Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - KCl Softener setting & salt efficiency
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h15gus
01-03-07, 06:00 PM
I hope someone can give me some advice.
I have just moved into a new construction 4 bed/2.5 bath house with a 200ft deep private well.
I had a local, reputable company install a system for me on 12/7/06 to take care of my water of 8 grain hardness, 4 ppm iron and ph of 6. They installed a 10x54 tank with 1.5ft3 softener after a 10x54 neutralizer/prefilter bedded with calcite and corosex. Both units have Fleck 5600SE valves. The softener has a 18x33 brine tank. I use pottasium chloride.
I've been using the system now for several weeks, and have been reading with interest the user manuals, and monitoring our water usage and KCl usage.
I have recorded that we (only my wife and I at the moment) are using approximately 100 gallons of water per day and the metered regeneration setting of the softener is 1500 gal. This means we should go around 2 weeks between regenerations. I have read on the internet that it is best to regenerate at least once per week... is this true? and if so would you recommend that I reduce the 1500 gal setting accordingly.
Secondly, the company recomend to keep the brine tank 1/2 full or less with KCl, while I read somewhere that the salt should be above the water level in the brine tank. If I am to put salt in the tank to above the water level, it is going over 1/2 full of salt and so I am not sure what to do. Is the brine tank undersized? On installation, the tank had 80 lbs of KCl (2 bags), and I have added another 120lbs (3 bags) since then and I am now seeing the water just appear on the top of the salt.
My softener program setting for brine refill is 13 minutes - which I presume is for a salt setting of 12lbs/ft3 - so 18lbs of salt per regeneration @ 0.5gpm fill. I think I have regenerated about 2 or 3 times since installation, so using about 60lbs of salt might sound right.
Can someone advise me if I should reprogram the brine refill for a salt setting of say 6lbs/ft3, therefore only using 9lbs of KCl with less water in the tank, and also reduce my metered regen value to about 1000 gals - this will give me 28,000 grain capacity at 120 gal per day for a week, and have me using 9lbs of KCl with a brine refil time of 6 minutes rather than 13, and a salt efficiency of 3111 grain/gal.
Does this reduced rating seem better for my circumstances with just my wife and I in the house at the moment. As my family grows - I expect I will reprogram the controller accordingly?
Is there any downside to running 14 days between regens?
My prefilter/neutralizer is a downflow, and set to backwash every 3 days. Is this normal, or will it use up the calcite/corosex too quickly.
Sorry for the long post - this is my first system, and I just wanted to get all my questions out there.
Thanks in advance.
I have just moved into a new construction 4 bed/2.5 bath house with a 200ft deep private well.
I had a local, reputable company install a system for me on 12/7/06 to take care of my water of 8 grain hardness, 4 ppm iron and ph of 6. They installed a 10x54 tank with 1.5ft3 softener after a 10x54 neutralizer/prefilter bedded with calcite and corosex. Both units have Fleck 5600SE valves. The softener has a 18x33 brine tank. I use pottasium chloride.
I've been using the system now for several weeks, and have been reading with interest the user manuals, and monitoring our water usage and KCl usage.
I have recorded that we (only my wife and I at the moment) are using approximately 100 gallons of water per day and the metered regeneration setting of the softener is 1500 gal. This means we should go around 2 weeks between regenerations. I have read on the internet that it is best to regenerate at least once per week... is this true? and if so would you recommend that I reduce the 1500 gal setting accordingly.
Secondly, the company recomend to keep the brine tank 1/2 full or less with KCl, while I read somewhere that the salt should be above the water level in the brine tank. If I am to put salt in the tank to above the water level, it is going over 1/2 full of salt and so I am not sure what to do. Is the brine tank undersized? On installation, the tank had 80 lbs of KCl (2 bags), and I have added another 120lbs (3 bags) since then and I am now seeing the water just appear on the top of the salt.
My softener program setting for brine refill is 13 minutes - which I presume is for a salt setting of 12lbs/ft3 - so 18lbs of salt per regeneration @ 0.5gpm fill. I think I have regenerated about 2 or 3 times since installation, so using about 60lbs of salt might sound right.
Can someone advise me if I should reprogram the brine refill for a salt setting of say 6lbs/ft3, therefore only using 9lbs of KCl with less water in the tank, and also reduce my metered regen value to about 1000 gals - this will give me 28,000 grain capacity at 120 gal per day for a week, and have me using 9lbs of KCl with a brine refil time of 6 minutes rather than 13, and a salt efficiency of 3111 grain/gal.
Does this reduced rating seem better for my circumstances with just my wife and I in the house at the moment. As my family grows - I expect I will reprogram the controller accordingly?
Is there any downside to running 14 days between regens?
My prefilter/neutralizer is a downflow, and set to backwash every 3 days. Is this normal, or will it use up the calcite/corosex too quickly.
Sorry for the long post - this is my first system, and I just wanted to get all my questions out there.
Thanks in advance.