New to water softeners, have some questions about mine

[MrFloratam]

Moved into a house that has a water softener that was installed in 2018. The house was on a well until last year. The well was not maintained/tested between 2018 and last year. When I moved in last year, the water at all faucets was visibly dirty and the toilet tanks were full of buildup. I had the well water tested and it was deemed very unsafe. Had the house switched to city water and am now trying to get the softener straightened out. There was no sediment/iron/carbon filter between the well and softener. After switching to city water and having it retested after a week or so, the test came back with no detectable bacteria. I still use a filter for drinking water but all the fixtures/toilets are clean now.

I am now trying to get the softener straightened out. Every now and then, I'll get soft water briefly from a faucet. I know it's soft water because I've had them before. It runs "soft" for a few seconds/minutes then it's over and back to normal water. It comes and goes occasionally. It seems the softener is doing something, just not enough. I'm also still getting mineral buildup on the faucets. After much reading/research, I'm leaning towards resin replacement. It seems like years of terrible well water have probably killed the resin, and now chlorinated city water (1.0 mg/l?) isn't helping either. I'm very handy in the trades and don't feel that this will be a complicated job. But I am completely new to working on softeners specifically.

It seems that my setup is a Pentair/Fleck 2510EM controller on a Pentair 1054 tank. From my research it seems that this is designed for 48k. I live alone, shower twice a day, laundry once a week, wash the car once a week. My city water is 6.5 gpg. I know that this is oversized, but was originally sized for hard well water with 4-5 people in the house. Downsizing the unit is not an option, as the occupancy may be higher in the near future.

Do I use less resin when I refill the tank or use the correct amount for 48k? Do I just set it for the lowest settings? Is there a downside to having such a large system for relatively low hardness city water and 1 person? Looking for the best course of action here. If buying salt is the only downside for the over-sized system, I'll just deal with it.

Any insight is appreciated. This seems to be a decent system and I just want it to work properly.

 

[Reach4]

You have a Fleck 5810 Econominder valve. https://www.purewaterproducts.com/img/docs/manuals/2510_Service_Manual.pdf

When you regenerate, expect the gallons count-down to be set to about 1150 gallons, based on where the white dot is. I think, if things are going right, after you go thru another 375 gallons, the softener will regenerate at the next 2AM.

Expect about 32000 grains of capacity after a regen. Do not uses 48000 in a calculation.

If I were swapping resin, I would probably opt for 1.5 cuft of 10% crosslinked resin. But I am not sure you need resin yet.

You would want about 5000 gallons between regens, but you have the x100 wheel that would be 50. So just move the clear dial to put the white dot next to the biggest number you can, which I think is 20. This what I think you referred to when you said max out. You might as well lower the salt to 9 pounds (6 lb/cuft) if keeping the x100 wheel.

There is also a x1000 wheel, but swapping that will take time and money. But if you did that, put the white dot at 5.2.

So right now, this is set to regen too often. But you don't get much softening. So some problem exists. Bad resin? Brine not drawing? Regeneration not happening for some reason? Something else?

Does the gallons-to-go count down by having the dial rotate CCW? So watch that.

ECONOMINDER System info​	​	​	​	​
salt lb/cuft​	=​	8.0​	;​	A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)​
cubic ft resin​	=​	1.50​	;​	Same as (nominal grains/32,000)​
Raw hardness​	=​	6.5​	;​	including iron etc​
Comp factor​	=​	1.05​	;​	High-hardness compensation factor​
H compensated​	=​	6.8​	;​	Hardness grains after comp factor​
Capacity of resin​	=​	36.0​	;​	capacity in 1000 grains​
Gallons total​	=​	5292.4​	;​	Gallons without considering reserve​
Estimated gal/day​	=​	60.0​	;​	60 gal per person typical calc​
Est days/regen​	=​	88.2​	;​	presuming days each use reserve capacity​
​	​	​	​	​
Econominder Settings:​	​	​	​	​
LBS.OF SALT​	=​	12.0​	;​	Brine cam in back, pounds of salt​
White Dot gal x100​	=​	52.3​	;​	Pull clear wheel to set​
White Dot gal x1000​	=​	5.2​	;​	Pull clear wheel to set​

 

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[MrFloratam]

Thanks for the great info. I did run a regen right before I posted this and it went through all the motions. It’s flushing to the drain and it has been consuming salt over the past several months. I looked for the brine cam earlier but could not locate it based on pictures. I did find something that looks like the brine cam but it has no possible adjustments. I need to dig into this a little more tomorrow.

 

[Reach4]

I looked for the brine cam earlier but could not locate it based on pictures. I did find something that looks like the brine came but it has no possible adjustments. I need to dig into this a little more tomorrow.

After further looking, I read about a program wheel and pins. I think the program wheel and pins are on the back side of that back plate. Do you have something like that back there?

Help me program my Fleck 2510 Manual for my Catalytic Carbon Tank

Not 100% sure how to reprogram the pins on my Timer. I just know the pins =2min each.. Since its programmed to BW at 4am, I fired off a manual backwash today to watch it. BW for 10 minutes and then seemed like a short delay and then BW again for another 10? Here is a photo of my pins..

terrylove.com

The amount of salt per minute of brine fill would be a function of the flow washer.

 

[MrFloratam]

Yes, I found the pins and set them according to the manual. I didn’t realize that this adjusted the salt usage.

 

[Reach4]

There is a flow washer. If that is 0.5 gpm, then for 6 lbs/cuft of resin you would want 6 minutes of fill time. 8 minutes gives 8 lbs/cuft. That only holds for 1.5 cuft softeners. I could go into more underlying details as to how that works out, but it does not help pick settings.

Now is your flow washer 0.5 gpm? You can look at it, and see the molded number. Or you can presume that if the pins were originally set to say 6 to 12, the washer is probably 0.5 gpm.

If you do look at the washer, it is directional; don't accidentally flip it over when putting it back.

 

[MrFloratam]

Just saw this, not sure if it’s what you’re describing:

 

[Reach4]

That is it.
So yes, each minute is one pound of salt per cuft with your 1.5 cuft.

But your problem is not so subtle I am thinking.

Yet if salt is being consumed, then it must be regenerating.

Get a Hach 5-B test, not only for potentially checking the hardness of the incoming water, but in your case more to test the residual hardness.

 

[MrFloratam]

Is taking water samples to a local testing place sufficient? One sample pre-softener and one sample post-softener? The water quality report I just got from the city says 6.6gpg.

 

[Reach4]

Cities, if they report hardness at all, usually report an average rather than a range.

Taking water samples to a local testing place is certainly sufficient. But for testing multiple residual hardness samples, the Hach 5-B test would be more convenient and cheaper.