Fleck 5600 Settings recommendation

[Gopherxx]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have a 2 week old Iron filter and water softener installed in-line with each other(iron then softener). Model details below. I'm fairly certain the regeneration process is working correctly, but my water doesn't "feel" soft. The first few regen's we noticed a huge difference, but we no longer notice it and it "feels" hard again. I plan on testing the water again this week, but wanted to run my settings by you guys first.

Iron\Manganese filter -
Canature valve with 1.5cu ft of Katalox Light, 7GPM, 10x54 tank

Water softener

• Fleck 5600 SXT On Demand Metered Control
• 1.25 Cu. Ft. High Capacity Resin 8% Crosslink
• 1" Bypass in Stainless Steel
• 10x44 Resin Tank (9x48 Tank with Turbulator Option)
• 15x17x34 Brine Tank(with 80lbs of salt in it)

Untreated Water results
manganese .2 mg/l
ph 7.5
iron 1.92 mg/l
turbidity 27.3 NTU
Total dissolved solids 284 ppm
Hardness 350 mg/l (calcium 90, magnesium 30)

Fleck settings -
DF - gal
VT - St1b
CT - Fd
NT - 1
C - 40
H - 20
RS - rc
RC - 150
DO - 7
RT - 2:00
BW - 10
BD - 60
RR - 10
BF - 12
FM -t .07

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bannerman]

10x44 Resin Tank (9x48 Tank with Turbulator Option)

So which is it?
A 9X48 tank is normally appropriate for 1 cuft.

What is the BLFC rate? That should be indicated on a label located near to the brine line connection.

The C=40 is far too high for 1.25 cuft. The capacity should be programmed at 25 (7.5 lbs salt dose needed) or 30 (10 lb salt dose needed).

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

Get a hach 5B test kit and an iron test kit. If you are going to DIY, then you need these tools to do it right.

 

[Gopherxx]

So which is it?
A 9X48 tank is normally appropriate for 1 cuft.

What is the BLFC rate? That should be indicated on a label located near to the brine line connection.

The C=40 is far too high for 1.25 cuft. The capacity should be programmed at 25 (7.5 lbs salt dose needed) or 30 (10 lb salt dose needed).

10x44
Labels on back
.5gpm
1.5lbs/min

Injector 1
Drain flow 2.4

Hope those numbers are what is needed. If I need to tear in to I can, just have to do it tonight when I get home.

Capacity that I purchased was 40k, is that a relative number or did I get sold a "marketing pitch"? The default capacity was at 24(from factory) and the instructions said to adjust to your purchased capacity.

Dittohead- I haven't had a chance to order, but that is my intention. A local plumber friend of mine had suggested the same thing. I just had to spend too much money this month on several major things, so I had to put it off.

 

[Bannerman]

.5gpm
1.5lbs/min

That is the BLFC (brine line flow control) information.
The 0.5 gpm BLFC X 'BF' setting = the amount of water programmed to enter the brine tank. Each 1 gallon will dissolve 3 lbs salt.
Your current 12 minute setting will replace 6 gallons of water to dissolve 18 lbs salt. That salt setting is not enough to restore 40 K grains capacity in that size softener.

When manufactured, each 1 cuft resin has a total capacity of ~32,000 grains so your 1.25 cuft = 40K. As some capacity will be lost through resin bead breakage loss and wear over time, your unit's capacity will typically be anticipated as 37,500 grains over the resin's life span. Regenerating that amount of capacity would require a large and inefficient amount of salt.

Salt efficiency can be increased by regenerating when a smaller amount of capacity has be utilized and while using a lessor amount of salt as specified below. The smaller salt dose will be slightly more salt efficient whereas the higher salt dose will provide somewhat higher quality water.

7.5 lbs salt > 25 K usable capacity = 3,333 grains/lb salt efficiency
10 lbs salt > 30 K usable capacity = 3,000 grains/lb salt efficiency

Since the total capacity will have been exhausted with your current settings, suggest after programing the appropriate Capacity and BF settings, add 1-2 more gallons to the brine tank with a bucket, wait 1.5-2 hrs for additional salt to dissolve, then initiate a manual regeneration cycle to restore the exhausted capacity.

As your hardness quantity is 350 mg/l, that number divided by 17.1 = 20.468 grains/gallon so that is more than 20 grains hardness currently programmed. Always round up.

 

[Reach4]

You still need your testing. If this is a well, I suggest sanitizing your well and plumbing.

Here is one reasonable starting point for settings, which presumes that all of the iron and manganese have been removed:
System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 6 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 1.25 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Raw hardness = 22 ; including any compensation
People = 3 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 180 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 6.3 ; Computed days ignoring reserve

Fleck 5600SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF1b ; Downflw/Upflw, Single Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
NT = 1 ; Number of tanks
C = 25.0 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 22 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 180 ; Reserve capacity gallons (number of people *3)
DO = 28 ; Day Override
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 5 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = ; flow meter, make note of what is there

 

[Gopherxx]

Bannerman and Reach4 - thank you for replying today and taking time from your day to help.

I have made the recommended adjustments(25k)and added additional water. I'll regen it in a couple hours. I may end up changing it to the higher dosage, but I'd like to see how this works first. Also, it is a well. We had it sanitized a few years back. I suppose it's probably due again, but the water tests came back negative for any bacteria so I wasn't too concerned about it. I hate working on the well, it's in a horrible spot inside the basement and it's about as unpleasant as septic work sometimes.

Is there a better test kit than the hach 5b that would test for manganese and iron that you are aware of? I'll research it tonight, but I wondered if you knew of one off the top of your head.

 

[Bannerman]

The Hach 5B is one of the most accurate for hardness and is the kit most often used by professionals for field testing. Not certain what specifically to recommend for an iron & manganese test but Hach offer various kits for performing those tests.

I may end up changing it to the higher dosage, but I'd like to see how this works first.

If you do change to the higher capacity setting, remember to add some additional water to the brine tank at that time. The brine quantity within the brine tank will be appropriate to restore 25K capacity during the following regen cycle, but in resetting the capacity, the following regen will not occur until 30K has been consumed.