Standing Water in Brine Tank. How much?

[D C]

I set-up my softener based on some recommendations on the forum. My brine tank is 18" diameter x ~40" tall. I can load about three 40# bags of salt before any of the salt breaks the surface of the water. It's low on salt now and there's about a foot of water in the bottom of the tank. That seems excessive, no?

The second brine fill of 28 minutes @ 0.25gpm is what should be residual in the tank, correct? That should be about 6" of water with no salt. I have much more than that.


Softener:
Fleck 5810 SXT Valve
3 cuft of 10% resin

Water Quality (it ain't good )
20.5 grains hardness
870 ug/l iron

BLFC: 0.25 GPM
DLFC: ------
INJECTOR: 1

I have it set to this right now, based on recommendations from Reach4 in this thread: https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/fleck-5810-sxt-settings-help-request.82852/

System info (not programmed)
salt lb/cuft : 7 ; A choice ( efficiency vs capacity)
BLFC : 0.25 ; Brine Refill rate GPM
cubic ft resin : 3 ; Same as (nominal grains/32,000)
Raw hardness : 24.85 ; including iron @5 grains/ppm
Estimated gal/day ; 300 ; 60 gal per person prediction (auto-tunes)
Est days/regen ; 7.87 ; presuming days each use estimated

Fleck 5810SXT Settings:
DF = Gal ; Units
VT = 5810 ; Valve type
RF = dF2b ; Downflow, Double Backwash
CT = Fd ; Meter Delayed regen trigger
C = 66.1 ; capacity in 1000 grains
H = 28 ; Hardness grains after high-hardness comp factor
RS = cr ; Cr = base reserve on recent experience
DO = 10 ; Day Override (typ 30 if no iron/Mn)
RT = 2:00 ; Regen time (default 2 AM)
B1 = 5 ; Backwash 1 (minutes) [3...10]
Bd = 60 ; Brine draw minutes
B2 = 4 ; Backwash 2 (minutes)[3...10]
RR = 6 ; Rapid Rinse minutes
BF = 28 ; Brine fill minutes
FM = t1.2 (usual) ; t1.2 is default flow meter
RE = OFF ; Relay
VR = OFF ; ?

 

[Reach4]

I set-up my softener based on some recommendations on the forum. My brine tank is 18" diameter x ~40" tall. I can load about three 40# bags of salt before any of the salt breaks the surface of the water. It's low on salt now and there's about a foot of water in the bottom of the tank. That seems excessive, no?

The second brine fill of 28 minutes @ 0.25gpm is what should be residual in the tank, correct? That should be about 6" of water with no salt. I have much more than that.

Start measuring from the arrow about midway up the brine check valve. Then rise about 6.4 inches with no salt, but multiply the portion of that water has salt by 2.5.

If you don't want to put enough salt to cover all of the water right now, I would tilt the fill so that some salt above water. Or stir the brine to reduce any stratification.

You will want about 18 inches of salt to cover the brine if the arrow on the air check valve is about 2 inches off of the bottom.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[LLigetfa]

Without knowing the container dimensions it is just a guess as to the depth of the brine. By my math, 28 minutes X .25 = 7 gallons. How many gallons of brine fill do you observe? Reach4 also points out that the brine only draws down to specific point so it is the distance between the low and high points.

 

[D C]

Start measuring from the arrow about midway up the brine check valve. Then rise about 6.4 inches with no salt, but multiply the portion of that water has salt by 2.5.

If you don't want to put enough salt to cover all of the water right now, I would tilt the fill so that some salt above water. Or stir the brine to reduce any stratification.

You will want about 18 inches of salt to cover the brine if the arrow on the air check valve is about 2 inches off of the bottom.

Thanks!
I'll measure from the check valve to verify the level. It seemed like more than I had seen on other softeners, and I figured the second brine fill was the reason.

No problem adding salt. Just takes a lot of salt to load this thing above the waterline.

I appreciate the advice!

 

[Reach4]

It seemed like more than I had seen on other softeners, and I figured the second brine fill was the reason.

No second fill.There is a second backwash, but that should not affect the brine level.

 

[LLigetfa]

Without knowing the container dimensions it is just a guess as to the depth of the brine.

Sorry, I missed where it was stated to be 18 inches diameter. A foot of brine then is 13.2 US gallons. Subtract the volume that is below the pickup. Also subtract whatever amount of undissolved salt there is in the tank.

What is the water pressure? AFAIK the BLFC value is based on 60 PSI.

 

[ditttohead]