've not mentioned any problem with that. Also, he is saying the softener is over sized, and over sized softeners are said to cause channeling, so if that were true, how does the bottom resin get blocked with iron crap?
 

Jason123456

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Ok I have gotten a new iron filter and a 1cu/ft softener installed and it makes a world of difference,
Iron going into the old softener with no iron filter before it, was 5mg/l
Now with the iron filter taking care of the 5mg/l the softener only sees
0.3mg/l and everything is working great.
no more rusty looking water and clean dishes.
 

ditttohead

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Congrats, glad to hear you have nice water again. 5 PPM of iron will foul up a softener very quickly and the amount of salt needed to try to keep it working is very wasteful.
 

Gary Slusser

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Ok I have gotten a new iron filter and a 1cu/ft softener installed and it makes a world of difference,
Iron going into the old softener with no iron filter before it, was 5mg/l
Now with the iron filter taking care of the 5mg/l the softener only sees
0.3mg/l and everything is working great.
no more rusty looking water and clean dishes.
All that instead of running a resin cleaner like Iron Out or Super Iron Out through the 8 year old softener you had. Man he didn't do you any favor.

Anyway, that .3 ppm of iron past the new iron filter says the new iron filter is not removing all the iron and that means it is not working right and that means the softener needs to be sized and programmed to remove that .3 ppm of iron. And if not, then eventually you will get hard water through the softener. You are being ripped off and seem to be OK with that... But then so is dittohead.
 

Jason123456

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I have added Iron out and res cleaner several times with no result and I mean several times
and it would not clear up/ staining everything I even went as far as to shock our well and it helped
for a bit but then it got bad again.
This was as far as im concerned the best decision for my family.
His test may have been off a bit as well but I tell you nice water is nice,
less shampooing and no tinny taste in your mouth.

I will have to check what brand it is when I get home and will let you know
 

Tom Sawyer

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All that instead of running a resin cleaner like Iron Out or Super Iron Out through the 8 year old softener you had. Man he didn't do you any favor.

Anyway, that .3 ppm of iron past the new iron filter says the new iron filter is not removing all the iron and that means it is not working right and that means the softener needs to be sized and programmed to remove that .3 ppm of iron. And if not, then eventually you will get hard water through the softener. You are being ripped off and seem to be OK with that... But then so is dittohead.

Nice troubleshooting there Skippy LOL
 

Gary Slusser

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I have added Iron out and res cleaner several times with no result and I mean several times
and it would not clear up/ staining everything I even went as far as to shock our well and it helped
for a bit but then it got bad again.
This was as far as im concerned the best decision for my family.
His test may have been off a bit as well but I tell you nice water is nice,
less shampooing and no tinny taste in your mouth.

I will have to check what brand it is when I get home and will let you know
The guy you had to come out to fix the softener should have done the IO cleaning.

That is different than adding IO etc. to the brine tank as per the instructions on the containers. He (you) would mix like a dry measure cup of IO in a couple gallons of warm water in a bucket and stir while adding water until all the IO was dissolved into it. Then stick the brine line in the bucket and start a manual regeneration and when Backwash is done, let it get into brine draw and suck the solution into the resin tank for like 15 minutes and pull the plug on the control valve. Wait 15-30 minutes and reconnect the brine line in the brine tank, pour any remaining solution into the water in the brine tank and plug in the control valve and let it finish the regeneration. I have never seen that fail to clean resin and the internals of a valve. Of course he would have had to fix the no brine draw problem first but he'd rather, like many local dealers, plumbers and drillers, sell a new softener etc., so he didn't fix it.

With .3 ppm of iron after the filter now, copy/paste this into a text file so if you need it some time in the future you have it.
 

Tom Sawyer

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I have added Iron out and res cleaner several times with no result and I mean several times
and it would not clear up/ staining everything I even went as far as to shock our well and it helped
for a bit but then it got bad again.

This was as far as im concerned the best decision for my family.
His test may have been off a bit as well but I tell you nice water is nice,
less shampooing and no tinny taste in your mouth.

I will have to check what brand it is when I get home and will let you know

Reading is fundamental LOL
 
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