Understanding Fleck Settings

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WorldPeace

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I was wondering what the Fleck settings ultimately do on the Fleck 5600 SXT control head.

When you adjust the capacity (C), hardness (h), and safety factor (SF), does it simply change the amount of water that's softened before it starts the regeneration cycle? When I change these settings, does it modify anything else?
 

Reach4

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The display gallons starts at G=C/H-R
where R is the reserve.

If using Safety factor. R is a percent of the C/H gallons Programmed the way I prefer(RS=rc), you actually enter gallons (RC) rather than a percent.

Each regen, the count-down is set to G. At 2AM, if you have gone through zero, the softener regens. If not down to zero yet, wait until 2am to check again. The reserve gets you through the rest of the day if you go through zero.
 

WorldPeace

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The display gallons starts at G=C/H-R
where R is the reserve.

If using Safety factor. R is a percent of the C/H gallons Programmed the way I prefer(RS=rc), you actually enter gallons (RC) rather than a percent.

Each regen, the count-down is set to G. At 2AM, if you have gone through zero, the softener regens. If not down to zero yet, wait until 2am to check again. The reserve gets you through the rest of the day if you go through zero.

Reach,

Settings like the safety factor and the display I think I understand. I was wondering specifically about the ones that affect the softness of the water: the capacity, the hardness, and the safety factor.

It appears that these will change the amount of water that flows through the water softener before it starts the regeneration cycle. For example, changing the capacity from 64k to 42k will decrease the amount of water used before it triggers the regeneration cycle.

I am wondering if these settings only change the amount of water softened. Or, does it do something else?
 

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It changes the amount of water before regen, but you want to select your numbers so that when that number of gallons have passed thru, the hardness will be rising to what you think the max should be.

How much resin or what size tank do you expect to use?
 

WorldPeace

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It changes the amount of water before regen, but you want to select your numbers so that when that number of gallons have passed thru, the hardness will be rising to what you think the max should be.

How much resin or what size tank do you expect to use?

The resin tank is 2.0 cubic ft (12’’ x 52’’).

Unfortunately, my water softener malfunctioned so I'm trying to figure out how the controls work. I'm hoping I can make my water soft again. For 2 months, my water softener wasn't drawing the brine during the Brine Draw phase. So, the resin wasn't ever getting regenerated for 2 months. I finally noticed the problem and replaced the defective part. It now works but the water isn't as soft as it used to be. I'm trying to "reset" the resin to how it used to be before.

I'm manually regenerated by setting the Brine Draw stage for 4 hours. However, this didn't seem to fix the problem. So, I'm wondering what else I can do.

(Maybe I should actually create a new thread with this exact question...)
 

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Clean the injector and injector screen.

Make sure the brine is getting drawn.


If you don't have iron, before the first regen, add 10 gallons of water to the brine tank. Do a regen. That is a catch-up.
If you have a lot of iron, there is an additional thing I would suggest.

=====================================
The less salt per cubic ft, the more salt efficient, but more hardness breakthrough.
Revised based on number from https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/help-for-programming-fleck-5810.82673/#post-595983
BLFC = 0.5
cubic ft resin = 2

Alternative C and BF pairs (round down the C numbers):
lb/cuft ; C= ; BF=

5.250 ; 39.2 ; 7 #lean salt use. More hardness breakthrough
6.000 ; 42.0 ; 8 #popular with those who want to use less salt and still decent softening
6.750 ; 44.5 ; 9 #good too
7.500 ; 46.6 ; 10 #Nice medium. good softening moderate salt use
8.250 ; 48.6 ; 11 #good too
9.000 ; 50.3 ; 12
9.750 ; 51.9 ; 13
10.500 ; 53.3 ; 14
11.250 ; 54.6 ; 15
12.000 ; 55.7 ; 16 #Very soft water but uses more salt.
 

WorldPeace

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Clean the injector and injector screen.

Make sure the brine is getting drawn.


If you don't have iron, before the first regen, add 10 gallons of water to the brine tank. Do a regen. That is a catch-up.
If you have a lot of iron, there is an additional thing I would suggest.

=====================================
The less salt per cubic ft, the more salt efficient, but more hardness breakthrough.
Revised based on number from https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/help-for-programming-fleck-5810.82673/#post-595983
BLFC = 0.5
cubic ft resin = 2

Alternative C and BF pairs (round down the C numbers):
lb/cuft ; C= ; BF=

5.250 ; 39.2 ; 7 #lean salt use. More hardness breakthrough
6.000 ; 42.0 ; 8 #popular with those who want to use less salt and still decent softening
6.750 ; 44.5 ; 9 #good too
7.500 ; 46.6 ; 10 #Nice medium. good softening moderate salt use
8.250 ; 48.6 ; 11 #good too
9.000 ; 50.3 ; 12
9.750 ; 51.9 ; 13
10.500 ; 53.3 ; 14
11.250 ; 54.6 ; 15
12.000 ; 55.7 ; 16 #Very soft water but uses more salt.

Will clean the injector and screen. Thanks!

I have a question about how the C/BF pairs work. If you decrease the numbers, you regenerate more frequently, right?

If so, how is less salt used?

If the brine drain stage is always 60 minutes, doesn't that mean that the same amount of salt is always used up every regeneration cycle? And, if the regeneration cycle is more frequent, wouldn't more salt be expended if the regeneration cycles are more frequent?
 

Reach4

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Amount of salt in lbs is BF*3*0.5 or (lb/cuft column)*2 -- since you have 2 cuft of resin.

Amount of salt used is determined by BF. You normally will have a 0.5 gpm BLFC (brine line flow control).

The injector is normally chosen to give the brine draw in about 15 minutes. So 60 minute BD is good for #2 Injector - Blue
or #1 Injector - White. For #0 Injector - Red increase BD to 80 to 90 minutes.

The symptom of BD being too short is a bit of residual salt in the first 22 gallons of water used after regen. Too long wastes water, reduces capacity some, and keeps the softener in bypass longer.
 
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WorldPeace

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The info you p
Amount of salt in lbs is BF*3*0.5 or (lb/cuft column)*2 -- since you have 2 cuft of resin.

Amount of salt used is determined by BF. You normally will have a 0.5 gpm BLFC (brine line flow control).

The injector is normally chosen to give the brine draw in about 15 minutes. So 60 minute BD is good for #2 Injector - Blue
or #1 Injector - White. For #0 Injector - Red increase BD to 80 to 90 minutes.

The symptom of BD being too short is a bit of residual salt in the first 22 gallons of water used after regen. Too long wastes water, reduces capacity some, and keeps the softener in bypass longer.

The info you provided helped a lot. The water is much softer now. It's like night and day.

This is what I did, using your suggestions.

I increased the brine fill to 60. (Big mistake though. I thought the float/shut-off valve would stop the brine fill once it reached the top but actually the brine started to spill out from the overflow spout. So, I don't know what the float/shut-off valve is used for if the overflow spout exists. But, I ended up quickly racing over and terminating the brine fill after the floor was covered in brine.)

I then did a manual regeneration in which I set the brine draw for 90. Once, the brine was empty, I terminated the brine draw (so it would skip the slow rinse). I also skipped the rapid rinse cycle as well. Then, I let the resin tank just sit with the saltwater overnight.

In the morning, I performed a rapid rinse and tested the water from the faucet. The water softener was much better now.

Next time (if I need to do this again), I'll let the brine sit for a few hours after I perform a brine fill and before I perform a brine draw. This way more salt will dissolve in the brine. Maybe, I'll let the resin tank sit in salt water for a few overnight sessions (although this is kinda' time-consuming.)

Thanks for your help!
 

Reach4

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Your float valve is defective or your float is set too high. It's good you found this while you were paying attention.
 
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