Fleck 7000SXT Water Softener Installation & Programming Instructions
Thanks again for your purchase of your aQuatell water softener featuring the Fleck 7000SXT control valve. This page will take you through the setup and programming of your water softener. Please follow along carefully!
Your aQuatell water softener shipped with the riser tube (or turbulator) and resin already pre-loaded into the softening tank. The tank is capped for shipping so that nothing falls out. Step one is to remove the plastic cap from the top of the tank. Next, install the upper media screen on the control valve, and then screw the control valve onto the tank:
Once the control valve has been installed, we now need to attach a few things to it. First, we'll attach the brine line. You can find the brine line stored in the brine well (a 4" diameter white tube inside the brine tank). Take the lid off the brine well and you'll find the folded brine line. Pull this out of the brine well. The brine line connects the control valve to the brine tank (aka salt tank). At different stages of the regeneration fresh water is pumped into the brine tank, and salt water brine is sucked out of the brine tank. Here's how it's attached:
We now need to connect the other end of the brine line to the brine tank (sometimes called the 'salt tank'). Here's a video to show you how:
At several stages of the regeneration of your softener, water will be sent to drain. We must connect a drain line to the Fleck 7000SXT control valve for this purpose. The open end of the drain line can be discharged in any of a number of ways (depending on climate and local plumbing code):
- discharge the drain line outdoors to a pit, swale, or lawn
- discharge to a floor drain
- attach the drain line directly to a household drain pipe
Whatever method is used, there are a number of things to keep in mind:
- make sure the drain line cannot ever freeze
- make sure the drain line isn't kinked, bent, or twisted
- the open end of the drain line must be secured or else the force of discharging water may cause it to move
- if discharging to a floor drain or other drain, make sure you leave an air gap (a separation between the end of the drain tube and the standing level of the water)
- the drain line can be elevated several feet above the height of the softener without impairing performance
Here's a video that shows how to connect the drain line to the Fleck 7000SXT:
The next step is to connect the bypass valve and plumbing connectors to the control valve. Make a note of how the bypass valve opens and closes. It will be useful later.
The next step is to connect your existing plumbing to the plumbing connectors you just attached to the bypass. Since every installation is different it's difficult to provide step by step instruction on how to plumb your softener to your existing lines. But here are some important points to keep in mind:
- use a small amount of teflon tape on threaded fittings
- make sure the weight of your plumbing is not being supported by the softener bypass (secure plumbing lines to the wall or ceiling to support their weight)
- if using braided connectors or other plumbing aids, make sure the inner diameter is the same as your native plumbing material otherwise you may create a bottleneck
- we highly recommend Falcon Flex Connectors if you want to save a lot of time and effort on your installation
- arrows on the bypass show which side the raw water enters and which side the soft water exits - very important to get this right!
Once the softener is plumbed, make sure the bypass is closed (that is, make sure it's in 'bypass') and then turn on the water to the softener. Crack open the bypass valve on the water inlet side and let the softener slowly fill with water. Once it's full of water, fully open both sides of the bypass so the softener is in 'service' mode. The resin in the softener comes ready-to-soften, so your cold water should be instantly soft. Since the water in your hot water tank is not softened, it may take a couple of days for the hot water to completely cycle through.
Now we need to program the Fleck 7000SXT control valve. Plug the power adapter into a wall outlet and let's get started:
Your softener is now fully installed, programmed, and ready to go! It's a good idea to force a regeneration while you're there to watch it, just to make sure everything is working properly and nothing is leaking. Before doing this, add two or three gallons of water to the brine tank. To force a regeneration, press and hold the regeneration button (four small arrows in the shape of a square). When you hear the motor begin to move, release the button.
The regeneration will take about an hour and a half. There are several stages to the regeneration process. During the second stage, the Brine Draw (BD) stage, it's important to make sure that the water in the brine tank is drawn up. Please watch this stage for several minutes to ensure the water level in the brine tank is going down. Check in on the first regeneration periodically to make sure nothing is leaking.
Once this first regeneration is complete the brine tank will have a measured amount of water in it. You can now add salt to the brine tank. We get asked all the time what kind of salt we recommend. As far as we can tell, the performance of a softener has little to do with the type of salt used. Pretty much any salt you can get from the local hardware store, big box, grocery store, or gas station will work nicely. Just don't use salt licks or salt that's meant for spreading on sidewalks. All aQuatell water softeners are compatible with potassium salt also.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Now go enjoy your beautiful, soft water!