New water softener - not softening much - troubleshooting

[CaptainJK]

I have a new self installed water softener with a Fleck 5810 SXT valve and a 13x54 Vortech tank. The good people here have verified my system settings in the following thread:

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/please-check-my-5810-sxt-settings.86163/

My original Hach 5B test showed a hardness of 20 gpg, but even after going through two regens (only one with the optimized settings shown in the thread above), my hardness has only gone down to 16.

So far, I've confirmed the following:
- Plumbing is not in bypass
- Softener valves are not in bypass
- When a shower is running, I see the valve reporting that there is about 1.5-1.8 gpm flowing through the valve.
- The brine tank is about half full with 99% pure solar salt crystals. The water level is slightly higher than the salt. During the regen BD phase, I see the water empty and then refill during BF.
- The only thing I've seen that is a bit of a concern, during B1 and B2 when shining a flashlight through the almond colored tank, I don't see any lift of the resin. I don't know if it should be obvious, but for me, it isn't.

I very much appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Thanks very much!
John

For reference, my settings are as follows:
8 lbs/ft3 salt dose
BLFC = .25 gpm or .75 lb salt/min (I'm asking my vendor to replace with a .50 gpm)
Injector = #0 Red (I'm asking my vendor to replace with a #3)
DLFC = 4 gpm
Hardness = 20 gpg by Hach test
No iron
2.5 ft3 of resin

DF:GAL
VT:5810
RF:dF2b
CT:Fd
C:60.0
H:22
RS:cr
DO:30
RT:2:00
B1:5
B2:4
BD:107
BF:27
RR:6
FM:t1.2
RE:OFF

 

[Reach4]

The only thing I've seen that is a bit of a concern, during B1 and B2 when shining a flashlight through the almond colored tank, I don't see any lift of the resin. I don't know if it should be obvious, but for me, it isn't.

If the hard border is obvious to you in service, the lift during backwash should also be obvious. If you still see that hard boarder at the same level, you have a problem.

Your symptoms are consistent with the wrong distributor adapter up top to the size of distributor tube you have. Either that, or you are missing the piece. This is from page 16"

20 ................. 1 ......... 61419-02 ............... Kit, 32mm Distributor, Adapter
21 ................. 1 ......... 61419-01 ............... Kit, 1.315" Distributor, Adapter
22 ................. 1 ......... 61419 .................... Kit, 1.05" Distributor Adapter​

Test is to check for appearance of salt in the drain line within a couple minutes during BD rather than maybe 10 minutes normally. You can taste, or you can use a TDS meter.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[CaptainJK]

Your symptoms point to the wrong adapter up top to the size of distributor tube you have. Either that, or you are missing the piece.

You nailed it, Reach4. I removed the valve and then the bottom basket. My riser tube is about 1 inch but the distributor adapter has about a 1.25 inch opening. Time to call the people that sold me the tank and valve and get the proper adapter. Hopefully they can send it quickly. Now that everything is set, I really want to get this thing working.

One more question (hopefully) for once everything is working, if I have new resin, does it need to be regen'ed to soften or will it soften "out of the box"?

Thanks very much!

 

[Reach4]

One more question (hopefully) for once everything is working, if I have new resin, does it need to be regen'ed to soften or will it soften "out of the box"?

Should soften out of the box, but you may have used some capacity.

The adapters are the same as for the 7000: