Fleck 9000 Water Softener

[2Biz]

I have a Fleck 9000 Softener and (2) 12 x 48 or 64,000 grain tanks. I haven't done much studying on the softener until now...I checked the output water and I'm at less than 1 grain hardness so the system is working properly...

So going thru the manual, I was doing the calculations to set the regineration rate and to see what it was currently set at. My incoming water is already softened down to a published 5 gpg. I get 4 gpg when testing the incoming water myself. According to the manual, you divide the tank size by the gpg hardness in order to set your gallons before regineration...In my case 64,000/5=12,800.

My control is set to regin every 3,000 gallons...Althought the dial can only be set to a little over 5,000 gallons.

Am I missing something or does it sound like my control is not set up properly? Or can I at least change the regin cycle to 5,000 gal. since this is the highest setting on my dial? It would at least save me a little wear and tear and a little salt...

I really don't know how old my system is...At one time our water was supplied from a Reservoir. I wouldn't know what the hardness was at that time. Maybe my system was set up for that type water and was never updated to our current water supply. I don't know...It appears that I can make changes, safely, without damaging my system...Any Suggestions?

 

[MEP001]

12 x 48 would usually be 2 cu. ft. of resin, or 60,000 grains. You can squeeze 64k out with max salting (15 lbs/cu. ft.), but with minimal (6 lbs/cu. ft.) you'd yield 40k. That's 8,000 gallons of softening. You probably don't have the extended range meter. There would be an extra cylinder on top of the dome where the meter cable plugs in if you did.

 

[2Biz]

I don't have the extended range meter cover. My dial goes from 0 to 52...Is it easy to tell what salting rate the control is set at? I've read the manual 20 times and its still not making sense.

 

[MEP001]

Look at the injector on the back - it has a black or red sticker on it which tells the fill flow (IIRC, black is .5 GPM, red is 1 GPM). Then open the timer door (Unplug the meter cable from the meter first) and look at the pins. The first row of pins determines the backflush time, then a long gap for the brine rinse time, then the second row of pins for the settle rinse time. The number of pins missing after that sets the brine refill time. Example: 1 GPM on the brine valve, 1 min. per pin, 2 cu. ft. resin, 3 lbs. salt per gallon = four pin gap for brine refill.

You can replace the meter and the dial with extended range ones. Sounds like you're wasting a lot of capacity.

 

[2Biz]

You can replace the meter and the dial with extended range ones. Sounds like you're wasting a lot of capacity.

This is what I thought. Looking breifly online last night, the extended range meter is quite pricey. About $250 bucks...If I change that out, then I'm assuming I'd have to change the dial for one that was graduated with the higher number of gallons before reginerating. It looks like, at least for now, I can change regin to about 5200 gallons with my current setup.

The manual is confusing when setting the gallons before regin. Is it as simple as pulling the dial out and rotating it till the gallons lines up with the white dot....

The manual says this, assuming you need to set the dial at 950 gallons:

NOW set Meter wheel at approximately 950 gallons. Lift the inner dial of the meter program wheel so that you can
rotate it freely. Position the white dot opposite the 950 gallon setting.

This is the part that doesn't make sense. It says "Position the white dot OPPOSITE the gallon setting"....

 

[cantbreak80]

With a 2 cu ft softener (60,000 grains), you can get 51,000 grains of capacity (85%) with minimum salting (6 lbs of salt per cu ft).

To achieve the extra 9,000 grains of capacity would require another 9 lbs of salt per cu ft…not an efficient use of salt.

So 51K capacity at 4 grains/gallon equals 12,750 gallons (assuming incoming water is always 4 gpg. To prevent running out of capacity due to hardness variation, calculate the capacity based on one more grain than tested…that takes you to 10,200 gallons capacity at minimum salting.

If you are using 6 lbs every 3000 gallons your softener is consuming over three times the salt necessary to operate efficiently.

Cost of salt = $0.10/lb
Efficient salt use = $1.20/regen
Your cost = $3.60+

If you can save $2.40 per regeneration, you will recoup the expense of the extended meter after 10 regeneration cycles…not counting the cost of the water used.

And, if you’re a “tree hugger”, you can justify the meter expense based solely on the downstream wastewater treatment issues.

 

[2Biz]

Thanks CantBreak80! That really puts things into perspective. It goes to show you, you can never take for granted that something is done correctly. There is always room for improvement. Especially when it has a ROI in as short of time as this one...Thanks for doing the Math!

OH BTW...I'm not a "Tree Hugger"....I cut them down and heat my house with them!

 

[2Biz]

OK Looks like I have a bastard alligator! I DO have the 1" Extended Range Meter Cover, but I have the Standard Meter Dial with a range of 350-5270 galllons. I should have a dial with a range of 1,550-26,350 gallons...So trying to set this thing is useless without the right parts. At least the dial will be the cheapest thing I need to replace. Here are some closeups...The Injector is labeled #2 indicating a blue Injector (.25gpm)and the sticker also says 3 gallons per minute. I'm confused what the 3 gallons per minute represents?

It will even be hard to tell how many gallons this thing goes through since we're in weep season and I can't compare to metered incoming water. I'll have to track down the right dial before I can go any further...

 

[MEP001]

The drain 3 GPM just tells the maximum it will flow during the backwash and settle rinse. It's irrelevant to setting the brine usage.

This is the part that doesn't make sense. It says "Position the white dot OPPOSITE the gallon setting"....

It should read "next to." In your last image, it's set to 3,000 gallons.

Call River City Water in San Antonio - you'll get much better prices on Fleck parts. The last meter I got was barely $100.