Fleck 5600sxt 48K

[Kenton Squires]

About 5 years ago I had a Fleck 5600sxt 48K grain water softener installed (replaced a 13 year old Culligan) by a plumber. Not too long ago (a couple months?) I noticed our water was hard. I checked the brine tank and noticed what I would assume is plenty of salt - it was maybe 2-3" BELOW the water line (guess I slacked on keeping it stocked with salt), but there was still a good amount of salt in the tank (at least I think it was enough salt). I went ahead and filled it with salt so the water line was not visible (salt was probably a good 4-5" above the water line - I use 50lb bags of salt) I also reviewed the settings and noticed some were not set to the manufacturer's suggestions so I did that except setting it for 32K grain - seems it may be an overkill system for my family at 48K as the regen cycle is pushing 10-14 days if I set it to 48K. After doing that I forced a regen cycle and water seemed to be soft again. I do test the water with the Hatch 5B test kit from time to time, and it's usually 0-1. However, I've noticed some consistency with water hardness slowing increasing if the A) the salt falls below the water line right after a regen cycle or B) if the unit regens when salt is below (or right at) the water line

I guess I'm here to ask 2 questions

1) should the water softener not function at 100% if the salt level is at or falls below the water level during a regen cycle?

2) for the Fleck 5600sxt 48K grain are the manufacturer's suggested settings adequate or are there better settings to use?

I've read a few other posts that mention the BLFC? Mine has a hand-written label indicating 2.4 if that makes any difference.

 

[Reach4]

Where did you get your settings? If you say how many people you have, what the hardness is, and if well water, what are your iron and Mn numbers, I can suggest some values.

1) should the water softener not function at 100% if the salt level is at or falls below the water level during a regen cycle?

If the salt level was a lot below like you had it, there can be stratification, and the upper levels of the water could be not saturated. Keep some salt above the water line.

for the Fleck 5600sxt 48K grain are the manufacturer's suggested settings adequate or are there better settings to use?

32.0 would be OK if BF=7. Presuming you have a BLFC of 0.5 (common), I would choose one of these pairs:

Alternative C and BF pairs:
BLFC = 0.5
cubic ft resin = 1.5

lb/cuft ; C= ; BF= ;
4 ; 22.8 ; 4 ;too lean for many
5 ; 27.3 ; 5 ; lean, saving more salt
6 ; 30.0 ; 6 ;good softening less salt
7 ; 33.1 ; 7 ;between
8 ; 36.0 ; 8 ;softer with moderate salt
9 ; 38.5 ; 9 ; softer still using more salt
10 ; 40.5 ; 10 ;
11 ; 42.0 ; 11 ;

 

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[Kenton Squires]

Thanks!

the settings are from an manual I found: https://www.cleanwaterstore.com/technical/water-treatment-guides/Softeners/5600_Softener_startup.pdf (settings start on page 11)

3 people in the house (2 adults, one 14 )

I've measured the hardness at 26. The plumber who installed the unit measured 32. It's city water, but the source is "deep well" from what I was told a while ago. Sorry, no idea about Iron content (never see any rust coloration or anything).

Lastly, how do I determine the BLFC? I saw this link on another post: https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/fleck-5600sxt-overfilling-brine-tank.60171/ but can't seem to locate such a label. The only thing I can find is attached to this reply and says "DRAIN FLOW 2.4 gpm"

 

[Reach4]

2.4 gpm backwash (controlled by the DLFC) is standard for a 10-inch tank.

What was your BF at before. If it was between 6 and 10, I expect you have a 0.5. You could look at the markings on the rubber washer inside, or you could see how long it takes to spit out a gallon of water during BF, but it really is very likely you have 0.5.

For the H number, you could try maybe 30, and see if there is any hardness leakage. That includes some high-hardness compensation. You could adjust from there.

So here are some settings. If there are differences in the backwash minutes, that is not critical. These should usually be good:

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 7 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 1.5 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Raw hardness = 30 ; 26 measured plus adding high-hardness compensation
People = 3 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 180 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 6.1 ; Computed days including 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 = 33.1 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 30 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 180 ; Reserve capacity gallons
DO = 28 ; Day Override (28 if no iron)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 7 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = ____0.7 ; https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/img_fleck5600sxt_flow-png.31592/