Is there any way to tell a water softeners capacity by tank size?

[jonjonbear]

Hello group,
Brand new here. I have a twin tank softener which was made by "pure-tel" and I have no original paperwork on it. It has two tall chrome tanks with a Fleck 9000 valve on the top. This was in a rental house I had in Las Vegas and removed it when I sold the house and brought it to Texas where it's now installed in my home. It has been running here for five years but it occurred to me that it's probably set way higher than what I need as the water in Vegas is much harder than out here. I have the manual for the valve which I downloaded but the procedure is pretty complicated (at least the part with the pins in the back but maybe that doesn't need setting?), but it appears the first thing I need to know is the unit's capacity. I seem to think I read somewhere this has to do with how much media is installed? The only label on the thing is the manufacture label, with no part number, specs or anything. Is there any way to find out, or figure out what the capacity of this thing is? I have no idea even how old it is. I am using potassium instead of salt and two adults.

Thanks for any pointers,

John
PS this is my water quality according to my water coop:
(this is ground water supplied from several wells, not reclaimed or surface water if that even matters)
Total Hardness = 39.5 milligrams/liter (mg/L) or 2.3 grains per gallon
Calcium = 8.15 mg/L
Iron = 0.025 mg/L
Magnesium = 4.65 mg/L
Sodium = 222 mg/L
pH = 7.9 Standard Units
Total Alkalinity = 357 mg/L
Chloride = 66mg/L
Sulfate = 83 mg/L
Total Dissolved Solids = 620 mg/L
Aqua maintains an approximately 1.5 to 3.0 mg/L free chlorine residual in the distribution system for disinfection purposes.

[Gary Slusser]

The size of the tanks will allow me to tell you how much resin is in them in cuft.

The K of capacity of that volume of resin is dictated/controlled by the number of lbs of salt used per regeneration. Therefore the capacity of all softeners is adjustable. And programing a softener to use the maximum K of capacity (30K per cuft of regular mesh resin) is not a good idea because it requires the use of the maximum salt dose of 15 lbs/cuft of resin. That gives you the worst salt efficiency; 30,000 divided by 15 = 2000 grains per lb.

[jonjonbear]

The size of the tanks will allow me to tell you how much resin is in them in cuft.

The K of capacity of that volume of resin is dictated/controlled by the number of lbs of salt used per regeneration. Therefore the capacity of all softeners is adjustable. And programing a softener to use the maximum K of capacity (30K per cuft of regular mesh resin) is not a good idea because it requires the use of the maximum salt dose of 15 lbs/cuft of resin. That gives you the worst salt efficiency; 30,000 divided by 15 = 2000 grains per lb.

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the reply..I had posted this also over at Terry Loves site so have some information they have been asking.
The tanks are 10" diameter and 48" tall. They had me look on the valve for the GPM, I can't read the drain output but the brine output says 0.50 GPM, 1.25 Lb salt minimum.
I also posted pictures of the current dial settings and pin locations. You can see that posting here:

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?35451-Is-there-any-way-to-tell-a-water-softeners-capacity-by-tank-size/page2

I suspect my softener is set way too strong for the water we have here as it was originally installed in Las Vegas where the water is much harder. I am using Potassium (I am on a aerobic septic system) only two adults in the house.

I don't know the age of this water softener, the house it was in was built in 2000 I think so I don't know the condition of the resins inside.

I found your site, and the helpful info and have been trying to figure out my unit, and needs. It appears if I am calculating correctly, my needed capacity is 2880? That seems low but most people don't think my area even requires a softener but it does make a difference. Someone said that if I had the electronic controls I could get closer to my actual needs. Another issue I guess with this valve is that it only regens by water use and has no timer override so that too might work into an issue for me by not regenerating often enough if set to my actual needs.

Thanks so much for your help,

John

[Gary Slusser]

The 2880 is your actual need and you round it up to 3K and set your salt dose lbs to regenerate 3K or as close as you can get with your type of mechanical control valve.

[Driller1]

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the reply..I had posted this also over at Terry Loves site so have some information they have been asking.
The tanks are 10" diameter and 48" tall. They had me look on the valve for the GPM, I can't read the drain output but the brine output says 0.50 GPM, 1.25 Lb salt minimum.
I also posted pictures of the current dial settings and pin locations. You can see that posting here:

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?35451-Is-there-any-way-to-tell-a-water-softeners-capacity-by-tank-size/page2

I suspect my softener is set way too strong for the water we have here as it was originally installed in Las Vegas where the water is much harder. I am using Potassium (I am on a aerobic septic system) only two adults in the house.

I don't know the age of this water softener, the house it was in was built in 2000 I think so I don't know the condition of the resins inside.

I found your site, and the helpful info and have been trying to figure out my unit, and needs. It appears if I am calculating correctly, my needed capacity is 2880? That seems low but most people don't think my area even requires a softener but it does make a difference. Someone said that if I had the electronic controls I could get closer to my actual needs. Another issue I guess with this valve is that it only regens by water use and has no timer override so that too might work into an issue for me by not regenerating often enough if set to my actual needs.

Thanks so much for your help,

John

Beware.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/plumbing/terry-love-plumbing/terry-love-plumbing-terryl-28223.htm

[Gary Slusser]

Beware.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/plumbing...rryl-28223.htm

Thank you.

[NH Master]

Driller, you don't have to worry about Jonjon, he is already familiar with the situation. LOL

[Driller1]

Driller, you don't have to worry about Jonjon, he is already familiar with the situation. LOL

OK....

[Gary Slusser]

OK....

You two are like spoiled little kids.

[Driller1]

You two are like spoiled little kids.

Does that make you the "boogie man"???

[jonjonbear]

Thank you.

Thanks Gary for the adjustment numbers you gave me over there.
Second, I did take advice over there on a Toto toilet. 400.00+ toilet that I absolutely HATE. Bought the other two at costco for a fraction of the price that work much better. Problem with the toto is, because of the skirt you have to drill holes in the floor so your pretty much stuck with it.

Thanks again for the help on my softener,

John

[Gary Slusser]

I don't know about toilets except that most are white.

You're welcome.

BTW, I think I saw a number of NHMaster's alter ego posts there have been deleted.

[NH Master]

I think you need a new model, your old one isn't keeping up.

[Gary Slusser]

I think you need a new model, your old one isn't keeping up.

You need to get out of your make believe world and get in touch with reality. You've been caught.

[NH Master]

Good luck with that Chief cause it ain't working for ya. LOL Any other wild acuzations you want to try? LOL

If nothing else you do amuse us all