Fleck 7000SXT is an on demand regeneration control valve and measure the volume of water going through it.

Round or rectangular brine tank is your choice.

Gravel under bed, no Vortech tank.

Neither the SST60 or Res-up will do anything for you.

Ohio Pure Water is reliable and will sell you Purolite 10% if you ask for it.

Based on the info you posted, IF SFR if measured at 18gpg and not a
conceptual number, best choice is 7000SXT 2.5 cube Purolite 10%
crosslink resin, not anonymous pacific rim resin.

Thanks, justalurker. I did measure that with a 5 gallon bucket and an outside spigot (right on the main line and right near where the install would be) but I can probably be more accurate about it with some more tests - which I'll do.

Can you give me a brief idea on how the SFR @18gpm (and it being more or less) impacts either the choice for the 2.5cu ft unit and/or the Purolite 10% crosslink resin? For instance, does your advice change if SFR ends up being 15gpm or 21gpm ?

thanks.

My recommendation for Purolite 10% crossllink is for long resin life and consistent softener performance.

Regarding SFR... some people get that number from a spec sheet or a chart instead of measuring it. Peak SFR makes a difference in whether or not hardness will leak through.

2 cube softener SFR = 13gpm 2.5 cube softener = 18gpm

With no extremely high flow fixtures in your home and based on occupancy and water quality numbers you posted 2.5 cubes is right IF the water quality numbers you posted are from a water test and not from a dated water quality report from the water authority.

thanks. very much appreciate the advice!

So it's finally here (took extra time for the good 10% purolite) - does someone have a second to put a second set of eyes on my 7000SXT programming settings?

System:

• Fleck 7000SXT 2.5cu/80,000grain
• From the label on the back of the valve: Model 7000, Operating Pressure 20 to 125PSI, Piston: HighFlow, BLFC: 0.125GPM, DLFC: - GPM, Injetor: 000, 41264 RevK
• Gravel underbed
• Using a 1in PVT PVC connection (using the included adapter down from 1 1/4")
• 18x40 brine tank
• Purolite 10% crosslink resin (have 3 cubes, will use 2.5 obviously)

Programming:

• DF: GAL
• VT: dF2b
• CT: Fd (Meter Delayed)
• NT: 1
• C: 80k (capacity)
• H: 17 (hardness) (290ppm rounded up slightly)
• RS: SF (Percentage Safety Factor)
• SF: 20 percent (not sure what is recommended here)
• RC: n/a (due to % SF)
• CR: n/a (due to % SF)
• DO: 9 (Day override - not sure what is recommended here)
• RT: 2:00AM
• B1: 10 mins (back wash) ??
• BD: 60 mins (brine draw) ??
• B2: 5 (salt time setting) ??
• RR: 10 mins (rapid rinse) ??
• BF: 12
• SV: 0 ?? (Service)
• Day of Week settings: Set all to 'On' (because meter delayed?)
• CD: whatever day it is when I do the work
• FM: t1.2 (1 1/4" meter but uses 1" connectors off the back of the valve)
• K: n/a (guessing I just don't bother with this)

Thoughts? thanks in advance!

My question would be why do you need a system that will flow 18 GPM? Even with 5 people, the likelihood of flowing the much water is slim. IMO a 2.5 CF softener on 16 GPG hardness is over sized. SST 60 resin is used for water with high iron. Your city will not have iron so there is no need to spend the extra money.

Mike,

This is my opinion...

Since you stated in your original post "Achievable flow rate - 18gpm" a 2.5 cube softener with a peak SFR of 18 gpm is the correct choice to avoid hardness leaking through.

SF = you can lower this to 15(%)

C = 55

DO = 14

BF = 54

You'll be salting @ 8 lbs/cu ft which is 20 lbs total salt dose to get 55k hardness removal capacity from 2.5 cubes of Purolite C100 10% (not SST-60) resin. 20 lbs of salt requires 7 (6.7) gallons of water to make brine so BF is 54 minutes through a .125 BLFC.

With these settings you'll use about a bag of salt a month and that's pretty efficient. Just keep the salt level above the water level in the brine tank.

Easy way to measure out 1/2 cube resin from a 1 cube resin box is to weigh a 1 cube box and then scoop out 1/2 by weight. Be careful handling the resin cause if you spill it it is a real PITA to clean up.

Also, when the softener is installed BEFORE you run any water shut off the cold water supply to your water heater and open a few faucets cold water faucets around the house and let them run for a while cause new resin will leach color into the water and there's no reason to get colored water into your water heater. When the cold water runs clear then open the cold water supply to the water heater.

thanks, justalurker. All installed and programmed. Very much appreciate the help.

One question - i don't think i put enough water in the brine tank before the initial manual regeneration run (just enough to be about 2 inches above the base). About 20mins in to the 60 min BD cycle, I added some more water and things looked to be good again (betting the air stop engaged). If I understand how things work, the BF cycle (at 54 mins) should still get the right amount of water back into the brine tank in the last stage of the regen cycle..and if too much, the float stops it.

But based on you calculating based on the .125BLFC, I'm guessing you're trying to actual nail how much needs to get into the brine tank for how much the softener will draw in the next regen cycle - is that correct? (vs. just letting the float stop it at some point).

I guess my questions are: can I end up with too much water in the tank? I'm keeping salt above the water level, as suggested.

..and because I think I didn't get enough water into the brine tank to start, will the 10 mins of no water draw during the BD cycle mean that the softener didn't get enough brine to start? and will everything settle out now just letting it run?

Apologies - new this but did enough reading that I think I'm beginning to get how the system works.

thanks,

Mike

Virgin resin does not need to be regenerated to put it into service. New resin is good to go right out of the bag.

There will be some water left in the brine tank even after BD (brine draw) cause the pickup is slightly above the bottom of the tank.

Here's how the Fleck 7000 works... the last step in regeneration is BF (brine fill). The amount of water put in the brine tank is calculated to dissolve the amount of salt we determine. For you it's 20 lbs so 20/3 (gallon of water dissolves 3 lbs of salt)= 6.7 or 7 rounded off. You have a BLFC (brine line flow control) that is .125 gpm so 7/.125=56 minutes, the BF setting. I told you 54 but you can use 56.

During BD (brine draw) the control valve sucks the brine from the brine tank into the resin tank. All the brine the pickup can get will be sucked into the resin long before the 60 minute BD is up. That's what the air check is for... so there's no air being sucked into the resin.

After the first regeneration the correct (amount we calculated) amount of water returned to the brine tank. The control valve knows, if it's set up correctly, so trust it.

The Fleck 2310 safety float only comes into play if the control valve goes haywire and water is continuously sent to the brine tank. Even in the worst scenario if the control valve goes nuts and the safety float doesn't work there's an overflow gravity drain fitting on the back of the brine tank that should be plumbed to a drain. In an industry standard softener (like yours) the float does not set the correct amount of water to make the correct amount of brine. Kinetico uses the float to set the brine level and the brine line is always under line pressure. I'd never buy a Kinetico because of that design choice.

Makes total sense now. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the knowledge! -

Once I've run for a month and see how things go does it make sense to into diag mode, get real flow/usage numbers and adjust? Guessing at this point just adjusting for actual average usage? I did measure peak flow using the fleck and it's 17.1gpm from the highest flow faucet I have but testing others in the house seems to not push past 12 in most cases.

Will do. Thanks again for all of the help!