Help me set my water softener

[JoeTC]

I moved into a new (1992) house this fall and the existing water softener is real old school and i don't have any manual and couldnt find one online. It's regenerating way too often and went through three bags of salt in two weeks. Can someone explain how to adjust this so it doesn't regen so often?

Thanks for the help!

Joe

[nobody05]

looks like a fleck head

http://www.pentairwatertreatment.com/PentairFiles/Pentair%20Water%20Treatment/Manuals/5600%20Owner's%20Manual%2042447.pdf

[nobody05]

right now its set to go every 100 gallons used

[JoeTC]

right now its set to go every 100 gallons used

Because the white dot is at 1x100?

[311Hemi]

Have you calculated what it should be set to? You really should know to know your water hardness and iron levels before you can start adjusting anything....granted 3 bags in two weeks sounds high.

[18 inch Crappie]

To set the program wheel, lift the “people” dial and rotate it so that the number of people in the household is aligned with the household grains per gallon water hardness. Release the dial and check for firm alignment at the setting.

[nobody05]

Have any idea on your water hardness?

[CAMAN]

A quick Google and the city of Andover claims they have an average hardness of 13 grains per gallon. If I'm reading it correctly that unit is set at about 110 grains per gallon for a 2 person household.

[nobody05]

Ok if you have 13 grains and do you have any Idea how big your softener is as grain wise? An exaple would be a 20,000gr softener at 13 grains of water hardness would need to regenerate every 1500 GAL. Without knowing your variables its hard to get the most efficenty out of you water softener.

[delcecchi]

The dial in the picture has lettering that says "32k grains capacity". Is that for the control or the softener do you think?

[Whoaru99]

Hopefully they're somewhat matched in that regard.

But, yeah, looks like the grains per gallon per person is way off. Not sure if fixing that will correspondingly adjust the gallons between regens or if that's separately adjusted.

[JoeTC]

Thanks guys! I think I got it figured out and I believe it's now set to regen every 2100 gallons, not every 100. That should help with the salt consumption. Just filled it up so we'll see.

Joe

[311Hemi]

I assume you calculated out the 2100 gallons to your household usage?

How many people are in your house?

Any idea what the salt dose is set at for the controller? You need to open the back to check that. Depending on what it is set at now, you may be able to save more salt and regen more often.

I know you typically want to regen every 7-9 days.