Mark F
New Member
I have a Fleck 5600SXT 56,000 grain water softener. It was installed by a plumber (not a water softener company) about 10 months ago. I am wondering if it is working properly.
The controller seems to be working fine. I know it is doing its regeneration in a timely matter. I don't see any signs of hard water since we installed it. Our water (city water, San Luis Obispo, CA) wasn't very hard to begin with, and so after we installed the softener we didn't notice much of a difference at all in the "feel" of the water in the shower.
But what is making me question if the unit is working properly is that it hardly uses any salt at all. I've added only one bag of salt to the brine tank in the 10 months we've had it. That doesn't sound right does it? We're just a family of two, but we certainly do our share of showers/baths, flushings, wash loads etc. Maybe it's normal, maybe the unit is just super efficient, I don't know. But I thought we were supposed to use a bag every month or two.
I should say that I am not even close to a good DIY kind of guy, an idiot about these things.
So, I just watched a few videos about water softeners and learned a few things. One video suggested that may I have a salt clog. I'm uncertain as to how to know for sure. I just went to the brine tank and it was at about 2/3 full. Curious where the water level was, I started shoveling out salt. When I got to just under 1/2 full, I saw water just under the top level of pellets. I was able to push my shovel into the salt without it hitting anything solid.
I've now started a manual regeneration, not that I know exactly what that would tell me. I hear the water being moved around, and hear water going out the drain. It's still running.
So, does it sound like things are okay or does anyone think I have a problem?
The controller seems to be working fine. I know it is doing its regeneration in a timely matter. I don't see any signs of hard water since we installed it. Our water (city water, San Luis Obispo, CA) wasn't very hard to begin with, and so after we installed the softener we didn't notice much of a difference at all in the "feel" of the water in the shower.
But what is making me question if the unit is working properly is that it hardly uses any salt at all. I've added only one bag of salt to the brine tank in the 10 months we've had it. That doesn't sound right does it? We're just a family of two, but we certainly do our share of showers/baths, flushings, wash loads etc. Maybe it's normal, maybe the unit is just super efficient, I don't know. But I thought we were supposed to use a bag every month or two.
I should say that I am not even close to a good DIY kind of guy, an idiot about these things.
So, I just watched a few videos about water softeners and learned a few things. One video suggested that may I have a salt clog. I'm uncertain as to how to know for sure. I just went to the brine tank and it was at about 2/3 full. Curious where the water level was, I started shoveling out salt. When I got to just under 1/2 full, I saw water just under the top level of pellets. I was able to push my shovel into the salt without it hitting anything solid.
I've now started a manual regeneration, not that I know exactly what that would tell me. I hear the water being moved around, and hear water going out the drain. It's still running.
So, does it sound like things are okay or does anyone think I have a problem?