Water Softener Settings Explained

What water softener settings does a softener need?

A metered softener needs your water's hardness, the resin's grain capacity, a reserve, a regeneration time and a day override. From hardness and capacity the control works out how many gallons it can soften; the reserve, start time and override decide when the cycle actually runs. Everything else on the menu describes the hardware and is set once at the factory or by the installer.

Names vary by valve. In the Fleck 5600SXT service manual (P/N 42684 Rev B), Master Programming runs in this order: display format, valve type, control type, number of tanks, unit capacity (C), hardness (H), reserve type, safety factor or fixed reserve, day override (DO), regeneration time (RT), the cycle step times and the flow meter. The everyday values also sit in a shorter user menu. Our Fleck 5600SXT manual guide walks through each screen, and the control valve guide explains how the valve acts on them.

How do you set the hardness on a water softener?

Measure the raw water, convert the result to grains per gallon and enter it as the H value. Hardness drives every other number, so a guess here throws off the whole schedule.

1. Test the raw water. Sample a tap ahead of the softener, or put the softener in bypass first, and use cold water. City customers can read hardness from the utility's annual Consumer Confidence Report, which Nebraska Extension notes utilities must publish. The hardness testing guide compares strips, drop-count kits and lab samples.
2. Convert to grains per gallon. A reading in mg/L (the same as ppm) becomes gpg when divided by 17.1; SoftPro's Elite guide says to round up. 205 mg/L ÷ 17.1 = 12 gpg.
3. Enter it. Pentair's 5600SXT manual accepts feedwater hardness from 1 to 199 gpg.
4. Check the result. After the next regeneration, test a softened cold tap beside the raw water. SoftPro's test-kit page (SoftPro, our store) reads a wide gap as a working softener, and raw and treated readings within 1 to 2 gpg as a sign of bypass.

Nebraska Extension's NebGuide G1274 calls home kits and strips a good estimate and suggests a lab test when more accuracy is needed. For a raw-water figure before you program the valve, the Pro Products 2403 field test kit (sold by Quality Water Treatment, our store) is from $150.00 (October 2026) at Quality Water Treatment. Its listing describes three 1 oz hardness reagents, a square sample bottle plus a measuring tube, packed in a sturdy plastic case.

The classes follow the WQA-based table in Nebraska Extension's NebGuide G1491.

How much should iron raise the hardness setting?

Follow your own softener's guide, because makers publish different allowances. SoftPro's Elite install guide adds 3 gpg to the hardness setting when iron is 2 to 3 ppm and no iron filter is fitted. Quality Water Treatment's Fleck guide handles the same iron range by shortening the day override to 7 days, and one more day if staining continues.

Dissolved (clear-water) iron uses up resin capacity the same way calcium and magnesium do. Penn State Extension recommends a softener for iron only when dissolved iron is under 5 mg/L and pH is above 6.7, and warns that oxidized iron fouls the resin. Above that, an iron filter goes ahead of the softener. Iron also coats resin over time; the resin cleaner guide covers doses.

How do capacity and reserve settings work?

The control divides unit capacity by hardness and subtracts the reserve; the answer is the gallons it softens before the next regeneration. The Fleck 42684 manual describes this calculation for both metered control types.

Capacity (C). Enter the grains the resin holds at the salt dose your system uses. Pentair's own 5600SXT system with 1 cubic foot of resin is rated at 11,900 grains on 3 lb of salt, 31,100 on 9 lb and 35,400 on 15 lb. The lean setting removes 4,400 grains per pound of salt, so less salt per cycle is more efficient, but the tank runs out sooner.

Reserve. The reserve holds back soft water for use between the moment capacity runs out and the overnight start. Pentair's valve takes it as a safety factor of 0 to 50% of capacity, or a fixed number of gallons no more than half the calculated capacity. Quality Water Treatment's guide sets a 15% safety factor.

What regeneration time and day override should you set?

Pick a regeneration time when nobody draws water, and a day override that only acts as a backstop. Nebraska Extension says automatic units generally regenerate in low-use hours, such as between midnight and 4 a.m., and Quality Water Treatment programs 2:00 am "or your suitable time". The Fleck manuals give no factory default time, so check your screen.

Regeneration time (RT). Pentair's manual defines RT as the time a delayed, manually queued or day-override regeneration starts. A single-tank house gets unsoftened water during the cycle, which is why the start sits in the night.

Day override (DO). DO caps the days between cycles. On a time-clock valve it is the schedule itself; on a metered valve it forces a cycle when that many days pass first. Pentair allows Off to 99, Quality Water Treatment enters 14, and the WQA asks installers to use calendar overrides only when necessary, for instance a vacation home, or a supply whose resin fouls when water stands.

On a SoftPro Elite valve the install guide also sets a refill rate: 0.2 for city water and 0.7 for well water. Settings lost after an outage or error can be restored with the steps in how to reset a water softener.

A worked water softener settings example

Here is the arithmetic for a family of four, using the numbers above.

1. Hardness. The lab report says 205 mg/L; 205 ÷ 17.1 = 12 gpg, so H = 12.
2. Capacity. The system is rated at 32,000 grains at its salt setting, so C = 32,000.
3. Gallons. 32,000 ÷ 12 = 2,667 gallons.
4. Reserve. A 15% safety factor holds back 400 gallons, leaving 2,267.
5. Interval. At Penn State Extension's planning figure of 75 gallons per person a day, four people use 300 gallons, so a cycle comes about every 7 to 8 days.

That lands near the once-a-week target. The guide on how often a water softener should regenerate works through other households, and the regeneration guide covers what happens in each step.

How do you check water softener settings are right?

Watch the interval, the salt and the water for a few weeks. A cycle every week or so, salt that drops steadily and soft water at the taps mean the numbers fit. Regenerating daily in a two-person house points to a hardness or capacity value that is off; the too-much-salt guide lists the checks. The WQA's booklet asks installers to "always check" regeneration settings and adjust them for salt and water efficiency.

Related guides

• SettingsWhat happens in a regeneration
• SettingsChoosing a regeneration interval
• SettingsProgramming the Fleck 5600SXT
• TestTesting hardness at home

Common questions

Parts for this job

Pro Products Water Hardness Field Test Kit

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