fleck 5800 vs 5810 vs 5812

[Whereismyhat]

I tried searching but I couldn't come up with an answer to my question. I am looking to upgrade my water softener system. It's over 25 years old and valve is on the fritz. I have settled on a Fleck based-system but I'm a bit stumped as to which one I need.

My water hardness is about 20-25 gpg. This is well water and there are 3-4 people in the household. I figure this means I need at least 40k grain system.

However, I'm not sure which Fleck 5800 series to get - 5800 vs 5810 vs 5812. I think the only difference is valve size? 3/4 vs 1 vs 1-1/4? I know the increased valve size will help with flow, but how much does it help? Under what circumstances does it help?

 

[Reach4]

5810 and 5812 have been discontinued, so that simplifies your choices. Those have had piston failures. My 5810SXT continues to work well.

I would lean toward 5800, but 5600SXT would also do a fine job for softening.

A 12x52 inch tank holding 2 cuft of resin would be your better choice. Marketers will call that a 64K grain system, but you will get about 40K to 48K grains of softening, depending upon what salt usage you select.

With 4 people, you would get around 6 or 7 days of softening at 7 lbs/cuft of salt between regens, and with 3 people about 8 or 9 days.

I am calculating for 25 grains of measured hardness, but the compensated hardness is 29.

 

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[Whereismyhat]

Is there any reason why I should consider the xtr2 over the sxt?

 

[Reach4]

Is there any reason why I should consider the xtr2 over the sxt?

I would not do so. I am confident that it has some advantages, but describing what to set the settings to would be harder. The SXT is more canonical. XTR2 is more menu oriented.