Fleck 5600 What goes wrong with age? Why is the large knob hard to turn?

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Adenwork2

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My Fleck 5600 Economider is over 20 years old.
Every 2 years or so, the large knob on the front is hard to turn. http://cracklecdn.zoovy.lg1.simplecdn.net/img/softenerparts/W200-H150-Bf0f0f0/3414177.jpg
I change the piston, seals and spacer kit and until this year, the problem was solved. http://cracklecdn.zoovy.lg1.simplecdn.net/img/softenerparts/W200-H150-Bf0f0f0/3456pskit.jpg

This year, I changed the piston, seals and spacers but the large knob was still hard to turn and the motor would stall.
I bought a power head like this http://www.ohiopurewaterco.com/shop/files/images/product_thumbnail/FL56M-PH-thumbnail.gif
http://www.ohiopurewaterco.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=18715&cat=527&page=1
And the knob is easier to turn and the motor is able to push the control valve through the whole cycle.
I was thinking about just buying an empty power head housing http://cracklecdn.zoovy.lg1.simplecdn.net/img/softenerparts/W200-H150-Bf0f0f0/3413162010.jpg but could not figure out how to get the old parts out to put into a new housing.

What actually makes the knob hard to turn? The old seals did not feel any harder than the old one. Is there some special way to insert the seals and spacers that makes a difference in how hard it is to turn the knob?

I do not think the piston or spacers have anything to do with the knob being hard to turn.
 

Speedbump

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Even though you replace all that rubber, you still have that brass cylinder that they live in. Every time the unit backwashes there is a little bit of abrasion in the water that scours that brass. You keep changing the rubber, but you have a worn cylinder. Friction is what makes it hard to turn.

If it were mine, I would throw it away and buy another one. They were never intended to last 20 years anyway.
 

Gary Slusser

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So they sold you an expensive new power head without telling you to check or replace the brine valve huh...

The cause of hard turning is the piston, seals and spacers or, it will be the brine valve, or both, and you should check it before anything else. Also check the cam on the side of the drive wheel that pushes the brine valve down, a groove can be worn in it that causes binding.

Bob, I haven't looked in a 5600 lately but I don't remember any brass in a 5600; it's all Noryl. The 1500, 2500 and 9000 are brass and you have to clean any corrosion out of the hole before putting in new seals and spacers.
 

Speedbump

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Bob, I haven't looked in a 5600 lately but I don't remember any brass in a 5600; it's all Noryl.

Silly me. I don't rebuild them for the very reasons I described above. I thought they would have put a brass sleeve in the thing. I should have known better.

Anyway, I give them about a 7 to 10 year life on well water and a little longer on city type water. When they get hard to turn, I tell customers not to waste their money trying to fix them.
 

Speedbump

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And you will do the customer an unjust!

Yeah, that's your opinion and your entitled to it.

I'm the one that goes around behind the guys who rebuild them and 6 months later, they are hard to turn again and stripping gears.
 

Gary Slusser

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Yeah the Teflon coating wears off the piston, the piston and brine valve stems and then the cam for the brine valve wears the Teflon off the tip of the brine valve. And any one of those things or all of them makes things stiffen up and can burn up the motor.

The Clack WS-1 design gets rid of all those negatives; no Teflon coated anything, no pulling and pushing the piston or brine valve stems sideways and all the seals and spacers, actually 2 more seals and 3 more spacers because there is no separate brine valve on a Clack WS-1, all come out in one piece in 2 seconds with the use of a curled finger tip in the hole the piston come out of.

Here's a not so good pic of the Clack WS-1 and it's parts. The meter turbine is not in the pic and the wrench is not needed and if you don't have one, a pair of Channel Lock type pliers and a small common screw driver are the only tools needed.
 

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