Broken Flow Meter (Fleck 5600 SXT)

[ndman]

We have a Fleck 5600 SXT for about 5 years now. Turth be told is that I was completely oblivous to the whole science (and art) of setting it properly that I never touched any of the setting after the installation. At the time of purchase, I completed the short survey about the water hardness, number of people in the household, among others and the vendor preset everything, and we just installed without caring (hiding in shame now...)

In any case, fast forward to last week, I found out that flow meter was broken. After some searches, I came across this forum and located some great advice on how to trouble shoot when the counter doesn't count down (It was set as Meteted Delay). Looks like the turbine had a crack and doesn't spin anymore.

Before getting a new flow meter, I need some advise on how to set the softener to time clock. I am still reading up on how to calculate/estimate but I am running into a brick wall (it's hard to learn all these within a a couple of days after realizing the system is broken)...

Info:
- Family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids @9 and 11y.o.)
- Concious about water conservation, I'd say usage is at the low end comparatively. I would imagine 50G per person perday, likely less based on our water bills.
- Hardness ~11 grains per 2020 city water report. I think it was set at at 17 by the vendor.
- Fleck 5600SXT Timeclock Water Softener - 40,000 Grain Capacity (from the vendor)
- ResinTech CG8 (C-249) Resin 40k (from the vendor)
- 10x44 tank

What would be the recommended settings for a Time-Clock mode for the Fleck 5600 SXT? Any bench mark or suggestion will be greatly appreciated. The goal is to have a good balance of salt and water usage. Should regen happen every 14 days, etc?

Many thanks ahead!!

 

[Reach4]

What is the hardness? The following would be for about 20 grains, with 3 grains of high-hardness compensation.
You could also adjust DO based on experience---

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 7.2 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 1.25 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Compensated hardness = 17 ; including any compensation
People = 3.33 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 200 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 5.99 ; Computed days including reserve

Fleck 5600SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF1b ; Downflw/, Single Backwash, black cam
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
NT = 1 ; Number of tanks
C = 28.1 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 17 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 200 ; Reserve capacity gallons
DO = 8 ; ***Failed meter!! Can increase if experience shows OK.
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 6 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = ____0.7 ; https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/img_fleck5600sxt_flow-png.31592/

EDITED: changed hardness down to 17. Testing with an Hach 5-B could give further info, but when given a range, you usually want to program for the upper number.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ndman]

Thank you Reach4. I did edit the post to include the hardness. City Water Report for our area:

Total Hardness as Grains per Gallon (gpg) 2019 11.8 (detected range 6.4 - 16.4)
Iron (ppb) 55.8 (detected range ND to 290)

Again, really appreciate your help.

 

[ndman]

Also curious... which the setup above, how much water is used per regen cycle?

 

[Reach4]

Thank you Reach4. I did edit the post to include the hardness.

I edited too.

You could also set DO to 12, and then manually trigger or schedule (for 2 AM) when hardness increase is first detected.

Increasing BF from 6 to 7 will give a little softer water.

 

[ndman]

Thank you again, Reach4. That's a great help. Perhaps I will have to get theh Hach 5-B test kit to do some assessment and monitoring.