The only reason I don't give this a 5 star rating is the ordering process. It was suppose to come from Amazon.com, then the order details said it was sold and shipped from another company, and then, upon receipt, it actually was sold and shipped from a third company. It cost me an extra $10 as you may notice Amazon sells this products from several companies with varying prices. Also, the order I placed said the tank was fully charged with the resin. The one I received was not. This was the most difficult step in installation. If you spill some, as I did, please note that the resin is EXTREMELY slick.

The Fleck 5600SXT is a very good product. Operation so far has been flawless and water quality is great. Digital setup is easy and most settings don't need to be changed. Any company can make a metal cylinder and plastic brine (salt) tank. What you are buying is the valve. So far I am very happy with my purchase.

Came to my door very timely. Seems to be working well at the moment. Only negative I can say is that it came in many different boxes and pieces, and NO DIRECTIONS for setting it up. No papers on warranty either. Only papers that were included were directions for programming the charge. I did mess up the installation, and had a major problem...just make sure you get the inlet and outlet correct, or you'll have the resin flowing through your lines and plugging everything up. Trust me, I learned the hard way... double check everything before turning the water on.

At first I couldn't find the installation instructions. I emailed the company/seller and they promptly responded. If you have slightly advanced plumbing skills you can dyi install this.

I watched a few videos and read the instructions a few times before setting out. I used cpvc to tie into my existing plumbing. The real time spent was not with the plumbing install but prepping the system for usage. It took about an hour for plumbing and about 1.5 hours to prep system. My system came with gravel yet the directions said gravel wasn't required but if included, you can use it. I used it. Seems like a well built system and head. I have it drain into a laundry sink I installed (replaced an old failing concrete farm sink). The backwash cycle does use a good bit of water...and we are on a well so...I schedule it for 2am when due. All in all, water is silkier, laundry is much softer and the showers aren't crusting up. Hopefully this also is prolonging my appliances and hot water heater elements. I was replacing elements 1x a year. My colleague just paid someone to install the same system $3,000.

I have now been running this unit for about a week. Dishes and my shower are without a doubt cleaner. Like, amazingly cleaner. I have no experience with softeners, but I can say that there has been the improvement that I expected.

I had one install question and one operating question that I reached out to the seller on, and they were incredibly prompt. 5 stars for service.

Salt usage appears to be very minimal. This unit appears to just work. I did add a media filter and carbon filter, all ordered on Amazon to both protect the softener from contamination and to improve water quality. I HIGHLY recommend doing so. My water tastes, feels, and performs great.

I did run my hose bib connections in front of the softener to avoid unnecessarily treating water being used outside of the house. I believe that was also a good decision.

I would not hesitate to install this in your home if you are dealing with hard water issues.

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I am now following up about a month after installing. My glass shower doors are sparkling. My glassware and silverware are sparkling. I have yet to add another bag of salt to the brine tank. I'm OCD enough to stay up one night to monitor a recharge at 2AM and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. The fact is, this is a very simple process and the valve executes the simple take flawlessly. Shame on other companies charging thousands for comparable products. I've answered numerous questions and do not hesitate recommending this product.
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Without a doubt one of the best purchases I have ever made. It was affordable, easy to install, and the results are just outstanding. I honestly think that even my teeth are cleaner using softened water. I have used 1 bag of salt in 2 months since filling the brine tank, and that was not even necessary. I check on the gallons used and the recharge schedule, and it just works. Buy it. PERIOD. I love it.

The soft water is wonderful. We have been living with hard water for the last ten years and when our valves and fixtures began failing, freezing up and breaking we decided it was time to get a water softener. Its been about thee weeks since the installation of the unit. Once I had completed plumbing the main water line into the utility room the rest of the installation was simple. It can be intimidating to take on a project like installing a water softener if you have not done it before but I found it to be easy. There were no instructions shipped with the unit but the company send a link to a youtube video to show how to program the unit. I found it very helpful to watch YouTube videos on the installation and operation of water softeners. I also found an installation video for the Fleck 5600SXT. I was surprised to learn that the salt is only used to make a brine solution that rinses the calcium and magnesium off of the softening beads periodically. Very little if any salt gets into the water that you use. My installation fit into a space approximately 29"x18" by 62" tall. You will need to purchase a plastic drain line that will attach to the head unit and run to your basement drain as well as teflon tape or teflon paste for your pipe connections and of course salt pellets or postassium pellets. My unit is regenerating approximately every two weeks. This depends on water usage. We have four adults in the house and the size of this unit seems to accommodate all of our water usage easily. I did not see a difference the first day and soon discovered that the plastic bypass on the back of the head unit was in bypass mode. One big giveaway was the Gallons to Regeneration number that flashes in between the time display was not decreasing with water usage. Once I had set the bypass correctly the number of gallons began to decrease. You will need to give the system a day or so to see the full effect as your water heater will still be full of hard water.
We noticed that we didn't need as much soap and our skin was not as dry as it usually is. Showers toilets and sinks seem to be cleaner and smell cleaner. The hard water creates a rough surface and soap and other things tend to cling more with the water deposits. We are very happy with our purchase. Don't wait to get and install this great water softener.