Don't want to know how or why you came up with a 2.5 cube softener cause you already bought and installed it.

As for your math...

6 lbs salt per cu ft of resin should get you 50K so that would be a salt dose of 15 lbs for 2.5 cubes of resin (rounded off)

15 lbs would be 5 gallons would be 20 minutes with a .25 BLFC

If operating properly the 7000 should put 5 gallons of water back into the brine tank to make the correct salt dose as the last step in regeneration. Depending on the size of your brine tank it may not look like the right amount of water but it most likely is especially if there's a brine grid in the bottom of the brine tank.

You can check for your self by disconnecting the brine line from the brine tank and putting it in a 5 gallon bucket before the last stage of a regeneration and see if the bucket fills up.

Don't put a lot of salt in the brine tank. Best just to keep enough to cover the water level and a little more. Check salt level once a week and add salt as necessary.

You'll also want to be testing to see that your water stays soft right up till regeneration. If it doesn't you might have a channeling problem

Would be considerate of you to re-save that Excel file in the more universal XLS format so the many who don't have the latest and greatest Excel version can open it.

This post was edited by justalurker on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 19:24

There are calculators out there. However the problem with an online calculator, is that there are many factors that go into properly sizing and programming a softener. The calculations without the knowledge lead to mistakes.

Your softener is nearly twice the size you need at present. There are several different ways we can deal with that, but need to know a couple of things first:

1. Does your softener have a gravel underbed?

2. Do you have a top basket?

3. What resin do you have (specific brand and name)?

4. Do you have any particulates in your water?

For now, change your BF back to 20 minutes. The brine tank is SUPPOSED to drain during regen. Brine is drawn into the softener until there is no brine to draw, at which point the air stop engages so no air is drawn into the softener. That is why we set the brine fill time - it controls the salt dosage.

Thanks. I know I have a larger softener than needed but I didn't want to buy one now and then buy another one 5 years from now when I will need more capacity (more people in the house) so I sized it for 4 people in the house and will re-program at that time to use all the capacity. It was much less expensive to just over-size now than buy two in a 5 yr period.

justalurker: see link below for Excel 97-2003 version of that file

aliceinwonderland_id:

I bought this model of softener: http://www.aquatell.com/water-softeners/fleck-water-softeners/fleck-7000-sxt-metered-water-softener-80000-grain
+Turbulator
+Fine Mesh Resin Upgrade
+Brine Guard

I'm not sure of the answers to your questions aside from I don't have particulates in my water (I assume you mean directly from the well?).

I didn't realize the softener fully drains the brine tank during the regeneration, but there was less water in the brine tank when I went back to look at it this weekend (after being gone for over a week) and the top few inches of the salt was dry so I figured I would need more water in the BF stage.

I'll put it back to 20 min.

Here is a link that might be useful: Calculation Tool (Excel 97-2003)

I understand that it is a little late now, but for future reference, in a situation like yours where water use will change drastically, a smaller twin tank softener is much more appropriate.

I am also concerned that you have fine mesh resin and a turbulator. Generally, high mesh resins are for waters with dissolved iron, which you don't have. Perhaps there is a reason for the fine mesh resin that I am not seeing here?

Turbulators are typically used for waters with iron and/or particulates, which you don't have. Additionally, they shouldn't be used in larger tanks (>12" diameter - yours should be 13") because the resin around the tank edges will see very little, if any, effect from the turbulator. They also are not to be used with fine mesh resin - fine mesh resin has a higher pressure drop, making a turbulator much less effective.

If this were my softener, I would remove the resin, get rid of the turbulator, install a gravel underbed and a standard distributor riser tube. If you do not wish to do this, you should invest in a good hardness test and test your water religiously at least once monthly because I suspect you will see problems over time. You may need to regen with a higher salt dosage to try to compensate.

Assuming all else is working properly you have some options for softener setting.

2. You could leave the softener regenerating at 6 lb salt per cubic ft of resin, increase the day override and just let it do its thing. No programming would be necessary as you add to your family. Right now it will regen every 9-11 days and it will regen about every 5-6 days when your household population reaches four. You would use about 45 lb salt per month now and 91 later.

3. You could leave it the way it is, regenerating every 8 days at 6 lb salt per cubic ft. Your softener will regen every 8 days and use 56 lb salt per month now and regen every 5-6 days and use 91 lb salt later. No reprogramming is necessary as your family grows.

4. You could set your salt dosage to 4 lb/cubic ft for now and then reset it to 6 when you have three or four people in the house. You would use 38 lb/month salt now and 77 later.

If you replace the turbulator as explained above, then I prefer option 1, with one caveat. You will want to monitor your hardness. You softener is so large for your water use right now that you run the risk of channeling. Going longer between regens will somewhat increase this risk. If you monitor your hardness for a couple of weeks, you will know.

If you leave the softener as-is, you cannot use option 3. If you modify the softener and then choose option 3, be aware that as we decrease salt dosage, we increase hardness bleed. It is only a few ppm, but some people are sensitive to the feel of that small amount of hardness. You will want to monitor hardness with this option as well.

If you leave the turbulator in place option 2 is your only option, and you may need to regen more often or with...

I appreciate the advice. I read both positive and negative feedback before buying on both the turbulator and fine mesh resin.

Overall, there didn't seem to be any consensus on a disadvantage to the fine mesh resin so I chose to go with it.

Turbulator's had both proponents and detractors.

In both cases it didn't appear there would be negative impact, just the "upgrades" may not be as effective.

I think getting a hard water test would be a good choice for me and to monitor it for now. The softener I replaced was not very effective so even a bit of hardness bleed isn't going to bother us. I don't mind doing some work to monitor it as I have a variety of systems in my utility room to monitor (pool pump, 2 separate heat pumps, air exchangers, etc.) so one more is not a big deal.

At least I'm glad the math I did to calculate the salt needed was about right =)

I think for now I'll leave it as-is. Since it's regenerating to 50k I'll set the capacity to 45k rather than the current 35k.

It's $5 for 44lbs (20 Kg) of salt so about $6/month cost for salt is fine and better than running it at full capacity (of salt usage) while that volume is not needed.

The correct way would be to set actual capacity, which is 52K at 6# salt/cuft resin, and allow the day override to keep regens at the shorter interval. That way, if you have guests, or use more water than expected for some other reason, your softener will regen at the appropriate time. If you use the capacity to set minimum regen time, you end up with more unnecessary regens and higher salt use.

I am neither a proponent, nor a detractor of turbulators. They have their place. My concern about the turbulator is not about whether they are a good or bad idea. It is that in your case, your softener is outside the manufacturer's specified size range for a turbulator and your resin size is too small for the turbulator. The combination of turbulator plus fine mesh resin is not an upgrade. It's a downgrade, exacerbated by your tank size.

This post was edited by aliceinwonderland_id on Mon, Apr 8, 13 at 0:44

What type of salt is recommended for the Fleck 7000SXT? I am getting ready to have water softener installed and trying to read up on recommendation. Thank you.