Dialing in my Fleck

I think I got a deal on this water softener (I think it's a Fleck 5600) and since I'm doing it myself and know nothing about water softeners other than I gotta have it, I need some help dialing in the settings.
I'll try to attach pics so you can see what I'm working with. Right now I have to manually regenerate because we can feel the hardness in the water develop before it regenerates on it's own. Obviously, the settings are off.
So what do all these dials do? And what should they be set at. I don't know what the hardness of the water is. I can call the City tomorrow if need be. I'm in Southern Utah.
Ok so here it goes.

Here is a link to the manual on that valve ..
http://www.pentairwatertreatment.com/PentairFiles/Pentair%20Water%20Treatment/Manuals/5600%20Owner%27s%20Manual%2042447.pdf

When you get the hardness from the city let me know....
Along with the number of people in the house, size of the media tank, like 8x44 or bigger.... and any thing else that you might know about the unit... like is there a tag that says Turbulator on the top of the control?

Yep, you are going to need to know what the water conditions are before you can set the program properly. Home Depot and Lowes have test kits that will get you close.

chase237 said:

I think I got a deal on this water softener (I think it's a Fleck 5600) and since I'm doing it myself and know nothing about water softeners other than I gotta have it, I need some help dialing in the settings.
I'll try to attach pics so you can see what I'm working with. Right now I have to manually regenerate because we can feel the hardness in the water develop before it regenerates on it's own. Obviously, the settings are off.
So what do all these dials do? And what should they be set at. I don't know what the hardness of the water is. I can call the City tomorrow if need be. I'm in Southern Utah.
Ok so here it goes.

Click to expand...

See the white dot across from 1975? That is the number of gallons it is programmed to provide between regenerations. That is based on a number of pounds of salt used per regeneration an that is set in the back after removing the back cover.

Since you are on city water, you need to know the maximum hardness in their system. You can look up their web site or call them for the maximum hardness in their system, not just your area.

Once you know the hardness you use a math formula to program the valve. You can click the link in my signature about sizing to find the formula and then come back and post your figures and we'll tell you the rest of what you need to do.

Update

OK The water hardness is 15 GPG. The tag on the tank says the size is "948". Not sure if it's a measure of cu ft, cu inches, or what. The size of the cylinder is approx 9X48.
Our usage is approx 5000 gallons per month. Only two of us. The manual emphatically says dont mess with the factory settings in the back of the unit.
Thanks for the help

Ok, you have most likely 1.0 cubic foot of resin..
On the back of the valve is a plate, there may or may not be a lable with the salt setting, if not remove that and look at the wheel that has a salt setting on it... more infomation is in the book
http://www.pentairwatertreatment.com/PentairFiles/Pentair%20Water%20Treatment/Manuals/5600%20Service%20Manual%2040106.pdf
It will show you where that setting is at and how to change not only that but also the meter..

Based on 1 cubic foot, 2 people, and 15 grains I would set the meter at 1200 gallons .. let that ride for awhile and see how that plays out, if in a few months you find that you either have to send the unit into a cycle or have hard water, look at where the meter is at when you send it into an extra cycle.. if there is say 200 gallons left on the meter, take the 1200 and change it to 900 gallons.. But for now I would say make sure that the salt setting is at about 9 lbs, and that the meter is set for 1200 gallons.

Or if you want better salt efficiency, set it for 15*120= 1800* 9= 17K and 5.5 or 6 lbs of salt and 1000 gallons. That gives you a calculated in 24 hr reserve which must be used. With those setting you don't pay any attention to the Number of People Dial.

That gives you 8 days on average between regenerations wit h 5.5 lbs (if you can set half lbs (or 6 if not) of salt.

If this is a used softener, I suggest changing the salt dose lbs to 23 and doing 2 back to back manual regenerations with no water use during or between them. That fully regenerates all the resin. You could mix up a 1/3 cup of Iron Out in a gallon of water and pour it into th ewater in teh salt tank before each regeneration t oget rid of any rust in te hresin or control valve. Do one in the evening when you can stop using water like 7:30 and around 10:30 or when the water is back in the salt tank for the next regeneration, turn the knob to Regen and go to bed. The next day set the lbs to 5.5 or 6. You have to make sure you have 30 lbs of salt in the tank before each regen and do not fill the tank with salt or the water will come up too high and stop flowing into the salt tank meaning you won't get 23 lbs for the regeneration.

Learn about that formula HERE

Is there any iron in the water? I set my 1 CF units at 8lbs salt (this gives 20,000 grains of removal). So the math would be 20,000/15 gpg hardness = 1333. So I would set it for 1300 gallons. If you have iron, the gallons would change.

Thanks

First, it is a new system so no worries there. The salt is preset at 9 lbs so based on all the above I'll start at 1200 and see what that does for me.
Thanks again, now on to the gas grill.

Sounds like a plan... Have fun