Hello
Culligan Medalist 8in SoftMinder flow meter
I read thru a few of the forum post but could not find my answer..
Just had the water tested. Total hardness 12GPG Iron: 0
The Culligan unit was installed in 2010 had has had no maintenance since.
It dumped all sorts of brown discharge into the home plumbing so I emptied and cleaned both the salt and resin tank and am ready to refill with sand and resin. The owners guide says 6lbs sand and 3/4 cuft resin. Plumbing has been flushed. Softener is on bypass.
I am trying to understand some basics.
First, the capacity of this 3/4 cu.ft. unit is as follows: (rounded)
17,000 gr at 4lbs salt
23,000 gr at 9lbs salt
25,000 gr at 12lbs salt
The following original settings as marked on the control panel:
SLtP: 14 this I assume is pounds of salt to regenerate
bbu: 12 minutes backwash time
br: 71 minutes brine rince time It is unclear to me what this means?
reg CAPG 950 gallons regeneration setting on the flow meter
Assuming the same hardness was used to calculate the settings I get the following (rounding up 950 to 1000G):
12GpG at 1000 gallons is 12,000 grains,
I assume that it would require 12,000/17,000 X 4lbs salt, giving 2.8 lbs salt (3lbs approx)
Yet it is set for 14 pounds of salt for regeneration. I don't understand. This seems excessive.
Perhaps the NaCl salt uptake by the resin is not perfect and requires much more brine to flow.
Is there a rule of thumb for this?
Next I gather that it is the Eductor nozzle that sets how much brine solution is drawn into the resin tank.
I gather it assumes 3lb salt per gallon brine.
The eductor in this system is 0.45Gpm
At .45 Gpm x 3lbs salt per gallon= 1.35lbs/minute so 14/1.35= 37 minutes to flow 14 lbs of salt.
So why is the brine rince time set at 71 minutes? Am I misunderstanding what the br setting of 71 minutes means?
Or is this the combination of a few minutes brine flow plus a water rince to get rid of brine in the media?
As for media choice:
I saw in other forums and on online store web site that the following resin is a good general purpose:
It says a total capacity of 1.95 meq/ml
from this site:https://agualatinoamerica.com/2017/03/20/capacity-ion-exchange-resin/
it says 1meq/ml equates to about 22Kilo Grains/cuft.
so 1.95x 22,000 Grains/cuft x 0.75 cuft resin = 32,175 Grains. This is an ideal maximum. The site says to derate 75%.
so we get about 32175 X 0.75= about 24,000 Grains, which seems to correspond to the 9-12lb salt rating. So this makes sense.
Sand: Seems there are different types of sand. The Cullsand removed seems to be a mix of small and larger grits, but the sand I got from a local water treatment company is much coarser. I have read that a "grit #2" is common. Does it matter much? It has been difficult to find pictures of this grit #2 with a size reference. See picture top smaller with black is what I removed, bottom is grit I was provided. paper is 1/4 inch grid
Summary...
why does it seem to be programmed for more than 3 times the salt required and,
what is this brine rinse time? is it the brine flow time plus some fresh water rinsing?
what is the flow rate of the brine?
Grit size?
thank you!
Culligan Medalist 8in SoftMinder flow meter
I read thru a few of the forum post but could not find my answer..
Just had the water tested. Total hardness 12GPG Iron: 0
The Culligan unit was installed in 2010 had has had no maintenance since.
It dumped all sorts of brown discharge into the home plumbing so I emptied and cleaned both the salt and resin tank and am ready to refill with sand and resin. The owners guide says 6lbs sand and 3/4 cuft resin. Plumbing has been flushed. Softener is on bypass.
I am trying to understand some basics.
First, the capacity of this 3/4 cu.ft. unit is as follows: (rounded)
17,000 gr at 4lbs salt
23,000 gr at 9lbs salt
25,000 gr at 12lbs salt
The following original settings as marked on the control panel:
SLtP: 14 this I assume is pounds of salt to regenerate
bbu: 12 minutes backwash time
br: 71 minutes brine rince time It is unclear to me what this means?
reg CAPG 950 gallons regeneration setting on the flow meter
Assuming the same hardness was used to calculate the settings I get the following (rounding up 950 to 1000G):
12GpG at 1000 gallons is 12,000 grains,
I assume that it would require 12,000/17,000 X 4lbs salt, giving 2.8 lbs salt (3lbs approx)
Yet it is set for 14 pounds of salt for regeneration. I don't understand. This seems excessive.
Perhaps the NaCl salt uptake by the resin is not perfect and requires much more brine to flow.
Is there a rule of thumb for this?
Next I gather that it is the Eductor nozzle that sets how much brine solution is drawn into the resin tank.
I gather it assumes 3lb salt per gallon brine.
The eductor in this system is 0.45Gpm
At .45 Gpm x 3lbs salt per gallon= 1.35lbs/minute so 14/1.35= 37 minutes to flow 14 lbs of salt.
So why is the brine rince time set at 71 minutes? Am I misunderstanding what the br setting of 71 minutes means?
Or is this the combination of a few minutes brine flow plus a water rince to get rid of brine in the media?
As for media choice:
I saw in other forums and on online store web site that the following resin is a good general purpose:
It says a total capacity of 1.95 meq/ml
from this site:https://agualatinoamerica.com/2017/03/20/capacity-ion-exchange-resin/
it says 1meq/ml equates to about 22Kilo Grains/cuft.
so 1.95x 22,000 Grains/cuft x 0.75 cuft resin = 32,175 Grains. This is an ideal maximum. The site says to derate 75%.
so we get about 32175 X 0.75= about 24,000 Grains, which seems to correspond to the 9-12lb salt rating. So this makes sense.
Sand: Seems there are different types of sand. The Cullsand removed seems to be a mix of small and larger grits, but the sand I got from a local water treatment company is much coarser. I have read that a "grit #2" is common. Does it matter much? It has been difficult to find pictures of this grit #2 with a size reference. See picture top smaller with black is what I removed, bottom is grit I was provided. paper is 1/4 inch grid
Summary...
why does it seem to be programmed for more than 3 times the salt required and,
what is this brine rinse time? is it the brine flow time plus some fresh water rinsing?
what is the flow rate of the brine?
Grit size?
thank you!
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