Fleck 5600SXT Programming Help

Based on help from this forum I recently purchased, and just installed a Fleck 5600SXT 64,000 gr capacity, 2.0 cu/ft resin (standard).

Brine Line Flow (BLFC): 0.5
Number of people in the house: 2 adults and two toddlers using no more than 180 gal/day total for the household
Hardness: 20gpg
Water Source: City (no iron)

I'm hoping someone can help me achieve a better salt efficiency for my system based on the info provided above.

Below is what OPW recommended for programming:

DF: GAL
VT: dfLb
CT: Fd
NT: 1
C: 64k
H: 20 (hardness)
RS: SF
SF: 15
DO: 10
RT: 2:00AM
BW: 10
BD: 60
RR: 12
BF: 10
FM: t0.7

You should set the capacity (C) to 40,000 and the fill (BF) to 8. You will use 12 lbs of salt per regen @ 40K

This should help.

ditttohead said:

This should help.

Click to expand...

dittohead -- what benefit do I gain from this configuration vs. what mialynette suggests? I don't mean to call anyone out, just trying to understand the reasoning behind the suggestions so I can understand all of this a little better. What would the salt dosage be from this configuration?

Derivied from http://www.qualitywaterassociates.com/softeners/sizingchart.htm. Round BF.

Reach4 said:

with BLFC 0.5	6lb PER ft	8 lb PER ft	10lb PER ft	15lb PER ft
2cf; C=	40000	48000	54000	60000
BF=	8.0	10.7	13.3	20.0

Derivied from Gary S examples. Round up BF usually.

Click to expand...

So would my new settings be as follows (changes in red)? Anything else I would need to change? No changes to my SF or DO?

DF: GAL
VT: dfLb
CT: Fd
NT: 1
C: 64k (should be 40K)
H: 20 (hardness)
RS: SF
SF: 15
DO: 10
RT: 2:00AM
BW: 10
BD: 60
RR: 12
BF: 10 (should be 8)
FM: t0.7

mialynette is giving you a 6 pound per cu. ft. setting, mine is based on 8 pounds, both are good and will give you great results. Most of our customers prefer the 8 pound setting for outside of efficiency standard localities for the higher quality of softness that is produced, but in all reality, 6 or 8, it is difficult to tell the difference most of the time. Many municipalites require softeners be highly efficient where mialynette and mine would both be out of compliance. From a purely technical standpoint, 6 pound setting wil use less salt, 8 pound setting will use less water. Salt is a lot more expensive than water so Mialynettes is a better setting. Either setting will give you excellent results. The real problem is the settings you were told originally would not work and would result in constant hard water issues. No surprise. Now wait for it... who is going to jump in telling me I am wrong? LOL


Check out this article on "softness" http://www.wcponline.com/pdf/1203Michaud.pdf it goes over how even small amounts of hardness affect water quality. A softener that is regenerate with anything more than 8 pounds starts to get very innefficient, less than 8 pounds and the efficiency gains are minimal. Salt less than 6 pounds and the quality starts to go bad quickly, especially toward the end of the systems capacity. many municipalities require efficiency settings that use only 4 pounds of salt per cu ft.

Here is an excellent article on salt vs water efficiency as it applies to salt amounts, and it goes into twin tank efficiencies vs single tanks (an earlier discussion that someone was unable to grasp even the most basics of the concept). Both of these articles should help you to understand the differences if you have a little time for some good reading. http://www.watertreatmentguide.com/achieving_brine_efficiency_in_softening.htm

After all of this, either setting will work great for you. The 8 pound per Cu. ft. wil use slightly more salt, the 6 pound setting will use slightly more water, and both of these are a maybe since the unknown variable is the amount of used reserve capacity varies. On occasion, a higher salt setting may be more efficient if it allows you to use more of the reserve. It gets into fairly complex math, and really only applies to systems that are regenerating less than every 4 days.

ditttohead said:

mialynette is giving you a 6 pound per cu. ft. setting, mine is based on 8 pounds, both are good and will give you great results. Most of our customers prefer the 8 pound setting for outside of efficiency standard localities for the higher quality of softness that is produced, but in all reality, 6 or 8, it is difficult to tell the difference most of the time. Many municipalites require softeners be highly efficient where mialynette and mine would both be out of compliance. From a purely technical standpoint, 6 pound setting wil use less salt, 8 pound setting will use less water. Salt is a lot more expensive than water so Mialynettes is a better setting. Either setting will give you excellent results. The real problem is the settings you were told originally would not work and would result in constant hard water issues. No surprise. Now wait for it... who is going to jump in telling me I am wrong? LOL

Click to expand...

I appreciate the explanation!

Now, regardless of which i follow (6lbs per cu. ft. setting or 8lbs per cu. ft. setting), I will adjust the following:

C: 64k (if 8lbs per cu. ft. setting --> change to 48K or if 6lbs per cu. ft. setting --> change to 40K)
BF: 10 (if 8lbs per cu. ft. setting --> change to 11 or if 6lbs per cu. ft. setting --> change to 8)

How about these...any changes to these specific to 8lbs vs 6 lbs or for any other reason?

DO: 10 (dittohead recommends 14 ~ does it matter if i leave as is or change to 14 if using 8lbs vs 6 lbs?)
BW: 10 (dittohead recommends 5 ~ does it matter if i leave as is or change to 5 if using 8lbs vs 6 lbs?)
RR: 12 (dittohead recommends 5 ~ does it matter if i leave as is or change to 5 if using 8lbs vs 6 lbs? )

Ditohead: Lots of really good reading there.

WEYERSERV: you might be interested in testing your own system results. The hardness number the city gives you might be different than what the effective compensated hardness is at your softener input. Your resin might vary from average. Your resin fill may not be exactly 2 ft[sup]3[/sup]. You could test your softened water as a planned regeneration is near. If there is hardness that you don't want, change either C or BF to regen earlier. If there is no hardness detectable, you could consider being more stingy with your salt. What are your objectives? A little hardness creeping in sometimes at the end of the period-- if that doesn't bother you, you could save more salt. Reducing your SF (safety factor) from 15% to 10% might have occasional hardness but it will save salt.

The best test for you to buy is the Hach 5B. You can alternatively make your own test. Dilute a handy liquid soap (preferably one that would be about the same next time if you have to make more solution) using distilled water. Adjust the concentration such that maybe 3 drops (arbitrary) lets you get a small amount of suds that last 2 to 5 minutes (you set the standard) when added to a small jar 1/4 or 1/2 full of softened water, capped, and shaken. Use the same jar each time. Have a fill mark. Consider Murphy's Oil Soap or your favorite dishwashing liquid. You want a soap and not a detergent.

For a standard soap, you can buy tincture of green soap USP. In 1 ounce of water, each drop would correspond to about a grain of hardness for 5 minute suds. Drug stores may have this, and tattoo parlors may have it, from what I have read. Making your own soap solution will be cheaper, but the green soap would be easier for others to reproduce your method.

Your softener controller tells you how far into the cycle you are. Take notes. Consider posting what you learn.

DO does not matter in water that does not have any iron or manganese. Hardness is easily removed during the regeneration process and frequent regeneration has only become an issue recently on this site, even though for 40 years, systems have been regenerated much less frequently. Consider every protable exchange tank company, they all regnerate every 30 days or much less. Consider the best selling water softener control valve ever, the 5600, it does not have a day over-ride. The regeneration frequency is very important if you are dealing with iron and manganese, and then, a softener is on option, but not the preferred method of treatment.

Backwash, minutes, completely non critical if your water is clean. BW for 10 minutes is the old standard, but again, many years ago, the original automated valves didnt even have a backwash cycle (see Shurrz for an example). Backwash is supposed to be long enough to loosen the bed, and to remove any sediment that is accumulated. 5 or 10 minutes, you will never notice a difference. In most areas, 5 mnutes is excellent, longer times are needed especially in many East Coast areas where the hardness is very low, but the sediment is very high. These settings are general guidelines. We have many customers that are not allowed to discharge any water (it all must be hauled off for disposal) so they set the backwas to 0 minuts. While I do not recommend that, the backwash time is greatly overstated as to its importance. 5 or 10 minutes is fine, neither is right or wrong. Longer backwash times use more water, and in dirtyier water, it is needed. The standard settings are designed to work in most areas. 10 minutes will clean the resin even if you have a lot of sediment incoming.

RR is rapid rinse, this is a packing rinse. It is not critical and it should never be used to get rid of the salt from the system. The BR cycle should do that without assistance from the RR cycle. RR is important in certain applications that require very consistent high quality water, especially in uplflow regeneration systems. in downflow regeneration systems, it is much less critical.

Sorry for the long reply, I hope this is helpful.