Fleck 5600 "people" dial not engaged

[ddigiovanni]

Noticed my softener wasn't using salt, figured it was a salt clog, but when I was emptying the salt, I noticed that the "people" dial that sets the capacity of the unit is spinning freely. Also after I ran a manual regen, the capacity setting was at zero. In every video I've seen on programming this softener, the user has to pull up on this dial to change the setting, but with mine I can change the setting without pulling up.

Other than that, the softener seems to be working fine. The timer works, the capacity counts down as water is used, and the regeneration cycle runs to completion.

Any idea what is broken and how to fix? Thanks.

 

[ddigiovanni]

After doing some more research and looking at the dial, it appears there should be some teeth on the back of the clear people/hardness dial that grab the program skipper wheel behind it. So I'm thinking I just need a new dial.

Not sure how those teeth broke off. Maybe I did in fact have a salt clog which is why the softener wasn't working and I broke the teeth when I turned the knob for manual regeneration. Either that or the teeth were holding on by a thread and finally broke a month or so ago on their own.

Going to let the softener run down its capacity and see what happens when it gets to zero.

 

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[Reach4]

If you can get the white dot where it needs to be, you can ignore the people dial.

I think your white dot is saying 1350 gallons, and the reserve would be more gallons at about 60 gallons per person.

 

[ddigiovanni]

Yes, but the people dial has a plastic spur on it that grabs the main timer wheel and causes the regen cycle to run. If that dial isn’t locked into the capacity wheel, it won’t turn the main timer wheel and trigger the regen.

Unless I’m not understanding how it works.