Newbie - Fleck SXT7000 Programming

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Wheaties82

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I am looking for some assistance in making sure my water softener is programmed correctly - I suspect it is not. Something has changed recently, I am determining this by the main 'default' display of the screen. In the past it used to show the time alternated by a remaining capacity number... but now it shows the time and then 'RC ----'. I assume this means it doesn't have any reserve capacity and may not even be functioning as needed.

I know VERY LITTLE about water softeners, regen cycles, etc etc. so forgive basic questions.

I have a 4 person household, 2 adults, 2 teenagers.

This system was originally bought in 2008 and was installed by DuPure. It has since been relocated to a new house and has been working ok (as far as I know) until recently... I suspect a power outage may have caused the programming to be messed up.

On the back of my control unit there is a sticker that shows the following information:

BLFC: .250 GPM
DLFC: - GPM
Injector: 0

I have a pentair square brine tank 14"x34"

The inlet and outlet are 1" PVC

Here are the settings that are currently programmed:

VT: St2b
CT: Fd
NT: 1
TS: U1
C: 64,000
H: 40 (this is a best guess effort based on a DIY hardness kit - on well water just north of Houston TX)
RS: SF
SF: 20
DO: Off
RT: 2:00
BD: 80
BF: 32
1st BW: 8
2nd BW: 5
RR: 5
FM: t1.0

Any insight / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 

Reach4

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How long has this been in this state?

How big is the media tank-- 12x52, or what?
That H=64000 is suspect.
40 is high hardness. Get the Hach 5-B kit, unless that is the kit you used, and test a mix of half your raw water, and half distilled. Then double the drop count to get hardness.

Also, is that well just north of Houston yours, or some other well that you suspect may be similar?
 

Wheaties82

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How long has this been in this state?

How big is the media tank-- 12x52, or what?
That H=64000 is suspect.
40 is high hardness. Get the Hach 5-B kit, unless that is the kit you used, and test a mix of half your raw water, and half distilled. Then double the drop count to get hardness.

Also, is that well just north of Houston yours, or some other well that you suspect may be similar?

Reach - thanks for the input.

I suspect it has been in this state (the RC ----) for a few weeks.

I have ordered the Hach kit, I didn't use that before, just the Home Depot test strips.

To try and get it going in the interim, waiting for the kit to arrive, is there a way to make config changes with a 'guess' of hardness that I can go back into later and change once the test is completed?

The well is a my private well, it is directly connected to the softener.
 

Reach4

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If you don't have water in the brine tank yet, pour in maybe 7 gallons. If the salt is already in, pour that water down the brine well if you can. Let the system set for an hour before regenerating. You may already have water, so skip this in that case.

I will post some info assuming you have a 12x54 tank. What you want to do after changing the settings is to manually trigger an immediate regen by holding down the left-most softener button for 5 seconds. In fact, maybe you want to do a soft reset before entering the new settings. You have a service manual, don't you?

Revised with new info on tank size:
System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft : 8 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC : 0.25 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin : 1.5 ; Same as (nominal grains/32,000)
Raw hardness : 40.0 ; including iron etc
Estimated gal/day : 240.0 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days each regen : 3.1 ; presuming days each use reserve capacity

Fleck 7000SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF2b ; Downflw/Upflw, Double Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
C = 36.0 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 48 ; Hardness grains after compensation
RS = cr ; Cr = base reserve on recent experience
CR = 0 ; 0 is default (leave it)
DO = 14 ; Day Override (typ 28 if no iron/Mn)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
B1 = 8 ; Backwash 1 (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
B2 = 5 ; Backwash 2 (minutes)
RR = 6 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 16 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = t1.2 (usual) ; t1.2 is default flow meter
 
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Wheaties82

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If you don't have water in the brine tank yet, pour in maybe 7 gallons. If the salt is already in, pour that water down the brine well if you can. Let the system set for an hour before regenerating. You may already have water, so skip this in that case.

I will post some info assuming you have a 12x54 tank. What you want to do after changing the settings is to manually trigger an immediate regen by holding down the left-most softener button for 5 seconds. In fact, maybe you want to do a soft reset before entering the new settings. You have a service manual, don't you?

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft : 8 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC : 0.25 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin : 2.0 ; Same as (nominal grains/32,000)
Raw hardness : 40.0 ; including iron etc
Estimated gal/day : 240.0 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days each regen : 4.2 ; presuming days each use reserve capacity

Fleck 7000SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF2b ; Downflw/Upflw, Double Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
C = 48.0 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 48 ; Hardness grains after compensation
RS = cr ; Cr = base reserve on recent experience
CR = 0 ; 0 is default (leave it)
DO = 14 ; Day Override (typ 28 if no iron/Mn)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
B1 = 8 ; Backwash 1 (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
B2 = 5 ; Backwash 2 (minutes)
RR = 6 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 21 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = t1.2 (usual) ; t1.2 is default flow meter

This should get you started. Let's hope your hardness is not really 40.
Reach

Sorry, forgot to enter the media tank dimensions earlier, 54" is right, but my tank is measuring 8-10" at bottom... it is in an awkward position so it isn't easy to get a tape on it...so maybe it is 12? I am not sure what the 'standard' dimensions are, is there even an 8x54?

Can you please help me understand this section of your previous comment?

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft : 8 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC : 0.25 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin : 2.0 ; Same as (nominal grains/32,000)
Raw hardness : 40.0 ; including iron etc
Estimated gal/day : 240.0 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days each regen : 4.2 ; presuming days each use reserve capacity
Does that just state 'assumptions' regarding standard variables / system inputs or desired outcomes?

For the RS setting, I do not have a 'cr' option, I only have 2 to choose from -- FS (Safety Factor) or rc (Fixed Reserve Capacity). If I cannot select cr, what would be the next best option to configure for this setting?
 

Reach4

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I revised post#4, I expect you have a 10x54 tank with 1.5 cuft of resin. I don't think there is a 8x54 or 9x54. To measure, run a string or tape measure around the tank to get a circumference, and divide by pi to get the diameter. Round down.

Assumptions were 40 grain hardness and tank size.
Desired outcome is you get soft water with your current stuff. After maybe 10 years with chlorine/chloromine city water, resin is likely to need replacement to perform well.
 
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Wheaties82

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Reach

Yes I do have service manual. I did the string measurement and you are right, the tank is 10x54

Resin media has spent ~5 years attached to city water with chlorine and ~ 8 years attached to a private well, no chlorine.

There were a few variables that your settings indicated that were not available for me to choose, here is how I configured it:

Fleck 7000SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = St2b ; standard downflow/upflow, double backwash (Not available: dF2b ; Downflw/Upflw, Double Backwash)
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
C = 36.0 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 48 ; Hardness grains after compensation
RS = rc ; Fixed reserve capacity (Not available: cr ; Cr = base reserve on recent experience)
CR = 0 ; 0 is default (leave it)
DO = 14 ; Day Override (typ 28 if no iron/Mn)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
B1 = 8 ; Backwash 1 (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
B2 = 5 ; Backwash 2 (minutes)
RR = 6 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 16 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = t1.0 ; Flex 1" Turbine Meter (Not available t1.2 (usual) ; t1.2 is default flow meter)

What does the resin replacement process entail? Is that something that a newbie can do with a few YouTube videos?

My water test should be here sometime this weekend and I can confirm the hardness.
 

Reach4

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Got it. In that case, use this:
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 240 ; Reserve capacity gallons
 

Reach4

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Next time you are at the store, pick up some distilled water. Cheap. Also useful as a final rinse for eyeglasses, or anything else you want to avoid water spots on.

Regarding resin life, I don't know. If performance is near what is expected, then keep the current resin. If not, buy new 10% crosslinked resin and gravel. It is doable dyi, but it is harder than it sounds. Easy to spill new resin-- the diameter of the beads is smaller than you might expect, plus they roll. Harder to remove the old resin indoors. Maybe use wet-vac to assist, but outdoors, maybe tip it and dump it. I have changed non-softener media in a basement. I have loaded softener resin in a basement, with a makeshift funnel. Should have bought one. I have one now.

With new hardness measurement, that needs to be adjusted for high hardness compensation before modifying H. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....0-sxt-programming-settings.60651/#post-450189 H is the only number that needs changing. However after you change H, the softener may think it just got regenerated. So manually regen at an appropriate time.
 
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bingow

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@Wheaties82 newbie here also. I did a DIY install of a new softener that involved loading 4 cu. ft. resin into two tanks. As Reach4 says, its sounds easy but is extremely easy to screw up. The resin beads are so fine that they act almost like water, and will "splash" if you rush the loading. Spilled on the floor they are worse than ice. My system came with a 10" diameter funnel; be sure to get one at least that big, and go slow.
Also, per Reach4, distilled water helps conserve your Hach-5B drops, which only measure up to H = 30 with accuracy. If you dilute your well water with an equal amount of distilled water and multiply the # drops used by 2, you extend the hardness range up to 60, and so forth (my well hardness is currently 84 gpg, so I use 2 distilled, sometimes 3 or 4, to one well sample).
 

Wheaties82

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How long has this been in this state?

How big is the media tank-- 12x52, or what?
That H=64000 is suspect.
40 is high hardness. Get the Hach 5-B kit, unless that is the kit you used, and test a mix of half your raw water, and half distilled. Then double the drop count to get hardness.

Also, is that well just north of Houston yours, or some other well that you suspect may be similar?
I received the water hardness testing kit today, per your suggestion I diluted the raw water with distilled water and after seven drops the solution turned blue/transparent.

So if I double that then H=14 correct?
 

Wheaties82

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@Wheaties82 newbie here also. I did a DIY install of a new softener that involved loading 4 cu. ft. resin into two tanks. As Reach4 says, its sounds easy but is extremely easy to screw up. The resin beads are so fine that they act almost like water, and will "splash" if you rush the loading. Spilled on the floor they are worse than ice. My system came with a 10" diameter funnel; be sure to get one at least that big, and go slow.
Also, per Reach4, distilled water helps conserve your Hach-5B drops, which only measure up to H = 30 with accuracy. If you dilute your well water with an equal amount of distilled water and multiply the # drops used by 2, you extend the hardness range up to 60, and so forth (my well hardness is currently 84 gpg, so I use 2 distilled, sometimes 3 or 4, to one well sample).
I'm not sure I am at the point of needing to change the resin out, but I appreciate the perspective and experience from another newbie.

I did my Hach test today and the solution turned blue after 7 drops... So my hardness is 14 which is a big difference from the assumed 40. I thought it was based on the Home Depot water test strips.
 
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