Fleck 5600SE programming

[mike.joe.brad]

Hello,

My home came with a Hydrotech 5600SE-DF water softener when I moved in ~5 years ago. I haven't paid much attention to the softener other than to add salt at regular intervals, and it has worked well. Recently, my water started to seem hard and I had a technician take a look at the softener - he didn't really attempt to diagnose the problem and simply recommended that I replace it with a new softener because it seemed old (I have no idea how old it actually is). I didn't want to purchase a replacement so quickly, so I started reading about basic maintenance for softeners and decided to treat the unit with Pro Res Care. After 1 treatment, it seems to be working again so I suspect that the resin may have just been dirty. I also plan to clean out the brine tank of any sludge at the bottom once more of the salt is used up.

I would also like to check the settings in the valve to ensure it is programmed properly. I've seen many posts in this forum with settings for the Fleck 5600SXT valve, but I believe my unit has a Fleck 5600SE as the programming menus are exactly as shown in the attached PDF. Would anyone be able to assist with determining these settings?

Mine is a 45,000 grain unit with 1.5 ft3 of resin. I am on city water; reports indicate that the water in my area is 21gpg, though for the entire city it ranges from 21-33gpg. There are 2 adults using water in my household, and we typically use ~100 gallons/day for both of us based on our municipal water meter.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bannerman]

The 5600SE is the previous digital controller to the 5600SXT. Although the SE utilizes an LED display and the SXT is equipped with an LCD display, the programming is very similar and there would be little benefit to replacing your existing control valve with the 5600SXT as your existing valve may be easily rebuilt to extend its usage over several decades.

Chlorine such as utilized in municipally sourced water will degrade any resin over time but resin with 10% cross-linking will better tolerate chlorine compared to standard 8% cross-linked resin. When time to replace the resin, suggest installing 10% CL resin or, utilize 8% along with a backwashing carbon filter prior to the softener so as to remove the chlorine.

reports indicate that the water in my area is 21gpg, though for the entire city it ranges from 21-33gpg.

Municipal water is often obtained from multiple sources and the city will typically state the average hardness from all sources. Depending on your home's proximity to each water source, the water arriving at your home may be higher or lower than average. When the actual hardness is greater than the softener is programmed to anticipate, then greater hardness removal capacity will be consumed compared to the amount of capacity to be regenerated so the softener will eventually run short of capacity before regeneration will occur. Suggest obtaining a Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit to periodically determine the hardness quantity in the raw water at your location.

While the PDF file you provided explains the various program settings, it does not specify the settings that are programmed for your softener. Suggest posting each of the settings currently programmed. Also, specify the BLFC (brine line flow control) flow rate which is normally indicated on a label located close by to the brine line connection. The BLFC determine the flow rate for water to enter the brine tank.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

This does not answer your request, but http://www.addiewatersystems.com/pdfs/5600SE Downflow Service Manual 19742.pdf
may offer some info.

Have you gone through your current numbers, and recorded them?

Anyway, based on your experience, I would decrease the Treated Water Capacity number until such time as you replace the resin.

I would get a Hach 5-B hardness test to test both the hardness of your raw water as well as the treated water.

In that setup procedure I don't see a setting to control brine fill time. Plus we don't have a BLFC value to use to compute that anyway, so I presume the brining is fixed to some number of minutes, and the seller chooses the BLFC to give the level of salt desired. So I guess I will guess there are 8 lbs of salt per cuft of resin, so a total of 12 pounds of salt is used each regen.

After all of that, I came up with 741 Treated Water Capacity, leaving 100 gallons for the reserve to finish out the last day. That would have you regen about every 8 days. That assumes new resin. With degraded resin, decrease the Treated Water Capacity according to what you observe.

So I did a calculation presuming 25 grains of hardness. That much hardness calls for high-hardness compensation.

 

[mike.joe.brad]

Thanks for your replies!

The 5600SE is the previous digital controller to the 5600SXT. Although the SE utilizes an LED display and the SXT is equipped with an LCD display, the programming is very similar and there would be little benefit to replacing your existing control valve with the 5600SXT as your existing valve may be easily rebuilt to extend its usage over several decades.

Chlorine such as utilized in municipally sourced water will degrade any resin over time but resin with 10% cross-linking will better tolerate chlorine compared to standard 8% cross-linked resin. When time to replace the resin, suggest installing 10% CL resin or, utilize 8% along with a backwashing carbon filter prior to the softener so as to remove the chlorine.

For sure - it's my hope to try to get as much life out of this valve as possible and to replace the resin once needed.

Municipal water is often obtained from multiple sources and the city will typically state the average hardness from all sources. Depending on your home's proximity to each water source, the water arriving at your home may be higher or lower than average. When the actual hardness is greater than the softener is programmed to anticipate, then greater hardness removal capacity will be consumed compared to the amount of capacity to be regenerated so the softener will eventually run short of capacity before regeneration will occur. Suggest obtaining a Hach 5B Total Hardness test kit to periodically determine the hardness quantity in the raw water at your location.

I'm looking into getting a test kit, but for the moment, I was thinking of just assuming 33gpg hardness to be conservative. Does this seem excessive?

While the PDF file you provided explains the various program settings, it does not specify the settings that are programmed for your softener. Suggest posting each of the settings currently programmed.

Have you gone through your current numbers, and recorded them?

My current settings (relative the programming guide) are as follows:

1. U--1

2. 7--3

3. 833 gallons

4. 2am

5. A OFF

6. As follows:

1--7
2--60
3--4
4--10
5 OFF

7. F133

8. o--1

9. LF60

Also, specify the BLFC (brine line flow control) flow rate which is normally indicated on a label located close by to the brine line connection. The BLFC determine the flow rate for water to enter the brine tank.

The label on the BLFC reads: "0.50 GPM; 1.5 LB SALT/MIN".

In that setup procedure I don't see a setting to control brine fill time. Plus we don't have a BLFC value to use to compute that anyway, so I presume the brining is fixed to some number of minutes, and the seller chooses the BLFC to give the level of salt desired. So I guess I will guess there are 8 lbs of salt per cuft of resin, so a total of 12 pounds of salt is used each regen.

Is this step 4 in the regen cycle? The user manual for this valve shows the following:

And the programming guide attached to my previous email shows the following:

Or, could this be step 5, which is currently off?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[mike.joe.brad]

Just bumping this up. Is there any further that would be needed to review the programming? Thanks!

 

[Reach4]

Is there a problem with how this system works, or you are just trying to understand the programming.

https://comnet2.newmarcorp.com/instance1env99newmar/html/images/103071.pdf looks like a useful document. I did get a browser warning that in fact the connection was not secure, but I overrode that.

I don't see anything wrong with your programming, but I could easily have missed that. 10 minute brine fill with a 0.5 BLFC would result in 10 lb of salt per cubic ft of resin being used. Usually people opt for 8 to 6 to use less salt, but 10 is not outlandish.