Looking for dealer/installer

[tupdegrove]

Thanks for education.

Want to have dealer install system with good metered Fleck/Clack control valve. Any recommendations for 18103 (Lehigh Valley, PA)?

Info:
Source: City water; treated with Chlorine (no iron)
Hardness: 17 grains measured with Hach 5b; (dealer measured 14.1 with fancy device)
People in house: 4
Gal per person: 70 (if calculated correctly, water bills have average 85 gal/day/person over last year but that seems high)
Carbon filter: Would like carbon filter to remove chlorine to extend resin life with side benefit of better tasting water and better for clothes washing.
Unit Size: Seems like 32,000 grain unit (1 cu ft resin) programmed for 24,000 grains might barely be acceptable with regen every 5 days [24,000/(4*70*17)]. Bumping up to 48,000 grain unit (1.5 cu ft) programmed for 36,000 grains would increase regen to 7.6 days.

Dealer story:
Local dealer recommend 32,000 grain unit (Fleck 5600 control valve) with 1 cu ft resin with separate 0.5 cu ft carbon filter in same tank (10"x54") near water inlet. He claimed 32,000 grains of soft water with only 8 lbs salt per regen cycle. Based on this site's Reset Capacity Chart (don't know how to add here), a 1 cu ft resin unit with 32,000 regen capacity would take 20 lbs of salt (brine efficiency only 1600 grains/lb salt). Your chart shows a 32,000 grain unit using 8 lbs of salt/regen only produces 24,000 grains of soft water. Tried to explain brine efficiency to dealer but he didn't seem to understand (i.e. he didn't understand your chart). Hence, looking for another dealer (or please explain he was correct and I don't understand).

 

[Reach4]

Do go to 1.5 cuft.

Doesn't mater, IMO, if the dealer doesn't understand that part, as long as you can access the installer settings. If you can't access the installer settings, you could increase the hardness settings to compensate, but you should not have to. Make sure that you being able to get into the installer settings is part of the deal.

Still, I guess I can see that you would want to look elsewhere, but you don't have to absolutely give up on that seller.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[tupdegrove]

Agreed. Wanted to stay with this 40 year old mom & pop business and thought I'd just reprogram 48,000 unit. Unfortunately, he can't get that size unit now (they spec Clack tank with carbon shelf, etc) and said even if he could, the price would be exorbitant. He (son) said only option was 32,000 tank they have in-stock. Hence, looking for another option.

 

[Bannerman]

Not recommended to mix carbon and softening resin together.
1) Softening media and carbon media each require very different backwash rates.
2) To effectively extend the lifespan of the softening resin, the chlorine would need to be removed so it will not have contact with the resin. Mixing carbon and resin together in one tank will result in chlorinated water having contact with the resin.
3) Softening Resin lifespan can often exceed more than 20 years whereas a small amount of carbon will need to be replaced likely every 2-3 years. When mixed together, replacing the carbon will usually involve replacing the resin also. While the two medias will remain physically separated when using an Enpress Vortech tank with a mid-vortech divider, from your description, this does not appear to have been proposed.

For the most effective carbon filtration, the recommended flow rate per cubic foot of media is 1-3 GPM. A flow rate range is specified as carbon will require sufficient contact time to adsorb and remove contaminants, with some contaminants requiring longer contact time than others. Although plain chlorine can be fully removed rapidly with minimal contact time, the byproducts of sanitation will often require longer time to be removed.

The usual minimum recommended quantity of carbon for point of entry is 1.5 ft3 which will utilize a seperate 10" X 54" tank and backwashing head. Carbon maybe backwashed as few as 1X per month, and that quantity of media will typically be replaced every 6-8 years.

A larger amount of carbon such as 2.0 ft3 will increase the contact duration while also potentially extending the media replacement interval up to 10 years.

You are correctly understanding the amount of salt directly effects the softening capacity to be regenerated and also efficiency.

It appears a softener containing 1.5 ft3 resin will be the minimum size required based on 70 g/pp/d, but if actual consumption is 85 g/pp (not including irrigation), then a 2 ft3 softener delivering 48,000 grains while using 16 lbs (8 lbs/ft3) per regen cycle would be a better fit. If the consunsumotion rate is actually 70 g/pp, a 2 ft3 unit, the anticipated regen frequency will be 9-10 days.