Rebuilt Fleck 5600 metered, head replaced - salty water

[The harrymanimus]

1. No soft water, did a valve rebuild
2. Regen would jam the gears solid, I'd unjam them taking it apart.
3. Replaced program wheel, gears still jammed after(during?) rebuild.
4. Replaced the power head ($135), did a regen, gears seem ok after regen.
5. After regen, fizzy salty water
6. I let it run for a 5 minutes or so, not salty to taste anymore, more bubbles than usual though

I eyeballed the salt settings from my old unit, but new unit is missing the measurement sticker.

So either this is left over from my previous issues where nothing was working right, or I have some other issue going on. Between 1 and 4 I did have some fizzy water issues and I'd bypass the softener.

Can I turn it directly to rinse or some such setting, then do another regen to diagnose if this is a left over issue?

 

[Bannerman]

eyeballed the salt settings from my old unit, but new unit is missing measurement.

Post some low resolution photos showing the front and backside of the controller, with any covers removed.

Perhaps your new power head is configured for a backwashing filtration system since a softener controller will require a method to program the brine quantity.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[The harrymanimus]

I should have mentioned it's the mechanical metered

 

[The harrymanimus]

This is a pic of my old powerhead salt pound setting. I guess I should also ask, is it okay to leave it on or should I bypass it. Currently have no salty water that looks almost normal except for more bubbles than usual.

 

[Bannerman]

I should have mentioned it's the mechanical metered

Since you stated '5600 metered' but didn't mention SXT (digital controller), and as the measurement sticker is missing, I assumed a mechanical (Econominder) control valve.

I had initially suspected your new controller may not have been equipped with a brine cam gear, leading me to speculate the controller may have been configured for an alternate use, but I see a brine cam gear and cam is actually present, but is only missing the calibration label.

As you did not replace the valve, the same BLFC flow restrictor continues to be utilized so the same Lbs. range label will continue to be appropriate. Perhaps you can contact the supplier that supplied your new controller, to request sending a new label printed with the exact same range as installed on your old controller.

You didn't specify the total capacity for your softener or the number of gallons programmed, or raw water hardness. I see the salt setting on the old controller was programmed for only slightly more that 6lbs salt to be dissolved per cycle, which is less than usually recommended unless the softener is equipped with only 3/4 cubic feet of resin (24,000 grains total capacity).

In providing additional information, we can then determine if the current settings are appropriate.

 

[The harrymanimus]

Is it okay to leave it on, or should I bypass it? Currently have no salty water that looks almost normal, except for more bubbles than usual.

I took the power head back off so I could compare better, the new unit salt setting is not very accessible. I determined it was using around 11 lbs of salt on setting. I changed it to as close to 6 as I can get without the sticker (very close).

Would the prev setting of 11 lbs of salt cause the issues I'm seeing with my water?

Approx 10 gpg hardness
9.25 diameter by 45.5 inches (before it starts to narrow at top)
Set to 1000 gallons - but with all the issues, I've been doing manual regens, so that is not a factor

I was happy with the previous performance of my softener with around 1200 gallons and 6 for salt, before all the issues. It may not have been perfectly set, but was fine.

 

[Reach4]

Bubbles can be from a leak in the brine line connections, and can be from an air check valve not closing once the brine has been drawn.

If your brine line is fairly translucent, you can see bubbles from a leak at the connection to the float valve during brine draw (before the brine has been sucked down as far as it is going to go). If the bubbles only occur once the brine has reached its minimium, then you would suspect the air check valve.

If the vacuum leak was between the brine line and the valve, then I don't think I would see bubbles flowing in the brine line.

 

[The harrymanimus]

I did another regen with a 6 pound salt setting. I did not experience any salty taste after that, and the bubbles are much reduced. Maybe normal looking but I don't remember exactly before as I never paid attention. So maybe I can chalk this up to things were left in a bad state from all of my previous problems and the 11 lb of salt setting didn't help.

 

[Bannerman]

The 5600's 60-minute Brine Draw cycle, is actually two cycles combined together under one setting: Brine Draw and Slow Rinse.

The 11lb salt brine quantity required longer time to transfer from the brine tank to the resin tank, thereby reducing the remaining Slow Rinse time to thoroughly rinse the resin to eliminate excess brine and hardness ions that are to be rinsed away during the Slow Rinse cycle. When Slow Rinse is insufficient, the initial flow following regeneration will typically remain salty.

A 9" internal diameter X 48" tank, is most commonly utilized for 1 cubic foot (ft3) of resin. 1 ft3 resin will typically posses a total hardness reduction capacity of 32,000 grains, but regenerating that amount of capacity would require 20 lbs salt each cycle, which would be extremely inefficient and wasteful.

To increase salt efficiency while providing high useable capacity with minimal hardness leakage, the usual recommended salt setting is 8lbs, which is sufficient to regenerate 24,000 grains capacity in 1ft3 resin.

As you said 'approx 10 GPG hardness', it's not clear how that number was arrived at. Hardness should be tested accurately at your location as any additional hardness actually present, will deplete additional resin capacity, but that additional capacity will not be regenerated each cycle.

If your water source is municipal, recommend taking a sample to a a local water treatment dealer for testing, then base the softener's settings on 2 gpg higher hardness than the test result, to anticipate occasions hardness may exceed the test result.