Jeff Ho
Member
Taste it after the brine draw is over or during it?
Fleck 5600SXT 64K Settings Help Requested
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Check during. Salt is expected to occur at the drain after maybe 10 minutes, depending on your injector.
A cheap TDS meter can be used to sample the drain water, instead of testing. Expect big TDS rise when the brine hits. TDS meter is useless for measuring softness, but is good for identifying brine.
You could make up something to use your ohmmeter. Rig something to hold electrodes apart. Expect the resistance to go below 50% of your softened or raw water resistance. It will probably be more dramatic than that.
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Jeff Ho
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Guys! Great news! Apparently the kitchen cold water line and my basement cold water lines all do not run through the softener. I never knew that!
As soon as I tested the hot water, and also cold water upstairs I was able to turn the pink solution blue after only 2 drops! So that is soft water then right? And my Fleck 5600sxt is indeed working? I did multiple tests and all show 2 as my hardness. Now how do I get that to zero??? lol
As soon as I tested the hot water, and also cold water upstairs I was able to turn the pink solution blue after only 2 drops! So that is soft water then right? And my Fleck 5600sxt is indeed working? I did multiple tests and all show 2 as my hardness. Now how do I get that to zero??? lol
Almost where you want to be. Big improvement over your raw water.
You should expect one drop, or less, to make the change.
Raise H to 29 (25 plus high hardness compensation). Then trigger an immediate regen, or at least schedule one for tonight.
Remember it will take the hot water a while to make its way through the WH.
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Jeff Ho
Member
But dropping from 25 to 2 is pretty good. So now what do I need to adjust to get it to 1 or zero.
I did make some changes last night before going to bed and ran a regen.
So currently I have the C set at 60k for 2cuft of resin, and the BF is set at 10 min. I did the math and at .5 gpm considering 1 gallon dissolves 3lbs of salt and I used the capacity for a 15 lb salt setting that means 10 minutes will get me 5 gallons of water in the brine tank to dissolve the salt.
I did this all last night, ran a regen and there was atleast 3 hot showers last night as well.
What do I need to adjust to get the hardness to zero?
If you regenerated last night, I would think the hardness should be down to 1 or better today. Hmm.
I would do that tds/taste test in case there is a small leakage. The amount of leakage cannot be large to get to 2.
One more thing... when you test your soft water, make sure you rinse the test tube and bottle with the water you are testing. Don't do your rinsing with hard water. Probably not a problem with your process, but just checking.
Jeff Ho
Member
Let me test first by just increasing the H to 29. I'll let you know if that makes any difference.
It is possible that some hardness deposits left in the WH and piping could be adding hardness until that gets gradually dissolved away. That could be the cause of your residual hardness.
Understand that increasing H, or reducing C, only changes how many gallons get run before a regen is scheduled. Initial gallons for countdown is C/H-R, where R is reserve.
Jeff Ho
Member
SO Reach, your settings you recommended before to change C to 46 and BF to 10. What difference would that make compared to my current setting of C=60 and BF=10. Would I get better or worse water quality?
Same amount of salt used each time. C=60 would go longer between regens, and I would expect more hardness leakage in the last several gallons. Think about the equation in #28.
Jeff Ho
Member
Really stupid question here: you mentioned there still could be a very small leak. It made me think that I could have over tightened the valve when i screwed it onto the resin tank. If I over tightened could that cause a small leak within the O-ring? Also I assume while the softener is in service everything is pressurized which is why I couldn't even budge the valve to turn slightly the other way...?
That was not the area under concern. The leakage proposed would be at the top of the distributor tube. After thinking about it, residual hardness in pipes and WH are probably the whole reason that you only hit 2. That should improve with time.
You might be able to hurry that a bit by flushing your WH.
I expect the soft cold in the bathroom you use most will be able to dissolve away the hardness deposits first.
Yes. You should not even try to turn the valve on the tank when the system is pressurized.
Jeff Ho
Member
Ok thanks again so much Reach for all your help. I am going to wait a week or so and hope the residual hardness in my lines was the reason. I will update in about a week or so.
I don't know what the time scale would be, but I think a couple of weeks is probably overly optimistic. Enjoy what you have for now. Could be a year or more for all I know. Somebody may know better. Won't hurt to check, but don't be bothered if it takes a while.
Flushing is an easy DIY thing. See https://terrylove.com/forums/index....o-flush-a-hot-water-heater.79444/#post-576623 post #7.
I am not saying that this is going to blow out hardness materials. Still, you want to do that on occasion.
If you get a new WH, that could make an instant improvement in your hot. I would not change the WH for that.
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Jeff Ho
Member
Guess what!?!?! I don't know why it took a little bit, but now I have 0 hardness! I just let the water run for a while, did a few more tests and it now turns blue without having to use a drop! SUCCESS!!!!!
Jeff Ho
Member
So Reach now that I am at zero hardness, should I not mess with my settings? I still have C set at 60k and BF at 10.
Bannerman
Well-Known Member
Without sufficiently flushing the pipes before obtaining the test sample, the water that was previously tested had been in extended contact with any hardness scale that had accumulated in the pipes. As soft water will slowly dissolve the scale into the water, testing that water will typically indicate higher hardness than what the softener is actually delivering.
The settings won't have impact until you get closer to end end of your cycle and its time for a regen. What will happen is your water will start to get hard because your softener has run out of capacity as more and more gallons flow through it. You aren't putting in enough salt for a 60K capacity to be correct.
C=60K and BF=10 isn't really a recommended setting. To have a 60K capacity, your BF should be set to 20, and that will waste a lot of salt.
I suggest you set it as Reach indicated.
Bannerman
Well-Known Member
Assuming the Brine Fill Flow Contro (BLFC)l restrictor that is installed is a 0.5 GPM, a 10-minute BF setting will result in 5-gallons water entering the tank which will dissolve 15 lbs salt. 15 lbs is sufficient to regenerate only 45,000 grains Capacity, not 60K.
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Jeff Ho
Member
ok, so changing C to 46 and leaving BF at 10 min will give me soft water all the way through the next regen?
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