Fleck 5600SXT 64K Settings Help Requested

[Aaroninnh]

ok, so changing C to 46 and leaving BF at 10 min will give me soft water all the way through the next regen?

Yes. According to the standard resin capacity chart that I use, Reach's numbers are bang on (not surprisingly). His numbers will give you a great mix of salt efficiency and capacity, and assuming your hardness numbers are all correct you will not run out of soft water.

You could also do what bannerman stated, except that my resin chart shows that you would need 30bs of salt to get 60K with a 2CuFt softener, and therefore a BF of 20 assuming 1.5Lb per minute. However using the softener to max capacity is less efficient from a salt standpoint.

All of this assumes you in fact have the .5GPM BLFC, if you don't then they will need to be adjusted.

 

[Jeff Ho]

Yes. According to the standard resin capacity chart that I use, Reach's numbers are bang on (not surprisingly). His numbers will give you a great mix of salt efficiency and capacity, and assuming your hardness numbers are all correct you will not run out of soft water.

You could also do what bannerman stated, except that my resin chart shows that you would need 30bs of salt to get 60K with a 2CuFt softener, and therefore a BF of 20 assuming 1.5Lb per minute. However using the softener to max capacity is less efficient from a salt standpoint.

my BLFC is .5gpm not 1.5. I think I will drop capacity to what reach suggested and test the water again.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[ditttohead]

.5 GPM = 1.5 lbs. salt per minute.

 

[Aaroninnh]

my BLFC is .5gpm not 1.5. I think I will drop capacity to what reach suggested and test the water again.

Sorry, I switched measurements on you moving between pounds of salt per minute and gallons of brine per minute and got you confused. I edited my reply to make it more clear but it was too late!

Changing the settings won't impact testing now, where you want to be testing is as your gallon counter on the meter gets near 0.

 

[Jeff Ho]

Guys, I just changed C back to 46 and BF at 10.

I will leave it on these settings and do a couple more hardness tests over the next week and report back.

Hopefully I stay at zero.

Thank you all for your time guys.

 

[Jeff Ho]

So with my C set at 46 and BF at 10, I noticed that left about 1600 gallons on the meter. We have 5 people in the house so my RC is set at 375. I'm approaching 4 days now and the meter is at 570. And regen will trigger at 375, correct? That means my current settings will average a regen every 4-5 days. Isn't that too frequent and wasting water???

Btw, I have been checking the hardness and so far readings of 0-1!

 

[Aaroninnh]

So with my C set at 46 and BF at 10, I noticed that left about 1600 gallons on the meter. We have 5 people in the house so my RC is set at 375. I'm approaching 4 days now and the meter is at 570. And regen will trigger at 375, correct? That means my current settings will average a regen every 4-5 days. Isn't that too frequent and wasting water???

Btw, I have been checking the hardness and so far readings of 0-1!

The 5600SXT "hides" the reserve gallons from you. What the meter is showing is in addition to the reserve, so if it says 570 and your RC is 375 you really have 945 gallons of capacity.

 

[Aaroninnh]

So with my C set at 46 and BF at 10, I noticed that left about 1600 gallons on the meter. We have 5 people in the house so my RC is set at 375. I'm approaching 4 days now and the meter is at 570. And regen will trigger at 375, correct? That means my current settings will average a regen every 4-5 days. Isn't that too frequent and wasting water???

Btw, I have been checking the hardness and so far readings of 0-1!

Also, after a few weeks of monitoring your actual average daily gallon usage you can revise your RC down a bit. My feeling is 375 is a little on the high side, but thats just tinkering with the margins really.

 

[Jeff Ho]

The 5600SXT "hides" the reserve gallons from you. What the meter is showing is in addition to the reserve, so if it says 570 and your RC is 375 you really have 945 gallons of capacity.

oh wow! so that adds like 2-3 more days! So every 6-7 days is a perfect range, correct? Or is there even such thing as a perfect range?

 

[Aaroninnh]

oh wow! so that adds like 2-3 more days! So every 6-7 days is a perfect range, correct? Or is there even such thing as a perfect range?

As to a regen, the meter won't schedule one until the gallons on the screen hits zero. Once it hits zero, it schedules a regen for that night at the time you had programmed. The purpose of the reserve is to make sure you have got enough capacity to make it until the regularly scheduled time at night to regen. Worst case is your meter hits zero a minute after the regen would normally have happened, so now the softener needs to wait 23 hours and 59 minutes to regen since its "timeslot" for the day has already passed. Thats why the reserve is normally 24 hours of capacity.

So, you have 570 gallons left before it "schedules" the regen to happen. At your 375 estimate per day, that is 1.5 more days. However, after a few weeks or a couple months keep track of how many gallons a day you actually use, and you can tweak the RC down a bit. Save a bit.

I think a lot of people shoot for 7 days, but longer is better provided you don't have to regen weekly to clear out iron etc. The reason longer is better is for every regen you waste whatever is left out of the RC that you have programmed. That can add up over a year.

 

[Bannerman]

375 Gallons Reserve / 5 ppl = 75 gallons/PP/day. With newer, more efficient appliances and low flow fixtures, usage of 60 gallons/PP/day is not uncommon. You will be best qualified to estimate your family's average daily water usage and program the RC accordingly.

Since unused capacity is re-regenerated each cycle, if the RC setting is greater than needed, there will be less gallons capacity (as displayed) to use each regeneration cycle so any unused capacity will be essentially wasted. Inversely, because the salt setting is a constant, the amount of regenerated capacity is also a constant so the RC will need to be sufficient enough to prevent more capacity from being consumed than will be regenerated.

 

[Jeff Ho]

As to a regen, the meter won't schedule one until the gallons on the screen hits zero. Once it hits zero, it schedules a regen for that night at the time you had programmed. The purpose of the reserve is to make sure you have got enough capacity to make it until the regularly scheduled time at night to regen. Worst case is your meter hits zero a minute after the regen would normally have happened, so now the softener needs to wait 23 hours and 59 minutes to regen since its "timeslot" for the day has already passed. Thats why the reserve is normally 24 hours of capacity.

So, you have 570 gallons left before it "schedules" the regen to happen. At your 375 estimate per day, that is 1.5 more days. However, after a few weeks or a couple months keep track of how many gallons a day you actually use, and you can tweak the RC down a bit. Save a bit.

I think a lot of people shoot for 7 days, but longer is better provided you don't have to regen weekly to clear out iron etc. The reason longer is better is for every regen you waste whatever is left out of the RC that you have programmed. That can add up over a year.

awesome thanks man! You all have been so much help!

 

[Reach4]

So with my C set at 46 and BF at 10, I noticed that left about 1600 gallons on the meter. We have 5 people in the house so my RC is set at 375. I'm approaching 4 days now and the meter is at 570. And regen will trigger at 375, correct? That means my current settings will average a regen every 4-5 days. Isn't that too frequent and wasting water???

Regen happens at 2AM after the display counts down to zero. The initial number on the screen had already had the 375 deducted.

 

[Jeff Ho]

Regen happens at 2AM after the display counts down to zero. The initial number on the screen had already had the 375 deducted.

Awesome so that should put me around the 6-7 day mark. This is with your 46k and 10 min BF suggestions! Thank you so much Reach. I think I have finally found my ideal setup thanks to all of you!

 

[Jeff Ho]

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 6.75 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin = 2 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Raw hardness = 20 ; including any compensation
People = 3 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 180 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen =12.24 ; 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 = 43.1 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 29 ; 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 = 9 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = usually t0.7 ; flow meter, make note of what is there

Alternative C and BF pairs:
lb/cuft ; C= ; BF=
5.250 ; 37.2 ; 7
6.000 ; 40.0 ; 8
6.750 ; 43.1 ; 9
7.500 ; 46.1 ; 10
8.250 ; 48.9 ; 11
9.000 ; 51.3 ; 12
9.750 ; 53.4 ; 13

Reach, just noticed you suggested reducing the BW and RR settings down to 5 minutes from the default of 10. What is the reasoning behind that and what harm is it to leave those two settings at 10 minutes?

 

[Reach4]

Reach, just noticed you suggested reducing the BW and RR settings down to 5 minutes from the default of 10. What is the reasoning behind that and what harm is it to leave those two settings at 10 minutes?

Longer uses more water, and in the case of RR uses up some softening capacity.

If your incoming water has more sediment, then a longer BW may be worthwhile.

 

[Jeff Ho]

Longer uses more water, and in the case of RR uses up some softening capacity.

If your incoming water has more sediment, then a longer BW may be worthwhile.

I have city water but with 25 gpg hardness, would you recommend the 5 min settings?

 

[Aaroninnh]

I have city water but with 25 gpg hardness, would you recommend the 5 min settings?

The hardness has little to do with the BW or RR time.

BW will help to clean out the resin if you have sediment in your water, or iron etc.

Rapid Rinse, or settling rinse, is meant to sort of put the resin back in its place after the backwash shook it all up.

In my case, I keep my backwash at 8 minutes, and my rapid rinse at 5.

 

[Bannerman]

City water usually does not contain much sediment or debris. While the control valve is commonly programmed for 10-minutes BW when assembled, the BW setting could be reduced to 6-minutes when the water is relatively clear. For your 12" diameter tank likely equipped with a 3.5 GPM Drain Line Flow Control (DLFC), a single BW would then consume 21 gallons water vs 35 gallons @ 10-minutes BW.

Rapid Rinse will recompact the resin bed to reduce the spaces for water to flow between the resin granules. The resin had been expanded during BW to allow the brine more complete contact with the resin granules and to reclassify the resin within the tank. Although Service flow will be downward through the resin bed which will serve to compact the resin, a short RR will ensure the appropriate flow rate to fully recompact the resin before the valve returns to the Service position for soft water to flow to fixtures. Again, the RR setting is commonly programmed at the factory for 10-minutes, but 5-minutes is usually sufficient and will reduce water usage by 17.5 gallons when using a 3.5 GPM DLFC.

 

[Elias Dainese]

Wanted to thank Reach and other contributors for the posts. I was able to program my new fleck 5600sxt 64,000 grain system based on the settings recommended. Thanks again for all the knowledgeable posts. Can't emphasize how helpful they were!

That said, I set my hardness to 19 possibly temporarily as the average hardness according to the city is 17. I ordered the Hach 5-B, but it has yet to arrive, so until then just going with the average city hardness.

I just forced a regeneration and will wait awhile before testing.

In the meantime, I did have a question on the salt. Is there a recommended type of salt to use...ie. smaller crystals vs. pellets? I remember a water softener guy telling me for our old house system that the crystals were the only way to go because the system can handle them easier and they don't get stuck. Is that correct? Also, is it recommended or is it okay to fill the brine tank all the way up to max capacity with salt (I believe four bags for my tank) or is there a certain amount of salt to keep in there based on the 5 gallons or so of water? I'm having a hard time understanding how the 5 gallons of water will break the salt down if it's filled to capacity. Or does it just break down the salt that's submersed in the water until it cycles through and processes the salt little by little?