Best Practice for Soaking/Flushing Carbon after Replacement w/ Fleck 5600 12 Day

[Ravens135]

Looking to see if anyone has a best practice or procedure for carbon soaking/ rinsing after replacement specific to Fleck 5600 12 day valve. I have not been able to find anything specific.

I've seen 2-3 day soaks recommended. Would I just bypass the carbon tank during this time and allow chlorinated water from contact tank to run directly to softener?

I saw one source saying that after soaking, I could put the unit into service and then step the valve through to fast wash. If this is sufficient for rinsing, how many times would I need to perform since I won't be able to monitor for color?

 

[Bannerman]

New carbon contains a significant amount of small particles (fines) which will become flushed out into your faucet aerators if not throughly rinsed away prior to placing the media In-Service.

Carbon also has a vast pore structure, which contains air until the granules are thoroughly saturated with water. Soaking for 48-hrs+ will assist to release the air and fill the pores with water, thereby making the granules less boyant. When boyant, there is a high likelihood for the granules to float, thereby reducing the initial filtration effectiveness since unfiltered water will more easily flow through the broad spaces between granules.

During initlal backwashing, boyant granules will float to the top of the tank where they are likely to accumulate and become packed against the upper basket, which could result in the basket screen becoming broken due to the force of the restricted backwash flow against it.

For a detailed description of carbon's recommended Start-Up proceedure, see the following short writeup on page #36 of this link: Carbon Start-Up proceedure

 

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[Ravens135]

Thanks again Bannerman, appreciated as always

 

[Reach4]

Would I just bypass the carbon tank during this time and allow chlorinated water from contact tank to run directly to softener?

After letting the water fill slowly, yes.

If you measure a lot of residual chlorine, you might turn down the injection rate during that bypassed time.

 

[Ravens135]

After letting the water fill slowly, yes.

If you measure a lot of residual chlorine, you might turn down the injection rate during that bypassed time.

Great point Reach, thanks for the input

 

[Reach4]

If you think the chlorine might be 10 ppm, consider putting the softener in bypass. Maybe store drinking water before taking the existing carbon out of service. If you wash clothes, only do the whites. ;-)