Looking for a Water Softener Recommendation...

[Stone Ocean]

Hi everyone, like many others I've been down the rabbit hole without much more knowledge then when I started and would like a recommendation from people who are experienced.

Here is a bit about my situation:

Main Water Line Coming into the House: 1"
Hardness Adjusted for Iron: 30 gpg
Occupants: 4 - 5
Additional Notes: I have a hot tub and large whirlpool bathtub.
Preferred Valve: Fleck

I'm looking for a balance of salt efficiency and soft water quality, maybe a bit more focused on water quality.

Question(s):
1. What is the purpose of dual tanks? Just extra water storage?

What do you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Reach4]

Main Water Line Coming into the House: 1"
Hardness Adjusted for Iron: 30 gpg
Occupants: 4 - 5

If you had 2.5 cuft of resin in a 13" x 54" media tank, I estimate that you would regerate about every 5 or 6 days.
With 3 cuft of resin in a 14 x 65 tank, you would regenerate about every 7 days. That takes into account adding high-hardness compensation, with the hardness entered as 35.

With the big tank you could use a Fleck 5810sxt or xtr2 valve. That has 1 inch passages inside to match your pipes. Those are readily available but not advertised like the 5600 and 9100 units are.

Question(s):
1. What is the purpose of dual tanks? Just extra water storage?

With a single tank, you program in (or it auto-adjusts) a reserve. For you that would be about 270 gallons of water. So each night, the softener would regenerate if there is less than 270 gallons of capacity left. On average, we can estimate that about 1/2 day of capacity is going unused. If you go 7 days between regens, 1/2 day is not that significant. That is where people usually draw the line.

A double-tank unit does not need to keep a reserve. When capacity is used, the system switches to the other tank. The used tank can either be regenerated immediately, or you can wait until 2 am (default) for it to get regenerated. The Fleck 9100SXT would do those things.

advertised "grains" of capacity for a softener should not be used in a calculation. Think of that as code for the amount of resin, where "32000" means 1 cuft. For dual tank system, some list the capacity for each tank, and some list the capacity for both tanks. So a dual "48000" might be the same as a dual "96000" for somebody else.

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/ind...0-sxt-programming-settings.60651/#post-450189
talks of high-hardness compensation.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Stone Ocean]

If you had 2.5 cuft of resin in a 13" x 54" media tank, I estimate that you would regerate about every 5 or 6 days.
With 3 cuft of resin in a 14 x 65 tank, you would regenerate about every 7 days. That takes into account adding high-hardness compensation, with the hardness entered as 35.

With the big tank you could use a Fleck 5810sxt or xtr2 valve. That has 1 inch passages inside to match your pipes. Those are readily available but not advertised like the 5600 and 9100 units are.


With a single tank, you program in (or it auto-adjusts) a reserve. For you that would be about 270 gallons of water. So each night, the softener would regenerate if there is less than 270 gallons of capacity left. On average, we can estimate that about 1/2 day of capacity is going unused. If you go 7 days between regens, 1/2 day is not that significant. That is where people usually draw the line.

A double-tank unit does not need to keep a reserve. When capacity is used, the system switches to the other tank. The used tank can either be regenerated immediately, or you can wait until 2 am (default) for it to get regenerated. The Fleck 9100SXT would do those things.

advertised "grains" of capacity for a softener should not be used in a calculation. Think of that as code for the amount of resin, where "32000" means 1 cuft. For dual tank system, some list the capacity for each tank, and some list the capacity for both tanks. So a dual "48000" might be the same as a dual "96000" for somebody else.

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/ind...0-sxt-programming-settings.60651/#post-450189
talks of high-hardness compensation.

First off, thanks for the information. What would the salt usage be like on the 2.5 and 3 cuft? I guess is there an advantage to one or the other besides deferring the regeneration cycle another day or two?

 

[Reach4]

I figured about 7 lb of salt/cuft of resin. So 3 cuft would use 21 lb for each regen. 8 and 6 lb/cuft of resin are other popular choices.

 

[Skyjumper]

when you say "hardness compensated for iron" are you saying your hardness is something like 21gpg and your iron is 3ppm? it would help if you specified them separately. since you have iron you will have to clean the softener regularly with iron cleaners. you should also plan on servicing the valve every year to clean out the iron build up which will clog the valve and injector. which brings me to my next point --- in my opinion a Clack valve would be a much better choice. easier to service, more reliable, etc, especially for iron laden water. if you are thinking Fleck for DIY I would say you'd be better off just paying a dealer to install the clack and then servicing it yourself. I'm an avid DIYer and that's what I would do (and did do). I own both clack and fleck and have a lot of experience servicing both valves. The fleck has been very problematic, and that's being kind.

 

[Stone Ocean]

when you say "hardness compensated for iron" are you saying your hardness is something like 21gpg and your iron is 3ppm? it would help if you specified them separately. since you have iron you will have to clean the softener regularly with iron cleaners. you should also plan on servicing the valve every year to clean out the iron build up which will clog the valve and injector. which brings me to my next point --- in my opinion a Clack valve would be a much better choice. easier to service, more reliable, etc, especially for iron laden water. if you are thinking Fleck for DIY I would say you'd be better off just paying a dealer to install the clack and then servicing it yourself. I'm an avid DIYer and that's what I would do (and did do). I own both clack and fleck and have a lot of experience servicing both valves. The fleck has been very problematic, and that's being kind.

Sorry, part of this conversation was held in direct messages. Thanks for the input on Clack.