Fleck 5810 SXTs - Ran Softener and GAC Filter without upper baskets

[dagowey]

This mostly pertains to my carbon filter, but hopefully since its a fleck 5810 others on here might have some insight.

So I just setup my two new Fleck 5810sxt, one being used as a carbon filter and the other as a water softener. The instructions we were given were quite short, and did not include a step to install the upper baskets. I should've watched some additional videos of other manufacturers but thought it might be distributor specific.

So when first ran water through the unpowered units, I could see carbon in my pex piping leaving the filter. Water was free flowing from the drain line in the carbon filter. I read online somewhere that a couple backwash cycles fixed their their unit that exhibited the same issues, and backwashing it was the next step in the installation. So I did a couple backwash cycles and still had that issue. Cut the water to it and emailed the dealer. They immediately asked if I installed the baskets to which I replied no. They said to do that, but there might be carbon in the drain control unit that is creating the issue. I removed the drain control unit and sure enough there was carbon in there.

Now when I removed the control valve from the tank to install the basket, the distributor tube lifted out of the gravel and carbon in the tank a couple inches. I saw some people online who used water pressure to seat the tube back down, but this was in a resin filled water softening tank, not a gravel filled carbon filtering tank. Pretty lost on how to salvage all this expensive carbon.

Meanwhile I also setup my water softener and it all seemed to work fine without the upper basket. But I haven't installed the upper basket yet for fear of lifting out this distributor tube as well.

So my questions are:

- If I dump all the gravel and carbon out into buckets from my tank, can I reuse this gravel and carbon somehow? How would I go about doing that?

-Did I lose a ton of resin and carbon when I ran the units without the upper baskets? Is there concerns about carbon getting from my filter into the water softening tank?

 

[Reach4]

Now when I removed the control valve from the tank to install the basket, the distributor tube lifted out of the gravel and carbon in the tank a couple inches. I saw some people online who used water pressure to seat the tube back down, but this was in a resin filled water softening tank, not a gravel filled carbon filtering tank. Pretty lost on how to salvage all this expensive carbon.

No gravel? I would think that sending water into the top of the distributor tube via garden hose would blow a path to the bottom. Seems worth a try.

If I dump all the gravel and carbon out into buckets from my tank, can I reuse this gravel and carbon somehow? How would I go about doing that?

I would have a plastic sheet under the buckets to catch what gets spilled. You would not have to totally empty the tanks, but would need to get a path freed up while the tank was on its side.

You could also use a clean wet-dry vac to suck carbon out, I would think. Then tip to get the remaining media and gravel on the side. A piece of 1-1/2 or 2-inch pvc or abs could be duct-taped to the shop vac hose and go over the distributor tube. Or use some smaller pipe.

2-inch pvc/abs is 2.375 OD, and there is about 2.5 inch of clearance into the hole.

Did I lose a ton of resin and carbon when I ran the units without the upper baskets? Is there concerns about carbon getting from my filter into the water softening tank?

Normally the carbon will come up to 2/3 of the height between the end domes. If you are close to that, you did not lose much.

I am not speaking from experience.

This time, when you turn on the water, only open the valve a tad until flow stops. That valve could be the bypass. After flow stops as the tank is pressurized, open a faucet a bit to let air slowly escape, to avoid a blast.