Questions about hardness

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HowdyDuty

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Hello!

Here's my backstory:

Moved to Tucson AZ about 3 years ago, bought a 10 year old home. The home was pre-plumbed with a softener loop, so self installed a Morton System Saver M34 (I think) water softener picked up from Costco. We're on city water but it's hard. I also took the opportunity to plumb in a couple inline filters as well.

Water line -> Pentek DGD-5005 spun filter -> Pentek CFB-PLUS10BB carbon filter -> water softener -> home.

The lowest and default setting for the water softener is 25 gpg. Since install, the water never felt slippery soft like soft water should. In retrospect I don't know if it's done anything at all to be honest, but it is consuming salt. I've adjusted the harness up and down (as high as 45) and noticed no improvement. The hot water tap at the kitchen faucet started to slow and eventually became a slow trickle. I found plenty of calcium build up in the hot water line leading from the valve under the sink to the faucet. I gave my hot water tank (1 yr old) a quick flush and there were many white deposits. I purchased a Hach total hardness test kit and found that the hardness of the water at the outside spigot is the same as at the tap so the softener is legit not doing its job.

I've been researching and Googling water hardness and still have questions about hardness settings for water softeners.

Our TDS is about 340
The Hach total hardness kit result is 13-14 gpg
I did a Hach iron test for good measure and there's none I could see.

I bought a Fleck 5600sxt 48,000 grain water softener and it's scheduled for delivery on Thursday.

From what I've researched a gpg value of 14 is very hard water. Why then would the lowest setting of a softener be 25? Along those same lines, the maximum gpg setting is 90. If 14 is very hard water then a gpg setting of 90 seems ridiculous to the point it's a marketing gimmick to sell more salt. ??

Any recommendations for how I should set up the new softener when it arrives?

I appreciate any insight or feedback. Thank you!

-Howdy
 

Reach4

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I bought a Fleck 5600sxt 48,000 grain water softener and it's scheduled for delivery on Thursday.

Any recommendations for how I should set up the new softener when it arrives?
Yes... how many people using the softened water regularly? That is used in programming the "reserve". Alternatively, how many gallons per month do you use when you are not doing outside watering? Outside watering does not go through the softener.

Regarding the 25 to 90 range, I don't know. I was wondering if that was displaying in ppm instead of grains, but that would not make sense either.
 

Reach4

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System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft = 7 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC = 0.5 ; Brine Refill rate GPM (check label to make sure)
cubic ft resin = 1.5 ; ft3 resin = (nominal grains)/32,000
Raw hardness = 14 ; including any compensation
People = 2 ; gallons affects reserve calc
Estimated gal/day = 120 ; 60 gal per person typical calc
Estimated days/regen = 19.7 ; Computed days ignoring reserve

Fleck 5600SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = dF1b ; Downflw/Upflw, Single Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
NT = 1 ; Number of tanks
C = 33.1 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 14 ; Hardness-- compensate if needed
RS = rc ; rc says use gallons vs percent
RC = 120 ; Reserve capacity gallons
DO = 28 ; Day Override (28 if no iron)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
BW = 5 ; Backwash (minutes)
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
RR = 5 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 7 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = ____0.7 ; t or P. See https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?attachments/img_fleck5600sxt_flow-png.31592/

=============================
Alternative C and BF pairs:
BLFC = 0.5
cubic ft resin = 1.5
lb/cuft ; C= ; BF= ;
4 ; 22.8 ; 4 ;too lean for many
5 ; 27.3 ; 5 ; lean, saving more salt
6 ; 30.0 ; 6 ;good softening less salt
7 ; 33.1 ; 7 ;between (used in settings above)
8 ; 36.0 ; 8 ;softer with moderate salt
9 ; 38.5 ; 9 ; softer still using more salt
10 ; 40.5 ; 10 ;
11 ; 42.0 ; 11 ;
 
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