How to program Fleck 5800SXT 24,000 grain softener for maximum salt efficiency

[Erikhans]

I have city water with pretty low hardness of about 6 gpg. I'm going to use Potassium Chloride (I have fish tanks and don't want any sodium in the water) so I'd like to use as little salt as possible to keep cost low.

I just installed my system tonight and it seems to be running fine with no leaks. I've been looking for more detailed programming info online but I haven't been able to find much info for small systems like mine so I figured I'd ask the forum.

City water: 6 gpg
Fleck 5800SXT downflow
24,000 grain capacity/0.75 lb 10% resin
#000 injector (0.1 gpm I think)
1.25 gpm drain

I'd like to run the system at 6lbs salt/regen or lower.

Should I be setting the capacity to a value lower than 24000?

I bought the system from a local dealer, and the rep told me to set the Brine Fill time to 26 minutes because I'm using potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride... does that make sense? Isn't the brine fill time the amount of time to refill the brine tank? It has a float valve so shouldn't it just run until its full everytime?

Brine draw is currently set for 60 minutes, which seems like it's going to be consuming a ton of salt (60min x 0.1gpm = 6 gallons ~ 18 lbs of salt!?)... can I reduce that to 10 minutes and only use 3lbs of salt per regen??

Should I enable a 2nd backwash cycle?

Do these questions make sense or am I totally misunderstanding something?

Any help is greatly appreciated! : )

 

[Bannerman]

Fleck 5800SXT Settings for 0.75 ft3 softener:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = 5800 ; Valve type
RF = DF2b ; Down Flow - Double Backwash
CT = Fd ; Regeneration Control Type
C = 18.0 ; capacity X 1000 grains
H = 7 ; Hardness setting grains per gallon (verify hardness using Hach 5B kit at your location)
RS = cr ; Variable Reserve automatically calculated from usage history
DO = 28
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time
BD = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
BW = 6; Backwash minutes
RR = 5; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 18 minutes ; Brine Fill (based on 0.125 GPM BLFC - confirm from label afixed to brine valve)
FM = t0.7 ; Flow meter = 3/4" turbine ; (verify Flow Meter type)
RE = OFF ; Relay setting

Many folks with aquariums will use an RO system to remove sodium, chlorine and other contaminants from the tank fill water.

Will the softener be located in a temperature-controlled environment? Potassium chloride can be more problematic than sodium chloride as potassium's dissolve rate will vary by temperature and recrystallization can occur as the environment temperature becomes cooler.

To regenerate 24,000 grains capacity in 0.75 ft3 resin will require 15 lbs salt which is very inefficient. I have specified the Capacity setting to be 18,000 grains which will require only 6 lbs salt (8 lbs per ft3 of resin).

The amount of salt brine created is determined by the quantity of water entering the brine tank as each gallon will dissolve 3 lbs salt. Assuming the BLFC flow restrictor installed is 0.125 GPM, that flow rate X BF minutes = the amount of water to enter the brine tank. For your application, 0.125 BLFC X 16-minutes BF = 2.0 gallons water X 3 lbs = 6 lbs salt total. The BF setting specified is 18-minutes as additional water will be needed to dissolve Potassium Chloride at less than 80F so 2-minutes (0.25 gallons) was added to the BF setting as I anticipate the softener's intended environment will remain cooler than 80℉.

With a Brine Draw setting of 60-minutes, the 6 lbs salt brine should be transferred from the brine tank to the resin tank within approx 15-minutes, leaving the remaining ~45-minutes of slow rinse to slowly push the brine down through the resin and rinse away chloride, magnesium calcium and excess sodium/potassium to drain.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Erikhans]

Thank you Bannerman for that explanation of the how the regen cycle works... that makes much more sense now!

[Many folks with aquariums will use an RO system to remove sodium, chlorine and other contaminants from the tank fill water.]

I do have an RO system, but my fish tank is 180 gallons, so the amount of water necessary for a water change is far more than my under-sink RO system can produce. I'm considering buying a 10+ gallon pressure tank for the system so I could do water top offs with RO water.

[Will the softener be located in a temperature-controlled environment? Potassium chloride can be more problematic than sodium chloride as potassium's dissolve rate will vary by temperature and recrystallization can occur as the environment temperature becomes cooler.]

The softener will be in my basement... it's usually around 60 degrees. Is that too cold for a potassium chloride system to run correctly?

I found a sticker near the Brine tube connection that says ".12 gpm .37 lbs salt per minute"

I'll get a Hach water test kit this week from a local supply store, in the meantime, I used an aquarium carbonate hardness test kit and it registered about 4 grains of hardness.

Is there a particular formula for calculating the grain capacity of a system given the amount of resin and the amount of salt per regen cycle?

I used a line graph to try to extrapolate backwards to an even lower salt dose, so I'm going to experiment with following settings and see if it still adequately softens the water:

RF = DF2b Down Flow - Double Backwash
C = 11.0
H = 5
RS = cr
DO = 21 The seller recommended no more that 21 days... not sure why
RT = 2:00
B1 = 6 Is this backwash cycle 1?
BD = 60
B2 = 6 ... and backwash cycle 2?
RR = 5
BF = 10
FM = P0.7 - This is what the unit came set as, so I assume the dealer sold me the paddle wheel version

That should use about 3.7 pounds of salt per regen, with a capacity of 11000 grains... does that make sense? According to my water bill we average about 5100 gallons of water each month, so with these settings the system will regenerate about twice a month, and I won't be spending too much money on the potassium chloride

I noticed instead of "BW" the system shows the options "B1" and B2"... are those the 2 separate backwash cycles? The manual doesn't mention anything about B1 and B2.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Reach4]

I noticed instead of "BW" the system shows the options "B1" and B2"... are those the 2 separate backwash cycles?

Yes. Before and after BD.

 

[Aaroninnh]

Thank you Bannerman for that explanation of the how the regen cycle works... that makes much more sense now!

[Many folks with aquariums will use an RO system to remove sodium, chlorine and other contaminants from the tank fill water.]

I do have an RO system, but my fish tank is 180 gallons, so the amount of water necessary for a water change is far more than my under-sink RO system can produce. I'm considering buying a 10+ gallon pressure tank for the system so I could do water top offs with RO water.

[Will the softener be located in a temperature-controlled environment? Potassium chloride can be more problematic than sodium chloride as potassium's dissolve rate will vary by temperature and recrystallization can occur as the environment temperature becomes cooler.]

The softener will be in my basement... it's usually around 60 degrees. Is that too cold for a potassium chloride system to run correctly?

I found a sticker near the Brine tube connection that says ".12 gpm .37 lbs salt per minute"

I'll get a Hach water test kit this week from a local supply store, in the meantime, I used an aquarium carbonate hardness test kit and it registered about 4 grains of hardness.

Is there a particular formula for calculating the grain capacity of a system given the amount of resin and the amount of salt per regen cycle?

I used a line graph to try to extrapolate backwards to an even lower salt dose, so I'm going to experiment with following settings and see if it still adequately softens the water:

RF = DF2b Down Flow - Double Backwash
C = 11.0
H = 5
RS = cr
DO = 21 The seller recommended no more that 21 days... not sure why
RT = 2:00
B1 = 6 Is this backwash cycle 1?
BD = 60
B2 = 6 ... and backwash cycle 2?
RR = 5
BF = 10
FM = P0.7 - This is what the unit came set as, so I assume the dealer sold me the paddle wheel version

That should use about 3.7 pounds of salt per regen, with a capacity of 11000 grains... does that make sense? According to my water bill we average about 5100 gallons of water each month, so with these settings the system will regenerate about twice a month, and I won't be spending too much money on the potassium chloride

I noticed instead of "BW" the system shows the options "B1" and B2"... are those the 2 separate backwash cycles? The manual doesn't mention anything about B1 and B2.

Thanks again for your help!

Thats a low salt dose, works out to about 5Lb/CuFt. Bannerman suggested closer to 8, which is generally a great choice. If you want to be more efficient with salt and possibly deal with a little hardness leakage, I'd personally suggest getting closer to 6Lb/CuFt, which works out to a BF of about 12 in your case.

4 grains of hardness isn't much at all, definitely marginal for needing a softener at all. If thats correct, the amount of sodium chloride you would be adding would be miniscule with 5 grains of hardness. Why not just go with sodium?

 

[Bannerman]

H = 5

The hardness setting to be programmed, is not to be less than the actual total hardness contained in the raw water. In your opening post, you said the hardness amount is about 6 gpg. I specified 7 as many who state an even number, will have rounded down such as stating 6.2 as 6. Because 6.2 is >6.0, the number will need to be rounded up to the next whole number and often higher.

Is there a particular formula for calculating the grain capacity of a system given the amount of resin and the amount of salt per regen cycle?

,
The chart below will provide that information.

Because the smallest quantity of resin listed is 1 ft3, you will need to use the 1 ft3 capacity and salt quantities and multiply by 0.75 to arrive at the appropriate amounts for your softener which contains only 3/4 ft3 resin.

The bottom of each salt column shows Hardness Reduction Efficiency and water quality to compare. Because reducing the quantity of salt will reduce capacity and will also compromise water quality by increasing hardness leakage, I had specified settings appropriate for 8 lbs salt/ft3 as that will provide the best balance of Efficiency, Capacity and water quality.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/resin-chart-jpg.68704/