wrote:
On Sep 4, 10:50 am, Javier wrote:
Rick Blaine wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:

By "typical modern" assume something Sears sells for household use...

By typical and Sears you mean a disposable pre-built softnener with a
shorter service life than an industry standard softener?

Yeah, that one. We had a Kenmore for several years, seemed to regenerate
once a week at most, and seemed to be going strong after 7 years when we
sold the house and left it behind.

What would you recommend as "industry standard"?

Industry standard softeners are sold by local independent water
treatment professionals and are assembled using top quality components
from the industry. Usually a Fleck or Autotrol demand initiated
control valve with a Structural brand resin tank and Purolite or
Sybron resin. Those components have proven themselves in the field for
DECADES and are easy to get service, parts, and tech info for.
Industry standard softeners commonly provide reliable service for
15-20 years with minimal routine service and are more efficent than
the pre-built box store softeners.

More efficient.... efficiency is based on how the softener control
valve is programmed in relation to the volume and type of resin used
in the softener. The size of the resin tank is dictated by the volume
of resin in the tank.

Efficiency has nothing to do with the brand of resin tank or brine
tank (or the size of brine tank), the brand of control valve (except
the Autotrol Logix timer which only has three salt dose settings and
used on various Autotrol control valves) or the brand of resin (there
are at least 6 manufacturers of softener resin with numerous resins to
choose from).

As to control valves, I suggest the Clack WS-1 as the best valve for
DIYers. It is the easiest and fastest to repair and the parts are the
lowest priced of all valves. Three Fleck engineers designed the Clack
line of valves and copied and improved the piston, seal and spacer
design Fleck has been famous for since 1953.

Clack is huge in the manufacturing of all kinds of parts and equipment
for the water quality improvement industry from residential to
industrial sized equipment. Clack has been in business since 1946,
longer than anyone else manufacturing this stuff.

Many companies that had used Fleck valves for decades have dropped
Fleck and gone to Clack, as many dealers and plumbing and pump supply
houses have also. Fleck is raising their prices again (this year) by
7%. To my knowledge Clack hasn't raised their prices since 2000 but
I've only been selling their valves since Jan 2 2004, but the prices
haven't raised since then. I've sold roughly 880 of hem and had only
19 problems. And they are the lowest parts prices of any valve
manufacturer. And there are no special, control valve model specific
tools need to rebuild/repair a Clack like the Fleck 1500, 2510, 3600,
5600, 6600, 6700 and 7000 valves all require.

Now justalurker has said that he doesn't need the special tools for
the 5600, and agrees with a guy that says he doesn't need the tools
for a 2510. Before I'd believe it I'd have to see them replace the
seals and spacers in any of those valves except the 7000 without the
tools.

Truth be known, justalurker has a 1.5 cuft softener in his garage with
a Clack WS-1 control valve on it that he bought from me in Jul 2004.
He says he took it out and gave it to a buddy of his to be used as a
door stop in his shed... he refuses to send me a picture of his garage
showing a different softener, or none in his garage in Edgewood NM. I
have pictures of his garage with the one I sold him.

Gary Slusser
Quality Water Associates