Fleck Model
9000 Twin Tank Softener Control Setting
Set
up of the Fleck model 9000
water softener control valve is a common question here
at Water Value. The water
softener system comes complete with a pretty decent
service
manual too but sometimes it becomes necessary to "translate"
if you will, so here is a step by step guide that you might
want to use along with your service manual.
First,
make sure that your Fleck 9000 is unplugged or disconnected
from electric current, then on the back side of the control
valve you'll find a black cable running into the top of
the meter dome. Remove it from the meter dome. Now open
the right-side front panel on the 9000. It swings out just
like a hinged door. You will see a white plastic gear in
there with rolled-steel pins in it. The wheel can be removed
from its retainer by compressing the clasps in the center
of the wheel, but it is advisable to work on it while it
is in place.
Because
the calculations used for programming the 9000 require you
to know your "salt setting", you will need to
determine your system's salt setting. You can determine
your salt setting based on the brine tank refill flow control
or B.L.F.C. (brine line flow control). If your BLFC is blue,
your gpm is 0.5. A black BLFC provides for 1.0 gpm of brine
line flow. These BLFCs are sized by the factory for the
size of mineral tank you have chosen. Tanks that are from
6-inches diameter on up to 10-inch diameter will have a
blue (0.5gpm) BLFC button. If your tanks range is diameter
from 12-inches in diameter on up to 16-inches, your BLFC
will be black (1.0gpm). If your have a red BLFC, you should
call us for setting information.
For
this example, we'll use a 0.5gpm (blue) BLFC button. The
Fleck 9000 uses rolled steel pins inserted into the while
plastic timer wheel referred to earlier. Each of those pins
is equal to 2 minutes on that wheel. Because a gallon of
water will dissolve 3 pounds of salt, and we'll assume your
Fleck 9000 has a 0.5gpm BLFC, it would take 2 minutes to
allow enough time for a gallon of brine water (3-pounds
of salt) to pass through. So if you need 8 pounds of salt
per regeneration: 8 / 3 = number of gallons (2.7) of brine
water. With a 0.5gpm BLFC, the brine cycle will need to
last almost 6 minutes. Because each roll pin is worth 2
minutes, you'll need to place 3 pins on the brining section
of the white wheel. Nothing beats needle-nosed pliers for
this job.
The
service manual mentions something important here; the factory
will already have this set up if you bought your softener
from Water Value, but in case you didn't, there should be
two pins at the end of the brine refill section on the white
wheel to stop the refill cycle.
If
you removed your white wheel, clip it back into place now.
Make sure that the end of the black cable that goes to the
meter dome is secured to the back of the swing-out panel
and close the panel. It will snap into place. Do not connect
the meter cable to the meter dome just yet.
Here
is where many people get confused so we'll use an example
straight out of the service manual but we'll keep it simple.
The salt setting we chose of 8 pounds is capable of regenerating
24,000 grains of hardness per one cubic foot of
resin. If your softener has a volume capacity of 32,000
grains (one cubic foot of resin) in each tank (not combined)
then 8 pounds of salt will handle 24,000 grains of hardness
per tank and that is how the Fleck 9000 regenerates; one
tank at a time. If the hardness rating of your water is
24 grains per gallon (gpg), and we have an 8 pound salt
setting which is capable of treating 24,000 grains of hardness
(that's 24,000 / 24), your capacity setting is
1000 gallons. In other words; after 1000 gallons of water
pass through your system, one of the tanks will be taken
out of service and regenerated while the other tank is put
in service. So dialing in 1000 on the control will initiate
a regeneration every time 1000 gallons has passed through
the meter. But it gets a little more complicated than that.
Because the Fleck 9000 uses treated water to regenerate
the out-of-service tank, we'll need to account for that
water also. We will use a different calculation than Fleck
does in their manual. We are going to stick with the 1 cu/ft
(32,000 grain) capacity system.
To
calculate the water used per regeneration, we'll need to
use the service manual's tables for flow rates. We will
time each cycle and add them all up to get the total gallons
used. We will need to know the backwash time and flow rate,
the brine and rinse time and flow rate, the rapid rinse
time and flow rate and the brine tank refill time (which
we set earlier) and flow rate.
Backwash
time: 8 minutes at 2.0 gpm = 16 gallons
Brine
& Rinse time: 54 minutes at 0.33 gpm = 17.8 gallons
Rapid
Rinse time: 6 minutes at 2.0 gpm = 12 gallons
Brine
Refill time: 6 minutes at 0.5 gpm = 3 gallons
So
our total gallons used per regeneration is 48.8 or 49 gallons.
This amount must be subtracted from our 1000 gallons of
treatable hardness. So now we can set the reserve at 951.
You do this by pulling out on the meter program inner wheel
until it turns freely, then line 951 on the dial up opposite
the white dot on the outer edge of the wheel.
"Programming"
is done. Now you can plug the meter cable into the top of
the meter dome, open your bypass valve if the system was
bypassed and plug it in.
To
summarize, what we are basically trying to accomplish is
to find the number of gallons of untreated water that will
flow through your water softener before the resin bed becomes
saturated with water hardness. We take that number and dial
it into the softener's control valve which will take care
of the rest.
