Unfortunately, your softener is somewhat undersized to provide great salt efficiency and regen every 7th day. Best salt/water efficiency happens at around 6 lb salt per cubic foot of resin per regen. With your softener size, that places your regen about every 5.5 days (assuming 75 gallons per day per person. If you have actual usage numbers I can be more accurate). This will use about 42 lb of salt per month.

If you want to regen every 7 days, you will have to move up to nearly 15 lb of salt per cubic ft of resin per regen and use 80 lb of salt per month. I would not recommend this.

In order to set your softener properly, we need to know the flow rate during the brine draw. There will be a sticker on the line that will tell you this information. I have a attached a picture of the controller. On the right hand side, under the square box, you will see a blue sticker. Your sticker should be in the same location, although it could be a different color. Get the info from that sticker.

Thanks much. It is .5.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes, another undersized softener. You've got a far better softener than you would have gotten at any big box store but as incorrectly sized as any orange or red aproned or Sears know-nothing-about-water treatment would have sold you. Instead of around 3333 Grains of Capacity PER lb of salt you'll be getting around 2000. Aside from the loss of water and salt efficiency than what you'd have gotten from a correctly sized softener you'll only be getting 10 gpg SFR through the softener.

With respect to Alice 60 gpp per day is a more generally accepted figure today than 75 gpp per day.

We will need the # off the BLFC sticker to suggest the best compromise on programming. Would also be good to know if well or water system and what pH, TDS, manganese, and bacteria and nitrates IF on a well.

Thanks much. It is .5.

Flow is .5. Our metered usage is right at 250 gallons per day. I should have clarified, 20 is our total hardness with both manganeese and iron factored in. Our size was determined based on 5,000 grains per day. That results in regen about every 8th day, as close to 7 as we could get.

"20 is our total hardness with both manganese and iron factored in"

There are numerous formulas for factoring in iron and manganese and rarely do two online sellers agree. Since we here on this forum aren't looking to sell you anything we usually hit the numbers right on the nose.

"Our size was determined based on 5,000 grains per day. That results in regen about every 8th day, as close to 7 as we could get"

Was SFR considered at all in the size determination you reached? Was a reserve factored in? With iron and manganese 7 days is longer than you should go between regens and there should be routine maintenance set up with Iron Out or a similar product.

Your determination apparently hasn't worked out quite as you expected since you posted here for our help. You might post all the variables and let us make our recommendations. Then you can see how our determination compares with yours.

Okay, softener 101.

1. You have a 40,000 grain softener.

2. Take off 15% reserve. This is necessary because you don't want it regenerating itself in the middle of your shower or a load of laundry. You want it to regenerate in the middle of the night when you are less likely to be using water. You also do not want to experience hard water so that 15% gives you a buffer. This leaves you with 34,000 grains capacity.

3. Now, you could actually use nearly all of that capacity and regenerate every 6.4 days. My initial estimate was 7 days, but remember I was using 75 gallons per day per person. You have now informed us you use closer to 83 gallons per day per person. In order to maximize time between regeneration, you have to maximize the amount of salt you use and regenerate with 15 lb/cuft, a total of 18.75 lb per regen. This would result in a salt usage of about 88 lb per month.

4. To increase your salt efficiency, you should regen with 6 lb of salt per cuft of resin. This will result in regenerating every 4.8 days and use about 47 lb of salt per month. This buys you salt efficiency at the cost of water efficiency. More frequent regen = more water usage.

5. Your softener is undersized, as previously stated. Be aware that during those times of the year when you use more water, have guests, etc, that your softener will reach another limitation. Ad two guests for a few days and the softener will regen every 3 days. Ad three guests and it regens every two days. Four guests and it regens every day. Now you don't have enough time for the salt to dissolve in the brine and you get incomplete regeneration, compounding your problems.

I would be happy to explain WHY it works this way if you are interested.

Is there any possibility of returning this softener and getting one size appropriately?

If not, we move on to correctly setting up your softener to function to the best of its ability. Do you have the manual? If so, we can walk through correct setup. If not, I can provide a link and then we can walk through correct setup.

I could use some help too. I bought a fleck 5600sxt 24k and am trying to decipher all the info I'm reading on the internet to set it up. I have city water rated at 8 for hardness and there's 2 people in our home. No hot tub, etc. The site that sold me the softner calculated this model for me. How can I calc the settings?
Greatly appreciate any direction.

love2byke - You question will get more attention if you start a new thread. That way your information doesn't inadvertently get mixed up with someone else's. I'll start one this once.