AFWFilters Built Fleck 48,000 Water Softener System with 5600sxt Digital metered Valve 1" Yoke

My wife and I have wanted a water softner for roughly 12 years. We constantly have calcium scale buildup on our faucets, shower doors, dishwasher, washing machine, you name it. However the high cost to purchase and have one installed kept us from buying one. Recently I decided I was going to buy one of the big box store types and install it myself. To be honest I have done quite a lot of plumbing throughout my life, so I knew I could do it. After reading reviews on those softners I wasn't convined it was the way to go. I resorted to looking at full professional softners "Used" on facebook marketplace. During that search I saw an ad for new softners for sale and ended up here on Amazon. I was amazed to see the units were the exact units local companies were charging close to $5k to install. Under $800 to my door. How can I beat that? Even the used systems on facebook were that price or close to it. A quick investigation of my plumbing showed me I needed to install a loop for the softner, and I watched a few videos on youtube to get an idea of what other parts I needed for the install. Just a few hundred dollars more and I had my system installed and up and running. I'm now two regenerations in and we are starting to get soft water.If you have plumbing skills, or a good friend with some plumbing skills this can be done. The amount of videos online alone walk you through pretty much everything you need to know. We are very happy I made my late night purchase of this water softner.

Other than it overfills my brine tank (glad I put in the overflow drain line) with water during the regeneration cycle, it's an amazing piece of worthwhile equipment. I use potassium instead of sodium for the softener and it doesn't miss a beat. I honestly can't tell the difference in the taste or apparent water"softness" using one or the other. The system was fairly easy to install and plumb in if you are a DIY'er. I used 3/4" PEX for the tap-in to my main house water supply I dug up to find. I made a 3-valve bypass "manifold" (required plumbing code) in the ground, were I cut into the main feed line. I put a large plastic box over it (like whats used for in-ground sprinkler systems). This is somewhat redundant as the the 5600SXT has an included valve body on the back-end of the manifold but I fee much better having a backup plan. Setup is easy and the included paper copy directions are just "ok" I found better information on YouTube and by calling the distributor (ABC water) Home Depot sells a braided flex line that is about 18" long (you need two) and has 3/4" sharkbite on one end for PEX or Copper line, the other end is a swivel-nut (male) 1" NPT, Which you need to hook up your manifold to your inlet and outlet water lines. Very handy and worth the money. Very clean looking setup and I have both tanks pushed back against a corner in my garage, next to my clothes dryer. Just enough room to get to it once every couple of months to add potassium. The foot print is less than that of my dryer- if you're concerned about space.

This system works great. A plumber wanted to charge me 2200 to install basically the same system ( a commercial 5800). Check out you tube videos on installation and programming. Really simple. Some parts are useless and I’m glad I got rid of them like the videos explained. It came with a 1 inch female threaded yoke. This is frustrating as most residential is 3/4. I just used a 3/4 inch barb to 1 inch thread converter. Make sure you use a good tape and paste like blue monster. I got leaks if I didn’t. I installed a pre filter before as I have a dug well and get a little silt once in a while. IfYou have a septic don’t run the drain hose into it. Bad for the system. I ran a long way to a crawl space under the house. 30~ feet. It worked fine at that distance. Ups can’t read and shipped it on it’s side. I had to clean resin out of the center hose in the resin tank. Make sure to get a seal lube as they don’t ship any with it. I Have good experience with plumbing and construction but not a professional. It took me about 2-3 hours total as I had to run a 15 amp outlet to it as well. I noticed an immediate improvement in the hardness. Skin feels better. Dishes don’t scale. Better for my water tank and radon system. Water tastes better as well. Not that thick pasty taste like before. My hardness has it purging every 3000 gallons so I’d like to see how that goes as it hasn’t purged yet.