New Softener - Recommended settings seem ridiculous. What am I missing?

[Ut.snapple]

I have browsed enough on here to presume what settings should be, but can someone help me figure out how this company doesn't have tons of people complaining with their recommended settings.

Aquasure Harmony AS-HS48D
48,000 grain - 1.5cuft 8% resin
10"x54" mineral tank
Aquatrol AQT-56SE-SMBP Valve

I pulled the BLFC button out of the valve and it is blue and stamped 25, which I assume to mean 0.25gpm. The other options for this valve are 0.5gpm and 1.0gpm.

Install manual from Aquasure recommends this calculation.

48,000/(hardness) - #people x 75 = Total Gallon

They say medium salt curve setting for brine fill for this model is 8 minutes.

8 min at 0.25gpm would be 6lb (4lb/cuft) of salt for 48,000 grains minus reserve capacity.

Assuming I'm wrong and it is 0.5gpm button, that is still only 12lb (8lb/cuft) salt for 48,000 minus reserve.

This same setup was sold by US Water Systems as AQT-150 with 10% resin a while back it seems. Their settings also seem optimistic.
They recommended these settings
37,000/hardness - #people x 75g = gallons
Brine fill = 10m

10m at 0.25gpm = 7.5lb (5lb/cuft)
10m at 0.5gpm = 15lb (10lb/cuft)


Based on Reach4 giving advice on other similar setups, I was planning to do the following settings

7lb/cuft salt with a capacity of 33,100 grains.

33,100g / 13 gpg - (60gal x 2) = 2,426 gal
BW =5 min
BD = 60 min
RR = 5 min
BF = 14 min if BLFC is 0.25gpm or 7 min if BLFC is 0.5gpm. (I will flow test before programming)

This configuration seems both less water and less salt efficient than the manufacturer recommends.

What am I missing? Surely someone would have complained of breakthrough using a full 48,000g starting point and only 8m of brine fill as recommended.

Thoughts?

 

[ditttohead]

Thoughts... considering the company, what would you expect? They even claim "spot free" water from their softener. Sad but considering the price, it is not unexpected. This is why the internet makes water treatment such a pain. Too many companies running stuff to the lowest bidder overseas desperately trying to get a tiny piece of a low margin share of a market that really is a lot more complex then most DIY folks can handle. Personally, I would return that unit and get a good system.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Ut.snapple]

What would make a good system? The whole ion exchange concept seems pretty basic.

Metered demand regeneration, and a brine tank with overflow shutoff protection seemed like the only features of any consequence.

Tell me what amazing stuff I should have paid for.

 

[ditttohead]

Consider your profession, if you are a plumber, are you going to buy a pipe wrench at HF? If you are an auto mechanic, do you trust your tools to the lowest bidder? You have a system that is designed to hold water pressure for many years reliably and provide you with safe water. Most of the ultra low cost junk companies simply change ownership/names and start over every 10 years when the liability claims start to pile up. Leaking tanks, no support, component failure, toxic metals in components from unknown sources... lowest bidder wins mentality in a business is never a long term strategy. Anyone can take a few hundred thousand dollars, take a great product and have it knocked off in China then try to sell it cheaper. If that is what you want to support then more power to you. I used to sell the cheap stuff when I worked for a different water company, it caused far more problems, damage and even injury than I would like to discuss. My main job was apologizing to large customers for me selling them junk. Never again. A couple hundred bucks extra will get you a high end piece of equipment. I am sure you have some sort of hobby. For me it is Hockey. Would I ever consider the $89 hockey skates because I found them online at a really cheap price? Maybe until I broke my ankle. Would I do it again? Hopefully not.

 

[Ut.snapple]

Thanks for your reply. I believe you have hit the nail. I see this purchase as a commodity, and have no real passion for it.

I just moved from a house my wife owned when we met. She paid Culligan ~$4,500 on payments for a 25,000 grain metered unit installed. It had no options this Aquasure doesn't have.

Perhaps I went too far the wrong direction after what I considered a terribly overpriced purchase.

 

[Skyjumper]

your wife got ripped off, that is unfortunate. since you are probably stuck with the unit you have you can make it work. the advice from reach should work well for you. i assume you are on city water?
as for what is a good unit - its not about the bells & whistles in my opinion. its about the reliability of the components and the serviceability of the unit. I believe Clack is the best you can get in both regards. ironically, my local Clack dealer markets Clack as "low end budget" and pushes the cheap offshore stuff with all the WiFi bells & whistles as the high end/high performance. I'm guessing they make more money from the cheap offshore stuff.

 

[ditttohead]

your wife got ripped off, that is unfortunate. since you are probably stuck with the unit you have you can make it work. the advice from reach should work well for you. i assume you are on city water?
as for what is a good unit - its not about the bells & whistles in my opinion. its about the reliability of the components and the serviceability of the unit. I believe Clack is the best you can get in both regards. ironically, my local Clack dealer markets Clack as "low end budget" and pushes the cheap offshore stuff with all the WiFi bells & whistles as the high end/high performance. I'm guessing they make more money from the cheap offshore stuff.

Exactly, the cheap knockoff units are insanely cheap, and they tend to require a lot of maintenance so this is a double win for the bad dealers who are not looking to sell a good unit at a reasonable rice, but rather a higher maintenance unit that will generate lots of future repair service and maximize profit today. I worked for a very large commercial softening company in the 80's-90's, they would sell one brand that would break down constantly, and they would rent the Fleck 5600 knowing we would install it and not have to go service it for 10-20 years.