Fleck 5600 Water Softener Test & Review

Begining this week, we will start testing and reviewing the products that we sell. And probably the best selling water softener system we have is the Fleck 5600. The Fleck 5600 Econominder to be exact.

The "Econominder" designation indicates a metered or "on-demand" water softener control valve. The other option is a timered control valve meaning you set the controller up to regenerate or "refresh" the resin bed at regular intervals such as every other day, every 3rd day, every 4th day, etc. The Econominder regenerates only when needed. You supply your water's hardness information and the number of people in your household, and the Econominder keeps track of the water you use and schedules automatic regeneration accordingly.

This system was installed in April of 2001 in a home with 4 occupants on city water. There was also a reverse osmosis system installed at the kitchen sink and ice-maker for drinking and cooking purposes. Based on a hardness level of 22 grains-per-gallon, a 48,000 grain system was selected. The Fleck 5600 can handle up to 96,000 grains of media at a flow rate of 15 gallons-per-minute. This 48,000 grain system provides at a flow rate of 12 gallons-per-minute, much more than is required by this household at 8gpm.

Setup of the Fleck 5600 control valve is easy. It comes with operating and setting instructions that are fairly clear and concise. Simply adjust the "people" dial to the number of people in the home. Turn the hardness wheel until it lines up with the people dial.

The above illustration shows the people dial on the right on the outside of the hardness dial. Simply line up the hardness value, in this case 22, with the number of people in the home (4). Set the time of day on the 24 hour gear, connect the drive cable to the top of the meter (back side), plug into a 110v recepticle and you're done.

After forcing a manual regeneration per the operating instructions, this home had soft water right away. The first couple of weeks resulted in us adjusting the salt level to a higher setting, not because the system wasn't softening the water, but because it just didn't seem to be using enough salt and we did not want to risk stressing the resin bed. The adjustment for the salt setting is a small cam on the back of the 5600's control housing. It is held in place with a small silver set-screw. The default factory setting was 1.5. We adjusted this to 4. The owner's manual did not do a very good job of explaining this adjustment feature.

As of 12/20/2003, this water softener system is providing water with a hardness level of zero. It regenerates approximatley every 8th day at around 1:30am and has had no problems. This system was intentionally over-sized to insure long resin life and lower salt usage.

I interviewed the homeowner and here is what he said:

Q: Do you think you have gotten fair value out of your water conditioning system?

A: "Yeah. It's one of those things, like the water heater or furnace that I just don't think about, which is a good thing. If it were something I had to think about, I would probably not like it. It was well worth the cost and effort."

Q: Does the Fleck 5600 perform per your expectations?

A: "Oh yeah. Better than expected really. All of the stuff they tell you about, the soap suds, shower film and mineral deposits are all true. We use less laundry detergent, less dishwashing soap, I feel cleaner right out of the shower. I would never live without a softener again."

Q: What factors made you choose the Fleck 5600 out of all of the other water softeners out there?

A: "Price mostly. I wanted an on-demand softener but I didn't want to pay too much. This one was less expensive than the others that were the same size. I didn't realize it then, but I like the control set up on the [control valve]. It's straight forward and easy to set. It also indicates how much reserve soft water I have before the next regeneration.

My professional experience with the Fleck 5600 water conditioner system is outstanding. I have installed dozens of these systems and have not had a problem with a single one of them. I do get quite a few orders for the drive/timer motor replacement. Apparently 5 or 6 years ago, Fleck made improvements to all of their drive motors. The old design was going for 10 to 15 years then it would jam internally. The redesigned motors are supposed to last twice as long.

The Fleck 5600 water softener control valve is made of Noryl and is available in 3/4", 1" and 1-1/4" inlet/outlet sizes. Its maximum continuous flow rate is 20 gallons-per-minute at 50psi. It regenerates in both upflow and downflow directions and has a maximum cycle of 180 minutes. It is typically used for water softeners, iron filters, sediment filters, carbon filters and neutralizing filters in tank sizes from 6 to 10 inch diameters.