phrygiangates
New Member
Hello all - thanks to everyone who posts questions and answers on this forum, it’s a really incredible resource. I’ve read a ton about softeners here and am close to making a decision on one, just wanted a little bit of help taking the last step.
Three in the household right now: my wife and me and our toddler. One bathroom currently but we plan to add one, maybe one and a half, in the next three to five years. Maybe another kid before too long too.
Lab results are attached. We’re on city water; hardness is 270 ppm / 16 gpg. We use between 75 and 100 gallons per day in total, according to a year’s worth of meter readings on our water bill (excluding summer outdoor watering). I’m estimating we will need for now to soften between 1,200 and 1,600 grains per day.
Our local independent installer is recommending a 1.5 cubic foot system to accommodate the future increase in water usage. It seems like a little bit of overkill for our current usage but based on what I’ve read here I don’t think I need to be concerned as long as we have at least one regen per month, the override if nothing else. And I don’t want to end up undersized later on.
For the valve, he has either a Fleck 5800 LXT or a Clack WS1. It’s $200 more for the Clack. I’m leaning towards spending the extra little bit for the Clack since it seems to have some more flexibility programming-wise. I also wasn’t able to tell whether the LXT model of the Fleck will do a double backwash. We are in Southern California and I’d like to meet the state standard of 4,000 grains softened per lb of salt if at all possible, and it seems the second backwash is of some benefit there? I do like how simple changing the salt setting sounds with the LXT, though. So I guess what I’m asking is, do those of you with experience think there’s a good argument in our case to go with one vs the other?
Also, because we’re in an area where water is scarce, I’m interested to know if there is any difference between the two valves in terms of water used per regeneration?
Or am I overthinking it??
Thank you in advance!
Three in the household right now: my wife and me and our toddler. One bathroom currently but we plan to add one, maybe one and a half, in the next three to five years. Maybe another kid before too long too.
Lab results are attached. We’re on city water; hardness is 270 ppm / 16 gpg. We use between 75 and 100 gallons per day in total, according to a year’s worth of meter readings on our water bill (excluding summer outdoor watering). I’m estimating we will need for now to soften between 1,200 and 1,600 grains per day.
Our local independent installer is recommending a 1.5 cubic foot system to accommodate the future increase in water usage. It seems like a little bit of overkill for our current usage but based on what I’ve read here I don’t think I need to be concerned as long as we have at least one regen per month, the override if nothing else. And I don’t want to end up undersized later on.
For the valve, he has either a Fleck 5800 LXT or a Clack WS1. It’s $200 more for the Clack. I’m leaning towards spending the extra little bit for the Clack since it seems to have some more flexibility programming-wise. I also wasn’t able to tell whether the LXT model of the Fleck will do a double backwash. We are in Southern California and I’d like to meet the state standard of 4,000 grains softened per lb of salt if at all possible, and it seems the second backwash is of some benefit there? I do like how simple changing the salt setting sounds with the LXT, though. So I guess what I’m asking is, do those of you with experience think there’s a good argument in our case to go with one vs the other?
Also, because we’re in an area where water is scarce, I’m interested to know if there is any difference between the two valves in terms of water used per regeneration?
Or am I overthinking it??
Thank you in advance!
