Fleck 5600 rebuild from 2 years ago, now having issues

[The harrymanimus]

With the help of this forum, I did a rebuild on a Fleck 5600 in May 2017. That went great. I'd been getting 1000 gallons between regens until recently. I detect the water is getting hard by boiling water in a kettle several times a week and when there is white stuff floating at the top afterwards, that is the sign. Seems I'm now getting around 600 gallons per regen.

This is the thread from 2 years ago with specific info on my setup:
https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/troubleshooting-a-fleck-5600.69500/

I have quite a bit of salt in the tank, did the best I could to check for a bridge, didn't seem like there was one. I saw something about pouring hot water down the tube in the brine tank to loosen stuff up. Did not try that.

LB of salt set to 6, maybe increase that?

Given that the rebuild was not too long ago, what things should I check?

 

[Bannerman]

You had been previously advised to obtain a Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit. With that, you can test the water to establish if in-fact the softened water is hard and if so, to what level.

You mention obtaining 1000 gallons per cycle but now 600 gallons from your 1 cuft system. As the 5600 Econominder requires the gallons capacity to be programmed as a constant, I'm not understanding what is meant that the capacity is now 600 gallons if 1000 gallons had been programmed.

If the water is actually hard before regeneration is to occur, perhaps the resin tank does not actually contain 1 cuft resin, or the hardness is higher than when last tested, resulting in the system capacity being depleted more quickly than anticipated.

Has the system ever been regenerated with insufficient salt? If so, additional capacity will need to be regenerated one-time using 15-18 lbs salt.

You may also want to measure the amount of water that enters the brine tank, to verify it is the correct quantity. The easiest method to measure would be to disconnect the brine line at the top of the brine tank, advance the controller to Brine Fill and direct the flow to a container in which to measure. Since your salt setting is 6lbs, there should be 2 gallons flow during Brine Fill.

Maybe there is something else other than hardness causing the floating stuff in the kettle?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

Boiling water and seeing white stuff is not a test kit. Try setting the air pressure in your car tires accurately by kicking it with your foot. Not even the most experienced mechanic has that ability. Get a Hach 5B test kit and test the raw ater. Watch the meter count down and see if the water stays soft until the meter nears zero in a few days. You may also want to remove the valve and inspect the resin. Considering that resin is fairly inexpensive and easy to replace, you may want to try that. Resin has a finite life expectancy and it does break down and get expelled during the backwash. You may have a low resin level or fouled resin. Regardless, get a Hach 5B.

 

[Reach4]

I looked to the other thread. Economizer with 1 cuft of resin. How often is your softener regenerating typically? Do the testing.. also...
1. Make sure there is always some salt above the water line in your 18 inch diameter brine tank. Otherwise you can get stratification. You could tilt the salt pour to keep some salt above the water if you don't want to add lots of salt to the tank for some reason.
2. If your water is going hard early, you might change your salt dose from almost 6 to 8 pounds per regen.

 

[The harrymanimus]

You had been previously advised to obtain a Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit. With that, you can test the water to establish if in-fact the softened water is hard and if so, to what level.

You mention obtaining 1000 gallons per cycle but now 600 gallons from your 1 cuft system. As the 5600 Econominder requires the gallons capacity to be programmed as a constant, I'm not understanding what is meant that the capacity is now 600 gallons if 1000 gallons had been programmed.

If the water is actually hard before regeneration is to occur, perhaps the resin tank does not actually contain 1 cuft resin, or the hardness is higher than when last tested, resulting in the system capacity being depleted more quickly than anticipated.

Has the system ever been regenerated with insufficient salt? If so, additional capacity will need to be regenerated one-time using 15-18 lbs salt.

You may also want to measure the amount of water that enters the brine tank, to verify it is the correct quantity. The easiest method to measure would be to disconnect the brine line at the top of the brine tank, advance the controller to Brine Fill and direct the flow to a container in which to measure. Since your salt setting is 6lbs, there should be 2 gallons flow during Brine Fill.

Maybe there is something else other than hardness causing the floating stuff in the kettle?

I set for 1000 gallons, notice hard water, then look at how many gallons are left before it regens next.

I'm sure it has been run with insufficient salt several years ago. I have run 2 re-gen's close together since. Maybe I need a large salt shock.

Your water check sounds interesting. I should probably do that. I did not do that test 2 years ago.

 

[The harrymanimus]

Boiling water and seeing white stuff is not a test kit. Try setting the air pressure in your car tires accurately by kicking it with your foot. Not even the most experienced mechanic has that ability. Get a Hach 5B test kit and test the raw ater. Watch the meter count down and see if the water stays soft until the meter nears zero in a few days. You may also want to remove the valve and inspect the resin. Considering that resin is fairly inexpensive and easy to replace, you may want to try that. Resin has a finite life expectancy and it does break down and get expelled during the backwash. You may have a low resin level or fouled resin. Regardless, get a Hach 5B.

Over decades I know this is from hard water. I boil the water for a nasal rinse. There is a film on top of the water. I pour the water out, and there is whitish grey film on the bottom of the kettle I have to clean. Film goes away after regen. I've verified that the hardness is going up when I see the film with testing several times in the past. Maybe it is not extra hard yet, but it is not to my liking, for my usage (putting in my sinus cavities).

I'll see if I can find my test strips to see exactly where it stands though.

So you can visually inspect resin? Is it just the quantity, or would there be a "quality" to it? Does fouled resin look a certain way?

 

[The harrymanimus]

I looked to the other thread. Economizer with 1 cuft of resin. How often is your softener regenerating typically? Do the testing.. also...
1. Make sure there is always some salt above the water line in your 18 inch diameter brine tank. Otherwise you can get stratification. You could tilt the salt pour to keep some salt above the water if you don't want to add lots of salt to the tank for some reason.
2. If your water is going hard early, you might change your salt dose from almost 6 to 8 pounds per regen.

At 1000 gallons maybe every 7 or 8 days. I kicked it down to 600 gallons until I can figure this out.
I have quite a bit of salt in my tank, so much that I didn't' want to have to dig down and inspect stuff. I did that 2 years ago and have been using good quality salt since.
Kicking up to 8 sounds like a good idea, along with other tests.

 

[ditttohead]

Please get a Hach 5B test kit. Test strips are not a proper test method. It would be like a tire pressure gauge reading 0 PSI, 50 PSi and 100 PSI. This would not be an acceptable test.

Softeners have a capacity based on a simple mathematical formula. If your softener is programmed and set correctly for 24,000 grains removal per cubic foot of resin, then you should get approximately 1000 gallons of treated water if your hardness is 24 grains. We need the actual hardness, not a general range in order to assist you. There are other tests that work like the LaMotte Spin Touch, but this is about $900. You can get a Hach 5B for less than $50 shipped. We have absolutely no way of knowing how to help you without the actual hardness of both the raw and treated water.

 

[The harrymanimus]

Follow up to what happened. I did buy a test kit and tracked it. Water got worse and worse over time and after a few months even a 4 to 500 gallon regen didn't make water soft. I was busy so never got back to troubleshooting and fixing myself. Ended up, called the company that installed it.

Repair guy immediately said he thought he knew the issue when I told him about the 2 year ago rebuild. Replaced the valve that looks like a spark plug at no charge to me.

He said those are known to be defective on the rebuild kits.

Two regens later, soft water again.