I did replace the injector and injector screen a few months ago and they seemed fine but I replaced them anyway. I don't know if my system is a Fleck 7000SXT since all the paperwork just says "Fleck 7000". The DLFC appears to be the drain port assembly? I haven't messed with that yet so tomorrow I am going to take all the salt out of the brine tank and make sure it's all ok down inside and then I will check the DLFC and also the screen and injector again. You are correct without the knowledge or tools you're doomed to break something! But as an engineer I just can't help myself I want to fix it!

{{!gwi}}

Using 1/2" PVC for the drain line hasn't been a problem in the past but I will disconnect and blow it out with the compressor...................then maybe the Yellow pages!

Clint's best line: "Dyin' ain't much of a livin'"

If you've had #9 (BLFC) apart the little round rubber washer can go in backwards.

"I reckon so..."

BTW, the installer should have cut and adjusted the float rod so that in the event that too much water was sent to the brine tank (for whatever reason) the float would shut off the water flow BEFORE it got to the elbow height and ran onto the floor or to the drain as it should have been installed.

There is almost always a prominent tag on the Fleck safety floats with detailed instructions for doing exactly that.

An engineer(ing) oversight? Sorry, couldn't resist.

OK checked the injector and injector screen all OK. Checked the DLFC 9(drain) blew air through the line all OK. checked the BLFC and blew air through the line to the brine tank all OK. Started to drain the brine tank....got towards the bottom about halfway done the salt turned to mush and the last 12 - for 15 inches are hard as a rock......I think I found my problem !!!!!!! Am working on breaking the salt up to get it out of the tank and then to home depot for fresh salt pellets. How much salt should i keep in the tank?? 6 inches from top? 8 inches? 10 inches?
Thanks for the help

You can use hot tap water to dissolve the salt BRICK. If the softener is close to your water heater hook a hose to the WH drain and there's hot water for you.

When the tank is all cleaned out you'll need to do a double regen to get the resin back to full capacity since it's been starved for brine.

Tell me what size resin tank your have or the hardness removal capacity of your softener and I'll tell you what to do step-by-step

If you correctly sized and correctly set up your softener checking the salt level once a week is all you need to do. When you see water add salt to cover the water.

Not a bad idea to clean the brine tank once a year when you drain your water heater.

Wow that was a pain. I had to get out the 25lb breaker bar to get the BRICK out! it was a good 14 inches thick and hard as a rock, but it's out now and I'm off to HD for salt! I included a pic of the only float that was provided........and I was the installer. I followed all of the directions to the tee and the system has worked well since 2005. It hasn't been softening the water very well lately either, I hope this fixes it cause I really don't want to try and get the resin out and replaced man that would be a real pain and it's kind of expensive too!

Thanks,

Jim

I don't know the size of the brine tank I suppose I could calculate it it's about 18" by 32" so that equals .75 ft x 2.66 ft so using Pi * R2 * h the volume is around 4.7 cu feet. Here are the current settings (this is a 96,000 grain system)

US/Metric = u--1
Regenerant Flow = dF
Regeneration Type = 7-3
System Capacity = c-96
Feed Water Hardness = H-40
Regeneration Time = 2:00
Regeneration Day Override = A-10
Regeneration Cycle Step Programming (1-5)
1-10
2-60
3-5
4-10
5-12
Flow Meter Size = F-82
Safety Factor = cF-0
Line Frequency = LF60

Thanks for the help!

Yup, you got the el cheapo version... just a brine pickup instead of the nifty Fleck 2310 safety float. You ought to upgrade... click here

And AGAIN... Tell me what size resin tank your have or the hardness removal capacity of your softener and I'll tell you what to do step-by-step

I don't know the size of the brine tank I suppose I could calculate it it's about 18" by 32" so that equals .75 ft x 2.66 ft so using Pi * R2 * h the volume is around 4.7 cu feet. Here are the current settings (this is a 96,000 grain system)

US/Metric = u--1
Regenerant Flow = dF
Regeneration Type = 7-3
System Capacity = c-96
Feed Water Hardness = H-40
Regeneration Time = 2:00
Regeneration Day Override = A-10
Regeneration Cycle Step Programming (1-5)
1-10
2-60
3-5
4-10
5-12
Flow Meter Size = F-82
Safety Factor = cF-0
Line Frequency = LF60

Thanks for the help!

Size of the resin tank hmmmm.......let me measure....its 66 inches tall and 13 inches in diameter.....again using math (darn engineers!)that's around 5.5 ft in height and about .55 radius so the volume would be about 5 cu ft.

Thanks

Geez, I love engineers... all the specs you have and you hide the one question I asked.

Sounds like you have a 3 cu ft system with a 14" x 65" resin tank... right?

If that is correct, answer and I'll give you step-by-step instructions.

A 96000 is what sales people commonly call a 3 cu ft softener so we'll use that volume.

You need to do a double regeneration at max salt dose to recover the resin's maximum hardness removal capacity.

I have corrected this post to correct the instructions for the OP

To make brine at max salt dose of 15 lbs salt/cu ft of resin if you have a 3 cu ft softener you need 15 gallons of water which will dissolve 45 lbs of salt.

1. Add 15 gallons of water to the empty brine tank

2. Add two 40 lb bags of salt and mark the water level.

3. IMPORTANT... wait 2 hours for the water to dissolve the salt and make the brine.

4. Start a regeneration. When regen is done don't use any water in the house and continue to #5.

5. Add one 40 lb bag of salt.

6. Add water to mark made in step #2

7. IMPORTANT... wait 2 hours for the water to dissolve the salt. Try not to use any water while waiting.

8. Do a second regeneration.

9. When regen is done the resin will have recovered as well as possible and the amount of water you programmed will be in the brine tank to make brine for next regen.

Keep salt level high enough to cover the water. check salt level at least once a week.

This post was edited by justalurker on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 1:18

Just got back from HD (20 miles away) and I have ten bags of salt (probably overkill, but it'll get used eventually) I got your instructions and I am going to follow them. I really don't know the capacity of the system, when I bought it was advertised as 96000 grain capacity. I do vaguely remember putting in three bags of resin (3 cu ft)? Given your description coupled with the size of the brine tank and the resin tank I agree probably 3 cu ft system. OK going to start adding water!

Thanks

OK I added 15 gallons of water to the empty tank and then marked the inside (and outside) (I don't know why I would mark the inside since with all of the salt I don't think the level, even dry, would drop below the mark??) I added salt, eight 40 lb. bags to get it to cover the water. I did lose water out the overflow elbow, around 2.5 to 3 gallons. I put a hose on the elbow and caught the water in a bucket so I would know. I'm now waiting the two hours to start a regen. I added a picture of the whole system.

If you can't get 45 lbs of salt (15 gallons of water) then the resin will recover less that it's maximum of hardness removal capability.

Yup, you sure got the low ball system... too small a brine tank for the resin volume and the cheapo brine pickup instead of the 2310 safety float.

Wondering if that softener is sized remotely close to correct or set up for efficiency... probably not.

On the 7000 near where the brine line connects there should be a sticker that says "BLFC" and has a number like .125 or .25 or .50 or 1.0 what does it say?

Maybe we can dial that thing in for better efficiency...

What is the BF setting in the 7000 programming?

Well or water system?

How many people in the house?

How many bathrooms in the house?

Do you recall hardness measurements, iron, pH, TDS?

I goofed and an engineer should have caught me

You can get away with using less salt during this exercise. We're looking to dissolve 45 lbs each regen so 2 bags of salt to start would have been sufficient.

This statement confuses me??

"If you can't get 45 lbs of salt (15 gallons of water) then the resin will recover less that it's maximum of hardness removal capability."

I understand (I think) that you were trying to get 45 pounds of salt dissolved into 15 gallons of water...correct? I followed the directions and kept adding salt until it covered the water hence the 8, 40 pound bags.

The brine tank now has approximately 320 pounds of salt and probably 12 - 13 gallons of water in it. Can you clarify what you mean by the statement above. Thanks

by "BF" I assume you mean Brine Fill?? If so here are the settings in (I assume) minutes for the 5 steps:

1-10 - Backwash
2-60 - Brine Draw/Slow Rinse
3-5 - 2nd Backwash
4-10 - Rapid Rinse
5-12 - Brine Refill

Is this the info you were asking for?

There is a purple sticker near the brine port that has the following on it:

1 GPM
3 LB
SALT/MIN.

No other stickers anywhere that I could see.

Thanks,

Started a regen and so far no major water spouts! But it looks like I may have damaged the brine tank getting the salt brick out, maybe not there's a lot of dampness around the area so time will tell! The brine draw started (60 minutes) and I'm watching to see how low the water goes while it's in progress..............

My instructions were flawed and I didn't catch the confusion until after I posted.

In order to get 3 cu ft of resin back to it's capacity you need to regenerate twice in succession at the max salt dose (15 lbs/cu ft x 3 = 45 lbs of salt = 15 gallons of water). I told you to put in 15 gallons of water and add salt till the water was covered and you did what i said so you added eight 40 lb bags to cover the water when you only needed to add two bags so there's be at least 45 lbs of salt in the brine tank to be dissolved by the 15 gallons of water. In other words, you only needed to add 2 40 lb bags to 15 gallons not 8 bags. Adding salt to cover the water is for normal use when there's the correct amount of water in the brine tank.

Yes, that's the sticker. Based on your BF setting you're using 36 lbs of salt for each regen which is 12 lbs / cu ft of resin. That is terribly inefficiency and you're wasting salt and water which = money down the drain (softener humor)

Now, if you'll answer the questions I asked which you ignored I can see what we can do about it...

1. Well or water system?

2. How many people in the house?

3. How many bathrooms in the house?

4. Do you recall hardness measurements, iron, pH, TDS?

That's why I told you to use hot water to dissolve the brick. EVERY time I've seen a DIYer decide to attack a salt bridge they poke a hole in the brine tank.

1. Well or water system?

Water system for the county but it is drawn from local wells

2. How many people in the house?

4 - wife, myself, 22 yr old son and 12 yr old son

3. How many bathrooms in the house?

two

4. Do you recall hardness measurements, iron, pH, TDS?

Don't recall the hardness but it was pretty high the company that tested had their eyebrows raised! For some reason 68 ppm sticks in my head??? I need to get a test kit and find out, I have a pool test kit wonder if that would work?

As far as the brine tank goes I'm not sure if it's leaking or not just a lot of general dampness around the area I was extremely careful not to puncture the tank I mean really really careful but you never know, a couple of days and I'll know.

Regen is almost done and system seems to be working well (some more water humor!) I have to go to Beale AFB near Sacramento at 04:00 tomorrow for work so II'll let it sit until I leave and start another regen when I'm going out the door. Probably won't message until I get home late tomorrow.

Again, thanks very much for all teh help and let me know what you think the settings should be.

Thanks,

Jim

Regen finished but the brine tank only refilled halfway??? Should I fill it up with water?

Thanks,

Fill the brine tank with water up to the overflow elbow. When you're done the second regen the control valve will put the programmed amount of water in the brine tank. The softener should be working as it was before but not necessarily efficiently.

There's no way to know what the correct programming would be or knowing if your softener is even the correct size without knowing the water conditions.

Water treatment isn't guessing... it's chemistry, physics, mechanics and arithmetic.

Roger. I'll fill the Brine tank and I will get a test kit any recommendations on a kit?

Thanks,

Jim

I ran the numbers based on the programming you posted for your 7000 and the softener is undersized and not as efficient as it would be if sized correctly.

You were sold an incorrectly sized softener by someone who doesn't understand how to correctly size one and that is unfortunately too common.

Generally I like to size softeners so we get a minimum 3333 grains of hardness removal capacity PER lb of salt. You need about 76800 for regeneration every seven days (with reserve calculated in). With a 3 cu ft softener you're getting under 2800 grains of hardness removal capacity PER lb of salt. With a correctly sized softener you could be getting around 3600.

So as long as your softener is working keep feeding it salt. Clean the brine tank once a year and I would DEFINITELY upgrade to the Fleck 2310 safety brine pickup with float.

Jim - Purchase a Hach total hardness test kit. Additionally, you should know iron/manganese in order to set up your softener correctly.

If we assume that the compensated hardness (gpg hardness plus equivalent iron+manganese) you currently have programmed into your softener control valve is correct [you have 40 programmed right now], then the softener is programmed incorrectly, as follows:

1. You have safety factor set at 0. This will result in up to a full day of hard water at the end of the cycle.

2. You have the capacity set at 96,000. While this is technically the total capacity of your resin, that is only true if you regenerate with the maximum salt dosage. As you decrease the salt dosage during regen, you also decrease the capacity of your softener. You are currently set up to regenerate with 12 lb salt per cubic ft of resin. That places your capacity at 85,200.

Running a softener is a series of compromises that we make between water and salt efficiency, as well as hardness exiting the softener. The lower the regen salt dosage the more you will leak a little hardness. Generally, this is not an issue in a home where you are not running sensitive equipment, but it is reality. We are talking about the difference of a few ppm so likely you won't notice. If you wanted the lowest possible hardness, you would regen with 24# salt per cubic ft of resin, but this is hardly practical. If you wanted to lug the least amount of salt, you would regen with 3# of salt per cuft of resin, but this would require you to regen twice as often, also not practical. The sweet spot between regen frequency and salt usage is at 6# salt per cuft of resin if we size the softener to regen every seven days. Your softener is not large enough to hit that sweet spot. This presents you with a choice.

1. You can continue to regen with 12#/cuft and your softener will regen every 7 days and use ~145 lb of salt per month. If you choose this option, reset your capacity to 85,200 and brine fill (regen cycle step 5) time remains the same.

2. You can regen with 9#/cuft and your softener will regen every 6 - 7 days and use ~120 lb of salt per month. If you choose this option, reset your capacity to 76,500 and brine fill time to 9 minutes.

3. You can regen with 6#/cuft and your softener will regen every 5 - 6 days and use ~97 lb of salt per month. If you choose this option, reset your capacity to 63,000 and brine fill time to 6 minutes.

If you do choose to decrease your salt usage, you will do so at the cost of more water usage due to more frequent regeneration.

In all cases, set your safety factor to 15% so you will always have soft water.

The Hach 5b test kit tops out at 30 grains so if Jim's water is 40+ that test is useless. Test kits that go higher are getting expensive.

Jim,

The most important thing is that your water holds soft till regeneration. If hardness leaks through before regeneration then you're wasting your money. Since you paid for soft water you ought to get it all the time except during regeneration.

Alice is right on the safety factor and during all the typing and reading I did miss that.

Set "RS" to SF (reserve = safety factor))

Set "SF" to 15 (15% reserve)

You might want to set DO = 8 (day override)

Not having a safety factor programmed in sustains that whoever sold you that softener has little to no idea regarding what he/she is trying to do other than make money.

This post was edited by justalurker on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 18:06

Just dilute the sample 50:50 with distilled water and the less expensive Hach test will work just fine. Multiply the result by 2 to obtain undiluted hardness.

Hello,

Back from my one day trip! The water softener seems to be working again!!!! No leaks, and it refilled correctly!

Now I would like to dial it in for the best operation.

You said to set the following:

Set "RS" to SF (reserve = safety factor))

Set "SF" to 15 (15% reserve)

But I don't have an "RS" setting, should I just set the SF to 15%?

My available settings:

US/Metric = u--1
Regenerant Flow = dF
Regeneration Type = 7-3
System Capacity = c-96
Feed Water Hardness = H-40
Regeneration Time = 2:00
Regeneration Day Override = A-10
Regeneration Cycle Step Programming (1-5)
1-10 - Backwash
2-60 - Brine Draw/Slow Rinse
3-5 - 2nd Backwash
4-10 - Rapid Rinse
5-12 - Brine Refill
Flow Meter Size = F-82
Safety Factor = cF-0
Line Frequency = LF60

I am reviewing the discussion from Aliceinwonderland to make sure I understand the discussion before I ask more questions about settings and I am looking for a test kit locally (HD, Lowes etc.)

Thanks!!!

I believe the following kit is available at my local Lowes. Is it sufficient?

PurTest Home Water Analysis Test Kit

Thanks

Aliceinwonderland

How do you calculate the #s of salt used etc. given the system information?

"You are currently set up to regenerate with 12 lb salt per cubic ft of resin. That places your capacity at 85,200."

I would like to get as close to optimal performance as possible given the size of the system, you say:

"The sweet spot between regen frequency and salt usage is at 6# salt per cuft of resin if we size the softener to regen every seven days. Your softener is not large enough to hit that sweet spot. This presents you with a choice"

When you refer to the "size of the system" I am not sure exactly what that means?? When I purchased system I bought a 96,000 grain capacity resin tank (65" tall 14" inches dia, 3 cu ft of resin) and a brine tank that will hold up to 10 bags (400 lbs) of salt and the salesman (justalurker already warned me about salesman and I understand their motive is to sell) basically told me this was a "large capacity" water softener.

One consideration I hadn�t mentioned is that I am on a septic tank and leech line and don�t want to add so much salt to the septic system to affect its operation (since I just replaced it last year to a tune of $12000!) Are there any considerations with respect to being on a septic system?

As Justalurker said "Water treatment isn't guessing... it's chemistry, physics, mechanics and arithmetic" so I am trying to understand the details (chemistry, physics, mechanics and arithmetic) so that I can run the system as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Thanks to both you and justalurker for all the help. I already know way more than I did just a few days ago.

Calculate lbs of salt used:

The amount of salt your system will use is determined by the brine fill time. One gallon of water will dissolve 3 lb of salt. [NOTE: Dissolution of salt takes time - 48 hours to get a full 3 lb per gallon, which is why you can't just install a really small softener and regen frequently.] Your BLFC has a 1 gpm orifice. So, for every one minute of brine fill time, you get 1 gallon of brine = 3 lb of salt. Yours is set for 12 minutes = 36 lb of salt per regen. Now, if you are trying to figure out how much time to set for your brine fill your calculation should look like this:

(R*S)/(3*BLCF)

where:
R = Resin volume in your system in cubic ft
S = your desired salt dosage lb salt per cubic ft of resin
BLCF = flow rate of your BLCF in gpm (gallons per minute)

If I were good at HTML I could probably make that actually look like an equation - I hope it's clear enough.

System Size:

When I refer to system size, I mean the cubic ft of resin in your tank. Often, manufacturers will refer to a system by the theoretical maximum grains of hardness it can remove. In those instances, generally 30,000 - 32,000 grains = 1 cubic ft.

To determine the grain capacity of a cubic ft of resin at a given salt dosage, you need to look at the charts provided by the resin manufacturers on their spec sheets. That is how I determine the actual capacity of your system based on different salt dosages - I use spec sheets for typical softener resin. If you desire a technical explanation of why exchange capacity changes with regenerant dosage, I suggest Perry's Chemical Engineering Handbook as a good source. [Just out of curiosity - what field of engineering are you practicing? I'm a retired ChemE]. Alternately, I can provide a more detailed explanation without getting too technical if that would be helpful.

Septic System

Operating a softener with discharge to a properly sized septic system has not been shown to cause harm to the system. If you are concerned about it, however, program your softener to be more salt efficient (regen with 6 lb salt/cubic ft of resin)

OK that all makes sense. So if I adjust the brine fill to say 9 minutes do I also need to make a corresponding change to the 60 minute Brine draw so as not to continue to draw after its empty? I noticed when I first started it up and overfilled the salt tank (my bad I misunderstood justalurker's instructions) that during the draw the brine ran short and began sucking air so I added brine water that had overflowed into a bucket when I filled the brine tank with salt to keep it from sucking air.

By trade I'm a EE but now I work as a Program Manager on the U-2 aircraft for Lockheed Martin. 7-9 years to retirement!

Since my BLFC = 1 could I not simplify to (R*S)/3? and since the resin = 3 could it be simplified even more to simply number of minutes of fill * 3 ?

Therefore my system as set now is: (3*36)/(3*1) = 36

If I change the Brine fill to say 9 = (3*27)/(3*1) = 27

would I then change the Brine Draw to 45 minutes? 60 * 9/12?

As far as size goes I believe I added three 1 Cu Ft bags of resin when I installed, buts it's been around 5 years and memories fade......

Thanks,

Jim

Your system is now set to (3*12)/(3*1) = 12 minutes brine fill, which corresponds to 36 pounds of salt. Remember S = salt dose in lbs PER CUBIC FT of resin.

Do not change the brine draw time. The brine draw time would be better described as two separate steps in the regen cycle. Step 1 is the actual brine draw. The amount it draws will be determined by the amount of brine in the tank, which is controlled by your brine fill time (currently 12 gallons).Step 2 is the remaining time after the brine is no longer entering the tank - this is the slow rinse portion of regen. This is necessary to get a good rinse. The slow rinse pushes the brine from the tank with minimal mixing, resulting in a more complete rinse. Then the final fast rinse finishes the job. If you don't have a slow rinse, the fast rinse would mix too much with the brine, rinse would not be complete, and you would get salty water.

As far as your brine tank goes, it is better to add one or two bags of salt at a time, rather than keep the tank full of salt - this will avoid crushing and salt bridge formation. As you already experienced, salt bridges are not fun to remove.

DOH! Got it, even my math was wrong! (3*36)/(3*1) = 108!!!!

(3*12)/(3*1) = 36

Therefore: (3*9)/(3*1)=27

I am going to order the Hach 5b test kit. so I can get this figured out.
Also, so it's not a problem if the brine solution is empty and the system continues to try to draw brine?

So given all of our correspondence (I realize I haven't provided definitive water analysis yet) what would you recommend as effective/efficient settings?

Thanks

Jim

No.
(3*9) / (3*1) = 9

3 times 9 equals 27. 27 divided by 3 = 9.

This is what I HATE about not having an actual equation writer - it is difficult to make equations clear.

And, no, it is absolutely NOT a problem if the brine solutions is empty and the system continues to try to draw brine - the system is designed to operate that way. It doesn't hurt anything and it provides a simple way to control salt dosage with only one control instead of two - a fairly elegant solution.

For now, until you get some actual results, set your softener to use 9 lb salt per cubic ft of resin. So, set brine fill to 9 minutes. Set capacity to 76,500 grains. That means your system capacity setting should be c-76.5 (or just 76 if it won't allow decimals). Set safety factor to 15%.

A couple of things have not been established yet: Are you on well or city water? If city, does the water come from wells or surface water? Where did you get this softener and who did the initial programming?

If you have city water, you can obtain the city water report and get a pretty good idea what your water looks like. However, it could have picked up a few things along the way to your home, particularly iron, which drastically changes softener size requirements [1 ppm of iron must be treated like 5 gpg of hardness, and softeners are not the correct way to remove more than a tiny amount of iron]. Get a year's worth of reports (they should come out quarterly) and get an average, then get an iron and hardness test for the water at your home.

If you have a private well, I urge you to get a comprehensive water test by a certified lab. You want to know: hardness, pH, TDS, sulfates, nitrates, VOCs, iron, manganese, particulates, bacteria - it is a good idea to this annually when living with a private well.

Jim,

To allay your fears... the gizmo om the bottom of your brine pickup is an AIR CHECK. when all the brine is sucked out of the brine tank that air check prohibits the brine line from drawing air. It is designed to work that way.

Not a bad idea to shake it and make sure the ball inside is free especially since you had a salt bridge.

If the ball doesn't rattle then ANOTHER reason to upgrade to the Fleck 2310 safety float brine pickup.

This post was edited by justalurker on Thu, Jan 3, 13 at 19:53

Man....You'd think as an engineer I could do simple math!!!

I will set the softener to use 9 lb salt per cubic ft of resin (brine fill to 9 minutes),capacity to 76,500 and safety factor to 15%.

I bought the water softener from a company in Florida called The Water Pharmacy but I think they went out of business at least they no longer have a phone number or any web site. I did the installation and initial setup based on their instructions and when it came time to set the operation I called them and they walked me through the settings on the Fleck 7000

My water is county water and it is drawn from wells in the area and from the CA Aqueduct. I've attached a picture of their 2011 water quality report (no 2012 on their website) with a box around my water district. OK I am going to go make the changes to the system.

Thanks!!!!

OK so I made the changes that Aliceinwonderland recommended and ran a regen. I noticed that after 60 minutes brine draw there was still about 1/3 of the brine still in the tank (see picture at end or brine draw). Is that normal? The first time (after breaking up the salt brick) that I ran it it sucked up all of the brine. Is this based on the capacity change? The brine refill didn't fill up as full as before but that I expected since I reduced the refill time from 12 to 9 minutes. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

No, it is not normal - you may still have a problem with your brine injection.

At first glance, your hardness data places you at 15.4 gpg. Your softener is set at 40 gpg. This could mean that your water quality has changed in the last six years, or that you pick up iron on the way to your home. If your water report is closer to the actual conditions than your current programming, your softener will have gone from slightly undersized to quite oversized. Definitely get that analysis done.

aliceinwonderland

Yea I was afraid of that! Not home safe yet! I plan on taking the system apart again and checking the injector and the screen and the float maybe after dealing with the salt brick something has been drawn in that's clogging it up. I really hate taking out the injector because it's so fragile and the first time I did it it broke. I may buy a new one before I take the current one out just in case. I am always worried about half of it sticking in the controller and then I have a real problem!

How did you calculate the 15.5 gpg hardness the report just says "Total Hardness = 264" with no explanation of what that means. I couldn't find a "gpg" value in the table. I did see Calcium = 70, and Magnesium = 22 which I thought were indicators of water hardness.

Thanks

OK I just ordered a replacement injector (just in case) and the 2310 brine valve assembly that justalurker recommended, hopefully it comes with installation and adjustment instructions. I will check everything except the injector today and make sure it's all OK and then regen again and watch the brine draw and fill.

1 gpg (grain per gallon) = 17.1 ppm (parts per million)

The units in your water report are mg/L (miligrams per liter), which is the same as ppm.

Well apparently I'm not out of the woods yet. I ran another regen today because I was concerned that the system did not draw all of the brine the last time. It didn't draw it all this time either in fact it wasn't drawing at all. I took the draw line at the brine tank apart and their was suction so I stuck the line into the brine (in the white tube) and it drew the brine out fine. I checked the float ball in a glass of water and it seemed to float fine. I put it back together and no draw??? So I took it apart and let the tube draw the brine almost to the bottom of the tank and then reconnected the float tube and again no draw. I watched the system finish and on the brine fill it wasn't filling it was blowing a lot of air bubbles up through the white brine tube but didn't fill more than about 6 inches in the bottom. I filled the brine tank with water (used a bucket)and will try again after I receive the new float and brine pickup and the new injector. Any thoughts on why all of a sudden the brine draw and fill is no longer working?

Thanks,

It is just going to be a matter of going through the brine feed parts systematically. Unfortunately it doesn't take much to muck up the fine mesh screens and small orifice in the system. When you remove the brine suction remember there are several small parts in there and any one of them could be clogged with debris or damaged.

Thanks Alice. It's my intention to check the injector, screen etc. as soon as I get the new parts I ordered. The injector is a little delicate and I broke it the first time I ever replaced it so I want to wait until the new one is in hand before I mess with it. I suspect that as a result of the salt brick some debris was sucked into the screen and/or injector which may be causing the problem. At least that is what I hope for. I'll follow-up as soon as I check everything, probably not any sooner than this weekend.

Thanks Again

Hello Alice

I received the Hach 5B today and I tested the water. It took 24 drops to change the color from pink to blue so based on the directions that would indicate 24 grains per gallon hardness. Just to see I tested the water after the softener and it took two drops to change to Blue. The water was already purplish when I added the reagent so it is an indication that the softener is working (or was). Now as soon as I get the new injector and air check with the valve and float (2310), hopefully tomorrow, I will check the injector, screen and the brine pickup line to see if I can find the problem.

Thanks

OK Got the new injector and installed it but I think the old one was good I believe the root of my problem is that I didn't get the BLFC 3/8" hose in completely at the Fleck controller. I reset all the system settings to what they were and ran the regen. It sucked up all of the brine so that's a good thing. Then when it refilled it didn't seem like it put enough water in the brine but I did the following calculation and it appears as though its correct.

Brine tank is 18" in diameter. Water is 11" deep after brine fill, therefore the volume of water added to the tank during the brine fill is around 2800 Cu Inches based on:

pi*r2*h - Therefore 3.14 * (9*9) * 11 = 2797 cu inches. Converting cu in to gals = 12 gals (in� * 0.0043290) therefore 2797 * .0043290 = 12.11 gals

So that being said It appears to be working. Seems I just remember the water level in the brine tank being higher before........probably because the bottom 14 to 15 inches was a brick!

What do you guys think does it make sense?

Thanks