Programming a Fleck 7000 and Sanitizing

[F6Hawk]

Do not do the SIO the way hawk suggests. That way means the resin bed is still compacted instead of fluffed up which separates the beads to make regeneration or cleaning much more complete.

Let me clarify what I was saying... What I did was to put the 1/4 cup into the filter bowl, open a faucet for about 30-45 seconds to ensure all the SIO was in the softener, then I set the softener to regen later that night, and left the house. Another way would be to just wait a while after the SIO is in the resin, and do a manual regen, but since no one was in the house while the SIO was working, it was easier to just program a manual regen that night.

Hope this clears up any confusion.

 

[F6Hawk]

F6Hawk,

Thanks for chiming in (whatever that means? lingo in forums?) and letting me know, that by replacing the existing .50 BLFC and the existing yellow injector with a (#00 violet? for a 9"' or 10" tank) one, haven't seen a brown one (#000) available for the 8" tank I have, that I will be reducing my salt (and water?) usage by 50%. That's great!

I'd prefer you go with one of the pro's recommendations on the BLFC and DLFC, they know better what to use and why. But as for my numbers, those are based on both the BLFC as well as TIME... you can get the same efficiency now by reducing the time it refills the brine tank. Remember, time equals gallons of water equals salt (at 3 lbs of salt dissolved per gallon of water). FLOW RATE X TIME gives you gallons. Hope this helps you!

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Gary Slusser]

Thanks for the quick response Gary,

I had thought I had read a thread at this forum (can't seem to find it) that was a more complex cleaning which involved dissolving the SIO, as you state, then pouring it in the brine well, running a manual regeneration, and then stopping the regeneration, at a certain cycle, by unplugging the control valve and allowing the SIO or other resin cleaner some time to cleanse the resin.

If you were attempting to reclaim iron fouled resin instead of replacing it, you would stop the regeneration but you are simply cleaning your resin so it doesn't get iron fouled, so I didn't need to mention it.

I have never cleaned or sanitized the 1.0 cu ft of seven year old resin in my tank. So it would be a rare occasion. I would like to do so in comprehensive manner in order to maintain the health of the resin in my softener system.

Using SIO in the salt tank has been "cleaning" your resin. And so far you've shown no need to have to sanitize the resin now, and doing so harms resin. You also don't have stop the regeneration to sanitize a softener. That's because of the length of time of the slow rinse/brine draw position.

 

[Gary Slusser]

Let me clarify what I was saying... What I did was to put the 1/4 cup into the filter bowl, open a faucet for about 30-45 seconds to ensure all the SIO was in the softener, then I set the softener to regen later that night, and left the house. Another way would be to just wait a while after the SIO is in the resin, and do a manual regen, but since no one was in the house while the SIO was working, it was easier to just program a manual regen that night.

Hope this clears up any confusion.

I still say it is a bad way to do it.

 

[F6Hawk]

I still say it is a bad way to do it.

Can you say WHY it is a bad way?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

This is by far the easiest way to ensure that the job gets done regularly.

 

[F6Hawk]

Or, if lots of iron....

 

[Gary Slusser]

The least expensive and best way to do it is the way I described to do it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

And there you have it folks. The self proclaimed expert to the experts has spoken. LOL

For the record though. We have a lot of iron in this area and a whole lot of folks that unfortunately are using their softeners to remove iron. As a result we sell tons of Morton System Saver salt. Yes, it cost's a few dollars more but the majority of our salt customers gladly pay the extra rather than have to remember when they last treated the resin or how much to mix and where to put it yadda yadda yadda. They would much rather dump a bag of System Saver in and forget about it. For those of you that are penny pinchers a like playing with chemicals then by all means Mr. Slusser is your guru

 

[F6Hawk]

The least expensive and best way to do it is the way I described to do it.

So basically, you are full of $hit, and have NO BASIS for saying what you said to me. Ok, thanks for clearing that up for us.

 

[Gary Slusser]

I've learned from answering your posts and PMs to me and my answering your never ending questions that you still disagree with me although I have gone into detail to explain 'things' to you.

One more time.... your way misses the point that 35-45 seconds is not enough time to dissolve all of the 1/4 cup of IO in the disposable cartridge sump, so you got very little IO into the resin.

And I'd think you didn't get much if any of the weak IO solution, and recall it is diluted by all the water in the resin tank, all the way down through the column of resin but, to do that you would have to run the water for much longer to get the IO into all the resin and that means you'd have some out into the plumbing. Which doesn't do the resin any good.

Then when the regeneration starts, the backwash cycle (upflow remember, from the bottom of the resin up) uses up all the IO sending it out the drain line in just a few minutes.

And you've missed the importance of the resin not having been backwashed before introducing the IO to the resin in the slow rinse/brine draw cycle allowing the IO to be in contact with the resin for a much longer period of time.

Plus if you did get any IO out of the softener into the plumbing, it is in the plumbing past the softener where someone could use water without knowing there was IO in it until it was too late. And you may find that the sump still has some IO in the bottom of it because the water coming in the top simply goes across the top (about 1.5") and out the outlet, not down to the bottom of the sump where the IO is.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

My way is fool proof

 

[F6Hawk]

LOL, no argument there, Tom. Pretty simple. Though I haven't used it long enough to know how much iron it will actually overcome, in the long run.

I recognize your points, Gary, and can only say that when I did it, it only took those 30-45 seconds for ALL the SIO to leave the clear filter bowl, so that's all I ran it. No way the SIO got thru the softener into the house. Your method DOES guarantee that no SIO will ever get into the house, but it doesn't give much contact time. And while I don't have the years of experience that you do, I do know that there is a huge difference between 20-30 minutes of contact time vs. hours of contact time. It's like night and day when it comes to removing years' worth of iron accumulation.

The SIO solution is just as strong using either method, though I can see your point of there being no way of knowing if the SIO will get to ALL the resin while it sits for 2-3 hours or so. But I suspect it will get to most of it. And when the regen cycle happens, yes, the SIO will be rinsed out, but it sat for hours in my case, as opposed to minutes in your case.

 

[Gary Slusser]

I've also used IO to 'wash' parts. I've used it to remove iron from the inside of resin tanks from the resin level up that you couldn't shine a bright light through. You should do some of that and get back to us.

Or, tell us why the capsule in the bag of salt way seems to work when it's a much smaller amount than my way and it's in the resin the same amount of time as my way.

 

[gojoe3]

If you were attempting to reclaim iron fouled resin instead of replacing it, you would stop the regeneration but you are simply cleaning your resin so it doesn't get iron fouled, so I didn't need to mention it.

Using SIO in the salt tank has been "cleaning" your resin. And so far you've shown no need to have to sanitize the resin now, and doing so harms resin. You also don't have stop the regeneration to sanitize a softener. That's because of the length of time of the slow rinse/brine draw position.

Thanks Gary,

I forgot to mention that I have only been using/adding the SIO for the past year. My 1.0 cu ft softener has been operating since 2005 so it went six years before I started using SIO. That's why I thought I should do a more thorough cleaning. Because I don't know what the current state of the resin is, and whether it is fouled or not. I ended up doing the resin cleaning first, and will sanitize next. I used a cup of SIO and dissolved it in a gallon of softened water. I poured it directly into the brine well and did a manual regeneration.

If I were concerned about ever having breached my softener's capacity, and wanted to make sure that the resin has been fully regenerated, would I need to do two, back to back regenerations? I assume that the salt dose setting (proper terminology?), which my Fleck 7000 is currently programmed for (thanks F6Hawk for calculating that for me), is more than adequate at 16.5 lbs per regeneration to fully restore the capacity of 1.0 cubic foot of resin. So, can I assume that doing two, back to back regenerations, will fully restore the capacity? If so, then my next maintenance procedure will be to sanitize the resin, since this has never been done, and because I have had pink/red staining at the toilet bowl water line. I would just feel better to know that it has been sanitized and that any bacteria in the resin has been removed. I will add one cup of unscented bleach to a gallon of conditioned water and pour it into the brine well? or brine tank? or both?, and then initiate a manual regeneration. I will then follow up immediately with a second manual regeneration, in order to fully rinse the bleached resin and to fully regenerate the resin's capacity. Would this be the correct/preferred method?

Should I check the pH as stated here http://wqa.org/pdf/educ/webinars/RESIN_SANITIZING.pdf ? It says to check the effluent pH. I have a Hach pH test kit, where would I test for "effluent pH"? Pre or post water softener? FYI my raw water test, done 4/15/12, shows 6.6 for raw water and 7.0 post conditioning. I have a pH neutralizer installed prior to the softener. I am concerned that the raw water pH may have changed since April. I understand that the neutralizer "should" raise the pH level to one which would be safe to use with bleach, but would like to know for sure. Could I test the pH of the water coming into the brine tank by manually changing the valve to the brine fill cycle and capturing some water coming out of the brine line? I wish I had installed a 3/4" full port drain valve after my AN tank, this would have made for easy testing.

Lastly, any recommendations out there on where to purchase a replacement BLFC, injector, and DLFC (do I need to change this also? where is it?) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the responses and opinions. Have a good day.

 

[Gary Slusser]

Thanks Gary,

I forgot to mention that I have only been using/adding the SIO for the past year. My 1.0 cu ft softener has been operating since 2005 so it went six years before I started using SIO. That's why I thought I should do a more thorough cleaning. Because I don't know what the current state of the resin is, and whether it is fouled or not. I ended up doing the resin cleaning first, and will sanitize next. I used a cup of SIO and dissolved it in a gallon of softened water. I poured it directly into the brine well and did a manual regeneration.

Unless you had iron getting through the softener your resin was just fine and you're worried about nothing. And 1 cup of SIO is at least twice the amount you need for a 1.0' softener.

If I were concerned about ever having breached my softener's capacity, and wanted to make sure that the resin has been fully regenerated, would I need to do two, back to back regenerations? I assume that the salt dose setting (proper terminology?), which my Fleck 7000 is currently programmed for (thanks F6Hawk for calculating that for me), is more than adequate at 16.5 lbs per regeneration to fully restore the capacity of 1.0 cubic foot of resin. So, can I assume that doing two, back to back regenerations, will fully restore the capacity?

If so, then my next maintenance procedure will be to sanitize the resin, since this has never been done, and because I have had pink/red staining at the toilet bowl water line. I would just feel better to know that it has been sanitized and that any bacteria in the resin has been removed.

I will add one cup of unscented bleach to a gallon of conditioned water and pour it into the brine well? or brine tank? or both?, and then initiate a manual regeneration. I will then follow up immediately with a second manual regeneration, in order to fully rinse the bleached resin and to fully regenerate the resin's capacity. Would this be the correct/preferred method?

Yes you do two regenerations but... Hawk has you using more than 15 lbs/cuft and you're just wasting the excess.

Yes, in the water in the salt tank, not into the salt but you should not sanitize unless you have some symptom that doing so will cure the cause of the problem but....

Pink staining at the water line in pet water bowls, toilet bowls etc is caused by airborne bacteria, it isn't due to not sanitizing your softener. One regeneration with bleach is enough, you don't need to do a second one to get rid of bleach, it all went to drain as it was added in the slow rinse/brine draw position but then it was rinsed out in the Rinse position too.

Should I check the pH as stated here http://wqa.org/pdf/educ/webinars/RESIN_SANITIZING.pdf ?

No, it's not needed to sanitize a softener. Plus you have an AN filter that has raised the pH.

Lastly, any recommendations out there on where to purchase a replacement BLFC, injector, and DLFC (do I need to change this also? where is it?) would be greatly appreciated.

You can buy them from any dealer selling Fleck valves, local or online, that knows which ones your valve and softener needs.