Category Archives: Installation and setup

Brine Tank Overflow

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A widely common problem people have with their water softeners is too much water going back to the brine tank after regeneration. This can happen with a 15 year old softener or a brand new one. There is likely only one cause; a leak somewhere. Finding that leak is the trick. So if you’ve searched and found this article, you have a problem with your softener’s brine tank over filling. Therefore, you do not want to have to read through the mechanics of the brine system of your water softener, you just want to fix it. So I will try to get right to the point here.

First of all, if your water softener is brand new, the leak is not caused by your brand new control valve. Do not bother to call whomever you purchased it from and demand a warranty replacement. You will still have the same problem with a brand new controller. The leak is likely in the line leading from the control valve to the brine tank. There are only two fittings in this line, so check both of those. Even the plastic fitting inside the brine tank’s brine well needs to be “wrench tight” not finger tight.

If your water softener is older, say 2 or 3 years, then it’s likely you need to clean the brine injector assembly and the air-check at the bottom of the brine tank’s brine well. The brine well is a large diameter tube that runs down the inside of the brine tank. The air-check will be in the bottom of that. If you have an Autotrol model 255 control valve, you will not have an air-check in the brine tank, but there will be a brine pickup there which should be checked and cleaned of any debris if necessary.

The air-check is simply a plastic ball in the bottom of a serrated tube. The ball closes off the backflow of brine water out of the brine tank. In other words, the control valve does not “know” when the brine tank is empty. This air-check mechanism takes care of sealing off flow from the brine tank. If it does not seat properly, there will be a vacuum leak. The service manuals of all makes and models of water softeners we carry deal directly with cleaning of these air-checks and brine injectors. After making sure the brine line is not leaking, the air-check and brine injector are the next items to focus your attention. They should be clean of any brine or debris buildup.

Finally, all water softeners sold by Water Value come with a safety overflow float assembly. If yours has a leak where the brine pickup tube connects to the safety float shutoff, you will eventually end up with an overfilled brine tank. If the safety shutoff valve itself is leaking, you will also end up with an overflowing brine tank. Check that pickup tube and float assembly for leaks. A very easy way to do this is to activated your safety shutoff valve when the water softener is in brine refill mode. Simply pull up on the float assembly rod to activate the shutoff. If you see water dripping out, then you have a shutoff valve leak.

If a control valve has a brine draw cycle time of 8 minutes, and there is a vacuum leak somewhere in the brining system, that 8 minutes might not be long enough to draw all of the brine water out of the tank and into the softener’s resin bed for regeneration, leaving some brine in the brine tank. Then when the control valve reaches its final brine refill cycle, it will run for 8 minutes to replace the water it initially drew up out of the brine tank. If the brine tank still has water inside because of the vacuum leak, too much water will be sent to the brine tank. This is what causes brine tank overflow. It’s also possible that it could take several regenerations over several weeks time to realize this condition.

The preventive maintenance section that comes with these softener systems’ service manuals explains how to clean your specific brine valve and air-check. Do this brine system cleaning once per year, and you should never have brine tank overflow problems again.

Logix Manuals on Backorder

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It appears that the service manuals for all of our Autotrol LOGIX controlled softeners/auto-filters were out of stock. We were not informed of this until now (2 weeks later). So to everyone that ordered a LOGIX controlled system; your service manuals are on the way.

These manuals are normally very well stocked, but even the manufacturer can run out from time to time. After all, I’m certain they do not print these publications themselves, rather they have a printing company do it. While it is rare that any of the water treatment systems listed on this web site ever run out of stock, it can happen. We are normally notified of the shortage and pass that information on to you via your email address. In this case, because the manufacturer also includes a quick reference sheet for setup, they correctly assumed that the customer would be able to get up and running without the entire 84 page manual. We have informed them that if there is an outage of service manuals in the future, they should let us know.

Even though there were no complaints or phone calls from customers informing us of the missing manuals, we sincerely hope there were no difficulties or delays caused by this temporary shortage.

Brine Tank Sizing

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The brine tank (or salt tank) size can be important when selecting the water softener for your needs. Some people prefer a smaller tank due to the fact that their softener has been over-sized to allow for higher flow rate requirements. Others prefer a larger brine tank because their water is high in hardness and a smaller tank would need to be filled too often. Others simply want to fill their tanks with salt only once per year.

For those reasons, Water Value provides brine tank size selection for most of our softener models on the same page that you purchase the system from. Smaller 24,000 grain capacity softeners will only have the standard 15x17x36 rectangular brine tank available, but the larger 48,000 grain and 64,000 grain can be upgraded to the 18×33, 18×40 tanks. The commercial size 24×41 brine tank should only be used on high volume applications. This brine tank does not have a salt grid available for it and the color is black (charcoal) only.

The standard 15x17x36 rectangular brine tank will hold up to 275 pounds of salt pellets or 6-40 pound bags. The 18×33 round brine tanks hold up to 375 pounds of salt or 9-40 pound bags. The 18×40 round brine tanks can hold up to 450 pounds of salt or 11-40 pound bags. Finally, the commercial 24×41 round brine tanks hold up to 700 pounds of salt pellets which equates to over 17-40 pounds bags of salt. These volumes do not take into account the 4-inches that the brine grid takes up on the bottom of the brine tank.

Standard 15x17x36 rectangular brine tank. Due to the fact that there are so many different sizes of brine tanks, the manufacturer of the safety float assembly, which is included with all water softener systems we carry, require that the float rod be trimmed to size for your particular tank. Detailed instructions for trimming this float are written on a bright pink tag which is attached to the float assembly. We also have instructions for trimming this float rod on our Installation Example section.

Some brine tanks are also available in different colors. The common colors can include blue, almond or black. You can coordinate the color of your brine tank to compliment the color of your softener system’s media tank. For example, a blue tank jacket can look good with a blue brine tank, but an almond tank jacket looks great with a black brine tank.Blue tank jacket with blue brine tank.

The standard 15x17x36 brine tank cover comes with a molded handle for cover removal while the round brine tank covers do not have a handle. The round covers are quite easy to remove even without a molded handle. Most of the softeners we carry come default with blue media tanks, so customers tend to order blue brine tanks. If your brine tank is going to be located in a highly visible area (garage, carport or main floor utility), you will probably want to order a color combination which will look right for the location. But if your system is going to be located in a utility room in the basement, color combinations probably do not matter much to you in this case.

All of our residential brine tanks also have an overflow elbow fitting on the side of the brine tank. We are often asked what this fitting is for. This fitting is to be connected to a 1/2-inch drain line in the case of a power failure while the control valve is running through a regeneration process. While obviously rare, it could happen. Because all of our water softener brine tanks come with a safety overflow device, some local plumbing codes do not require that this overflow fitting be connected to a drain, but we recommend that you do so anyway.

Softener and Backwashing Filter Control Valve Replacement

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The main component of your water softener or auto-backwashing filter system is the control valve. It initiates and controls the regeneration and/or backwashing of the water treatment media. The media requires regeneration or backwashing to remove any contaminants it was designed to filter out of the water. In the case of softener resin media, the control valve regenerates it by exchanging the hardness ions trapped by the resin with sodium ions and rinses the hardness down the drain. For filter media, the controller backwashes it to remove any trapped particles and to refresh the media bed which prevents water channels from forming. Water channeling would drastically reduce the filter media’s effectiveness.

Over time, control valve components can wear out or break down. While the professional grade controllers we offer are less likely to malfunction, standard consumer style controllers often do fail. Replacing parts on these controllers is usually quite simple, but over time can become economically impractical. This would be a good time to consider replacement of the entire control valve. But before you do, there are some points to consider.

First of all, you should have some experience with water treatment equipment before you begin a project such as this. Either you installed your water softener/filter yourself, or you are an experienced “do-it-yourselfer”. The manufacturers of the Fleck, Autotrol and Clack control valves we carry and support recommend a professionally trained service person do the job. There are other considerations as well. The water’s flow direction on the old controller you are replacing might be opposite of the new controller you are considering. If that is the case, your water pipes will need to be re-plumbed.

Another consideration is the size of the riser tube or “distributor” that runs down the length of the media tank. The majority of the control valves we have available come default with a 1.05-inch diameter opening to accept a 1.05-inch diameter distributor tube, but some older models used to be set up with 13/16-inch distributors. The newer 1.05-inch control valves will not seal properly over those. And the newer Fleck 7000 accepts a 32mm distributor tube which will not work with a standard 1.05-inch distributor without and adapter.

If you purchase a new control valve from us, you will need to know the diameter of your media tank. This information allows the manufacturer to configure the control valve for your softener or filter. Also, control valves come in basically two configurations: softener or filter. Softener control valves can be metered or “on demand” while filter control valve should not. Filter control valves are designed to schedule backwashing over a user-defined period of days rather than the amount of water that flows through the tank like a softener does. There are a few good reasons for this, but the main one is that filter media is of a different consistency than softener media. It needs to be backwashed on a regular basis to avoid water channeling. Some filter control valves also use “brine” injectors while others do not. All softener control valves require a brine injector system.

There are a few nation wide water treatment companies out there that produce tanks and control valves that do not conform to industry standards. For a standard residential water treatment application, the threads on the media tank are 2.5 inches in diameter by 8 threads per inch. All of the residential control valves we carry use these dimensions. Larger commercial controllers are designed for 4-inch tank openings. Some of the national companies will use a different style of thread to prevent industry standard control valves from being used on their equipment. For residential applications, make sure your media tank’s threads are 2.5 by 8.

Removing The Old Control Valve

Hopefully, your water treatment system will have some sort of water bypass system in place, either a bypass valve or a 3-valve shutoff. If not, you will need to shut the water off for the entire house in order to disconnect the control valve from the pipes. Pressure inside the control valve and media tank can be released after the water is shut off or bypassed by manually initiating a regeneration or backwash. See your water treatment systems instruction manual for the proper method. Once water pressure is released from the system, you can disconnect the water pipes and unscrew the control valve from the media tank. Be careful when removing the control valve that you are replacing. The distributor tube that runs up the center of the media tank is held in place with at least one o-ring inside the control valve and there is nothing holding it down inside the media tank except for the media. If this distributor tube is pulled out from the bottom of the media tank, it can prove very difficult to get it back down in there. When lifting the control valve from the top of the media tank, rock it back and forth to help the internal o-ring release the riser tube.

Attaching The New Control Valve

Check the top of the riser tube to ensure there are no cracks or damage which could lead to leaks, then make sure the top of the tank itself is clear of media debris. Even a small particle can prevent the control valve o-ring from sealing properly, resulting in a leak. Place the new control valve over the media tank with the distributor tube centered into the receptacle in the bottom of the  valve. It should slide right in. Then screw the control valve down tight but do not use a wrench or other tool. The control valve’s o-ring will seal very well when it is hand-tightened.
If you purchased the exact same controller you are replacing, then chances are the pipes and drain line will already be set to connect. Otherwise, you may need to use a different drain line fitting and possibly redo your water pipes.

Your control valve will now need setup. If it is an electronic control valve such as the Fleck 7000 or Fleck SE, Autotrol LOGIX or Clack WS-1, you will need to program it for your particular water situation. Softener control valves will need to know how much compensated hardness is in the water for example. You can migrate the settings from your old controller as well. In either case, you will need to refer to the service manual for your control valve for programming or setup instructions.

Because tanks have such a long lifespan, you basically now have a new water treatment system with warranty. Often times this can be achieved at nearly half the cost of a whole new softener and up to 30% less than a whole new backwashing filter system.

Top Distributor Basket For Added Value

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Every so often, a call will come in from a recent customer who purchased a water softener or automatic filter system complaining that the media, which normally resides inside of the media tank, is coming out of the water faucets in the home. They wonder what is wrong with their brand new equipment. Well, nothing is wrong with the equipment. When replacing an existing softener or filter, it’s important to make note of the old system’s water flow direction. Often times the older equipment has a water flow direction that is the exact opposite of the new system. Inevitably, the newer water treatment system will end up connected backwards. The feed water will be connected to the outlet port and the inlet port will be connected to the downstream line.

What happens can be a nightmare. The water will flow backwards into the softener or auto-filter, running down through the distributor tube all the way to the bottom of the tank. It will come out of the distributor’s basket to flow upwards through the media invariably dragging much of it along up to the top of the tank and out of the control valve which will then run through the pipes and out of the faucets in the home. These faucets will become clogged with the media and eventually stop flowing completely. Worse, the media can end up inside of a water heater tank where it will settle on the bottom and become completely inaccessible. If it is water softener media beads, they can melt from the heat of the water heater’s burner and melt, potentially ruining the water heater. What a mess!

Upper distributor basket, just in case.For those reasons and more, Water Value Company is now including top distributor baskets with every water softener and automatic filter system we carry. The only exceptions will be softeners configured with the optional Turbulator, which already has an upper basket connected to it. These upper baskets will not be attached to the bottom of the control valve when they arrive at your home. You will need to insert them into the slots on the bottom of the control valve and twist it clockwise to seat them in place.

While these top distributor baskets are not necessary for 99% of the installations, it’s a good feeling to know that even if you make a mistake and plumb the water to your system backwards, this simple item could save you a great deal of grief should something go wrong. This is just one of the many reasons for choosing Water Value Company as your water treatment equipment supplier.

Local Installer or Dealer

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So you’ve done the research, tested your water and chose your water treatment equipment, but who do you get to install it? Who is going to service it when it breaks down?

For the most part, the customers who purchase from Water Value install their own systems and as far as working on them goes, all of the equipment we carry is Professional Grade. In other words, it is designed to NOT break down. The vast majority of our customers do not need to worry about repair, only some simple preventive maintenance steps which are outlined in the service manuals.

But what about all the money that can be saved over buying from a local dealer? Well, you can save a great deal of money by purchasing this equipment through us or another online volume dealer, but there’s a reason for that. First of all, the number of systems – water softeners, whole-house filters, UV filters, chlorinators, reverse osmosis – that we sell per day is often greater than a local “hands on” dealer will sell in a month or more. That is why the manufacturers give us such a break on the price, but the local water treatment dealer is going to be equally as proficient as us at water treatment system design and operation. The big difference is, they are a short drive away. It is likely that Water Value Company is over 1000 miles away from you. We cannot put these systems in for you. We can only offer support over the phone or via email. We cannot be there to examine your system, determine the problem (if any) and affect a solution. If there are any problems, we have to rely on your senses and descriptive observations. That is why sometimes, no matter how much money you can save, you should also consider a local water treatment dealer.

Here is an example: A customer sends an email to us explaining that his media tank is leaking. He purchased the water softener five years ago and it’s still under the ten year warranty. “What are you going to do about it” he asks? Well, first we have to determine that there is actually a defect in the tank. The warranty covers manufacturing defects, not sudden impact or freezing several years later. So the customer is asked a series of questions designed to determine the cause for the concern for a leak. Often times, the customer will be asked to take a digital photo of the problem, in this case the leak on the tank, and send it in to us.

After asking these questions, the customer does not have a digital camera and is unable to send in a photo to us. His description of the puddle of water is dead on, but he cannot see a crack or breach in the tank. So is this a defective tank with a leak hidden under the base of the tank? Not in this case. It turns out that after heavy water flow for added irrigation purposes, his tank (and water pipes) produced condensation from the rapid temperature changes. It took nearly a week of correspondence to determine this fact. Near the end, the customer was frustrated thinking that we were not going to honor the manufacturer’s warranty, when in fact we have every intention of covering those warranties. You can choose to contact the manufacturer directly, but they would insist that you send the defective component in to them for evaluation which we will not normally do. But we will perform our examination via email or over the phone.

Not only did we determine that the tank was sound, but we saved the customer a great deal of effort transferring the media over to a replacement tank. Things are not always as they appear and most people are prone to think the worst when something goes wrong.

The point is, if we were able to visit the customer’s home and examine his system, we could have determined the cause of the puddle right away. That is why the local dealers must charge more. They have much higher overhead costs and they do not get the price breaks that we do.

So if you can handle the minor plumbing involved with installation and you can research enough reliable information to make an educated decision, then Water Value Company can save you a great deal of money. But if you have had a visit or two from your local water treatment dealer and had them determine the right solution, it is really not fair to them to purchase from us and ask them to install it. Most local water treatment dealers will want to install their own equipment, even if it is the same as we sell.

For the past 4 years, we have had a section of our web site set aside for water treatment installation professionals where they can add their business contact information and location. So far there have been only a few takers. This is because the local water treatment business feels very strongly that the online volume sales of water treatment equipment is taking away from their “bread and butter”. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a simple fact that some customers are willing to take a “hands on” approach to their water treatment needs and save themselves a great deal of money in the process, as opposed to hiring someone else to do it. I, for example, do all of my own work on my car. I have hired garages in the past to do things like brakes, water pump replacement, oil changes, etc., but I have yet to find value with hiring someone else to do something I can do for hundreds less. But when it came time to fix the leak in my house roof, I hired a professional. Yes, I could have saved hundreds doing it myself, but I would have had to put up with a real mess up there for several days – praying there would be no rain – to fix it while I worked a full-time job. The professionals had it done in a matter of hours.

The main reason I got into this water treatment equipment business was because I had a friend who worked for a national water treatment company. He told me he could get rid of the iron in my water. I gave him about $1500 and he dropped off a water softener. Yes, I could get it installed, but that would cost more. Because that $1500 was about all I had, I resolved to put it in myself (yes, my friend helped, but it took a case of beer). Once I was done and realized how easy it was to do, I knew there had to be others out there like me that can handle the job themselves who needed a source of equipment with no strings attached.

That is what Water Value Company does. We supply the equipment, advice, experience, diagnostics, prompt service and delivery along with great value for your money. Doesn’t that $1500 I spent on my first softener sound kind of high? Well, that national franchise my friend worked for was paying just about that much for those softeners. My friend got me a great price. They were selling as many of those systems in one year as we do in one week, so naturally Water Value is going to get a bigger break on the price. But we cannot replace the local water treatment expert.

So if you have researched and identified your water treatment needs and can handle the installation and setup yourself, Water Value can save you hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.

Water Treatment Questions & Answers

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The following are quotes from our Contact form with answers to real questions. All personal information has been omitted and some spelling and grammar mistakes were corrected.

Question: Do you ship to Canada?  Ontario specifically?  I have tried and tried to source a system like your 56MR400 or a 70MR400 locally but despite living in a “hard water” area, choices are few and “wholesale” is non-existent.
I appreciate your feedback

Answer: There certainly are water treatment dealerships in Ontario. Their prices are higher than ours because of the import duty applied to US made products when they cross the border. Also, local “hands on” water treatment has more of a cost over-head but it’s usually worth it. Your system is installed and set up for you and if there are any problems, all you need to do is call the dealer. If you are handy and can install and setup one of our systems, then you’ll be very happy with our service, but be sure to add the cost of the import fee to the cost of your order. And yes, we are now shipping to most parts of Canada.

Question – Regarding the size of the by-pass valve tube connectors. The diameter of the pvc pipe connecting the component parts of our water system (from bladder tank to inline filter and house)is 1 9/32″. Should I be ordering the 1 1/4″ connectors? Thank you

Answer: Choose the tube connector that is equal to or larger than your water pipes. It is better to end up with a larger connector than a smaller one. If you choose a smaller one, then you could possibly restrict the flow of your water system. And it’s important to keep in mind that with most of our water softener/filter systems, the connector is either brass/copper sweat or standard pipe thread. In either case, you will be required to obtain some sort of fitting/adapter from a plumbing supply store to complete the connection. The manufacturers of the equipment we carry provide a wide range of tube connectors, but with rare exceptions, you will need an adapter.

Question: I’m building a new home (7 months out) before I need a system. We have very hard water here. I was going to go with a Water Softener unit. Will the FLECK carbon system remove or reduce the hard water deposits a well as a water softener(salt) system. Also if so do I need to install a pre filter for a whole house system? Since it’s a carbon based system I don’t have to consider a RO unit, Right?

Answer: A whole-house carbon filter is a great idea. It enhances even well water and improves the taste, but it does not remove the contaminants that a reverse osmosis system will, and it certainly will not do anything to remove hardness. A carbon filter system is best used to remove chlorine and reduce fluoride. Chlorine is great for keeping municipal water supplies free of bacteria and algae, but it makes water taste bad. The activated carbon media will greatly improve the taste of the water. A reverse osmosis system will remove all contaminants and usually requires a softener as pre-treatment to remove hardness.

Question: I have a customer who bought 2 Fleck 5600 tanks instead of a dual 9000 unit and wants me to connect them together, parallel should work I think, any suggestions?

Answer: No, two softeners in parallel will not work like a Fleck model 9000, but they will work. The Fleck 9000 automatically alternates between its two media tanks so that one is always in use and available while the other is in standby mode. One media tank can be regenerated while the other is in use. With a two softener parallel system, you are using both softeners at the same time. If they were to both backwash at the same time, you would be out of treated water. The Fleck 5600 is designed to schedule its regeneration at 2am. You would need to offset the time on one of them to prevent this from happening.

Question:  Any recomendations for a well water system with 5 family members?  Will the Clack system work?  Regardless of which system I purchase, can I get replacement parts from you?

Answer: The Clack system will certainly work, but you would first need to know how much hardness is in your water before you can properly size the system. Once you know your water’s hardness content, the number of people using water in the home and iron content (if any), then you can use our softener sizing chart to determine the size you’ll need. Beyond that, check for flow rates. The Fleck 5600 has lower flow rates than the Clack WS-1. If you need higher flow rates, go with the Clack. Because the Clack systems are relatively new (to us), we do not have repair parts listed for them at this time. Rest assured that we fully support any product we have listed on the web site.

Question: Info: Autotrol 55-MR-320
-Total height I will need to install/maintain unit (understairs) of my home
-there is a toilet right behind the wall, can I just drain the brine line into the tank or toilet?
-also if I have to go up high and over a hallway to drain the brine line, I need to go up ten feet or so.  Is there enough pressure to do that?

Answer: All of the dimensions for all of our softener/filter systems are listed right next to the item. There are also plenty of links to the owner’s manual, specifications and for most products, installation instructions. Please be sure to read those. They do not recommend draining the system to a toilet. The drain line (not the brine line) is under pressure. The pressure comes from your water system. Only you can determine your water pressure. While is is always more desirable to run a drain line down, in certain cases these drain lines can actually run up hill, but 10 feet sounds like quite a run, so it would be best to try and find some other solution first.

Question: Fleck, Clack, Autotrol: how do I pick which brand?  And are they all made in the USA?  I don’t want any made in China products in my house.  Finally, who honors the five/ten year warrentees?  How do you get a hold of the right people?

Answer: None of our products are made in China. Some components may be manufactured in Canada, but everything else is made in the US. These products – Fleck, Clack and Autotrol – are professional grade and the absolute best you can buy. There is nothing better. To help you choose which one of these brands, go to our “What’s The Best Water Softener” section. Warranty is simple, we support the manufacturer’s warranty. You can go through Water Value Company if you have a problem, or the manufacturer. An important point to make here is that this equipment is designed for the water treatment professional and quite simply does not break down. We have been contacted for what were perceived as warranty issues, but after evaluation – either by return or troubleshooting – were not found to be manufacturing defects.

Examples of perceived warranty issues include, a leak that developed due to impact with an automobile mirror frame. Sorry, that’s not a defect. Another interesting issue involved a radically low pH feed water problem. After about 2 years, a Fleck 5600 was returned because of a leaking piston. The pH level of the supply water was well below the specifications for that controller. Fleck covered the piston and seal kit replacement anyway, but the customer was warned that unless he treated the water for low pH, the controller would probably start leaking in another 2 years. Finally, no Autotrol warranty issues have occurred since the introduction of the Logix controllers. The older 460i models did tend to burn out in electrical storms (which is actually not a defect, but it was covered anyway).

Fleck, Clack, Autotrol, Microline, Nimbus, HM Digital, GE Water & Process Technologies, Structural and Nelsen Corp. all maintain very solid warranties against defects. When you purchase from us, you can rest assured that there is no better equipment available.

Installation Notes

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More and more often as sales increase, we are asked about installation instructions. Surprisingly, this is most often after the equipment is received by the customer. If you are able to locate and purchase the water treatment equipment that you need, rest assured that you will be able to find setup and assembly instructions for it on the web site as well.

Installation instructions do not come with our water softeners and automatic filter systems. The service manual that is included with them is written and published by the manufacturer and for the most part deal with the control valves only. They will only generally tell you how to connect it to your water supply, and there’s a very good reason for this. Every installation situation is going to be different. There are different plumbing materials and different plumbing codes for different parts of the country. While the Fleck, Autotrol and Clack equipment we carry will always meet or exceed any local plumbing requirement, the method of connecting them to your water pipes may not. For instance, some locations still allow the draining of water softeners to the ground surface, but this is not allowed in most areas. It is recommended and in most cases required, that you run your water softener drain line to an approved drain pipe with an air-gap. But for this reason and many others, it is impractical to compose installation instructions that are universal.

For system and equipment assembly, we have detailed instructions with photos available on the web site and a link to that location on every section of the web site that this information pertains to. For instance, if you are purchasing a Fleck 7000 water softener, there is are assembly and setup links right next to the  “Buy” button. Another example is the Fleck 5600. Again, next to the “Buy” button there are links to the service manual, installation and assembly, specifications, configuration and options information and on that particular model, highly detailed assembly and hook up information.

For the rest of the water treatment equipment we sell, the manufacturer’s installation instructions should be used. Products such as chlorinators, UV filters and reverse osmosis systems come with complete and detailed instructions. If you do not understand something or need clarification with these instructions, please do not hesitate to contact us. All of the products we carry have been thoroughly tested and evaluated by us, and often times used by us.

But if you have questions pertaining to your specific plumbing configuration – while we do employ a master plumber for our area – please contact a plumber local to you. While we may have a great deal of experience “hooking up” our equipment in the West Michigan area, we cannot keep track of the various plumbing codes throughout the country.

In the same regard, even though Water Value Company cannot maintain a database of plumbing codes throughout the U.S., the manufacturer of the water treatment equipment does, and you can rest assured that the equipment we sell here will meet or exceed any local water treatment equipment requirements.

Replacing Your Water Softener/Filter Control Valve

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Most water softener and auto-backwashing filter systems are quite simple; they are comprised of a tank which holds the resin or filter media that your water passes through. The resin or media works its “magic” and your water comes out treated.

But softener resin eventually becomes saturated with hardness, so too does filter media with whatever it is designed to remove. These media require backwashing to remove trapped contaminants. Greensand filters and softeners also require regeneration. It is the control valve that performs this backwash and/or regeneration. The control valve determines the time of which day to perform this media maintenance and also channels water during different cycles to achieve a fresh media bed. In the case of a water softener, it also draws up saturated salt water (brine) which is then sent into the media tank to release the hardness ions from the resin beads. The softener control valve then replaces the spent brine water by sending the correct amount back into the brine tank. Softener control valves can also be metered (on demand) so that they only perform their regeneration when needed.

As you can tell, the filter/softener control valve is the most complicated part of a water treatment appliance, and once in a while, they break down due to friction or simply age. While most control valves are of average quality and can be repaired only so many times before becoming too expensive to keep in service, the professional grade control valves we have at Water Value Co. are designed to last indefinitely. If a part wears out on a Fleck, Autotrol or Clack valve, it’s a simple matter to replace that part.

Common control valves on the other hand may not be worth repairing in the long run. If you find that your softener’s control valve needs a repair kit every couple of years, you might want to consider a professional grade controller. In that case, you can pick one up from our Softener Parts section for about the price of having your old one repaired a couple of times. But there are some things to consider before doing so.

First of all, you will need to know what size tank to configure your control valve for. The manufacturer needs to know what size tank this control valve will be working with. You will also need to know if the replacement control valve will work with your tank and equipment. All of the control valves we carry for residential water treatment use standard 2.5 inch bases which screw on to the top of the tank. The treads are 8 count meaning 8 threads per inch (pretty big threads!).

The base of the control valve also has a hole in the center of it to receive the distributor tube. The distributor tube runs up and down the center of the media tank. With one exception, our control valves are configured for the industry standard 1.05-inch distributor – sometimes referred to as 1-inch or 1.050-inch. If you have a 13/16-inch diameter distributor tube, you will require a reducer adapter. Autotrol control valves have this adapter available. Fleck control valves are currently using a PVC bushing glued onto the distributor tube.

The hole in the base of the Fleck model 7000 control valve is by default 32mm which is much larger than the standard 1.05-inch distributor. If you are upgrading your control valve from another model to the 7000, you will need to specify this. That way we can include their 1.05-inch reducing adapter.

Another item to consider is the water’s flow direction on your old system. All of these control valves have the water inlet on the right-hand back side as you face the front of them. Some control valves may have their water inlet on the opposite side, so some re-plumbing may be in order.

Finally, there are some nationally known companies out there that are using non-standard threads on their tanks and valves. They are squared off threads where the industry standard threads are more tapered. These tapered threads will not work on a tank with squared threads.

Regeneration and Backwash Time Of Day

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All of the brands of control valves for water softeners and automatic backwashing filters that we carry have a factory default setting for the time of day that the control valve will schedule a backwash or regeneration. That time of day is 2:00 AM. With the computer controlled electronic valves, the backwash/regenerate time of day is one of the first prompts you will run into when programming your valve. With the mechanical control valves such as the Fleck 2510 and 5600, it’s not so obvious.Fleck 5600 Control Valve.
Note the little red button on the front of the mechanical version of the Fleck 5600 control valve. Press that button in and hold it while you rotate the outer wheel – or gear – on the center front of the valve until the correct time of day appears in the notched window at the bottom of the dial. So once the correct time of day is set on this controller, when a backwash or regeneration is required, this valve will initiate it at 2:00 AM.

Sometimes it is convenient to have the control valve backwash/regenerate at a different time. During backwash/regeneration, treated water is unavailable. So if you are taking a bath or shower while the controller is doing its thing, you will be filling the hot water heater’s tank with untreated water. For some water treatment applications, this could cause scale buildup inside the water heater. So if you regularly wash laundry or bathe between 2:00 and 3:30 AM, you might want to consider changing the time of backwash/regeneration.

As stated above, changing the backwash/regeneration time on the electronic control valves is pretty easy. Simply go into setup mode (accessing setup mode is covered in your service manual) and adjust the backwash/regeneration time. But the mechanical control valves do not have a programmable display, so you must adjust the time of day instead. For example: if you would rather that your control valve backwash/regenerate at 11:00 PM, you have to tell it that the time of day is 3 hours earlier than it truly is. “Seriously? Is that how it’s done?” Yes. If you’re reading this at 5:00 PM and you want your softener/auto-filter to backwash at 11:00 PM, you would set the time of day – as explained above – to 2:00 PM.

For the most part, you will not need to adjust the factory default’s 2:00 AM setting, but if you work 2nd or 3rd shift, 2:00 AM might not be convenient for you and you may want to change the backwash/regeneration time. Also, if you have both a softener and an auto-backwashing filter, or even two auto filters, you will want to offset the backwash/regeneration time on one of them so that they are not both flushing water at the same time, which might overwhelm your drain system. Keep in mind that these controllers do not schedule backwash/regeneration every day of the week, so the odds of two different control valves scheduling the event for the same day are marginal, but it’s common practice to play it safe.