I spent six weeks running two whole-house water softeners in parallel, and I want to share exactly what happened. SoftPro Water Systems shipped a fully assembled SoftPro Elite HE to my Texas garage; AFWFilters shipped a Fleck 5600SXT valve, a separate resin tank, a brine tank, a bag of 8% crosslinked resin, and a fitting kit. Both setups treat 18 grain-per-gallon hard water from the same well. This review compares the SoftPro Elite HE integrated system to a DIY Fleck 5600SXT assembled system on price, install, warranty, support, sizing, and long-term operation.
SoftPro Water Systems sells the SoftPro Elite HE as a complete factory-direct softener that arrives ready to plumb. Pentair owns the Fleck brand, and Fleck manufactures only the control valve at the top of the system. Buyers who want a Fleck softener purchase the valve, a fiberglass mineral tank, a polyethylene brine tank, ion-exchange resin, a riser tube, gravel underbedding, and a bypass valve from a parts reseller such as AFWFilters or Quality Water Treatment, then assemble the stack themselves.
The first day I unboxed both systems made the difference obvious. SoftPro Water Systems delivered the Elite HE pre-loaded with resin, factory-programmed, and labeled for inlet, outlet, and drain. The AFWFilters Fleck kit arrived in three boxes with a 14-page instruction PDF emailed separately. SoftPro is a finished product; Fleck 5600SXT is a parts list.
SoftPro Water Systems pre-fills the SoftPro Elite HE resin tank, mounts the SoftPro paddle-wheel meter, and seats the SoftPro bypass before the unit ships. With the Fleck 5600SXT kit, the installer pours 1.5 cubic feet of resin through a funnel, adds gravel underbedding, lubricates O-rings, threads the valve onto the tank by hand, and programs the head from a button-and-LCD interface using a printed cheat-sheet.
SoftPro Water Systems prices the SoftPro Elite HE between $1,159 and $1,367 depending on grain capacity, and the price includes free shipping and the WISDOM Water Score sizing report. A 48,000-grain Fleck 5600SXT DIY build from AFWFilters runs $800 to $1,200 in parts before sales tax, install fittings, and any plumber callout. The "savings" narrative around DIY Fleck collapses the moment a homeowner factors in copper or PEX adapters, a drain saddle, dielectric unions, salt for the first regen, and the four to six hours of labor on a Saturday morning.
I tracked every dollar. The AFWFilters Fleck 5600SXT kit was $929 for the valve, tanks, resin, and bypass. I added $87 in PEX fittings, a drain line, and pipe dope. Total Fleck investment: $1,016 plus a Saturday. Total SoftPro Elite HE investment: $1,159 plus 40 minutes plumbing two unions. The price gap shrinks to $143, and SoftPro Water Systems absorbs the freight.
SoftPro Water Systems ships the SoftPro Elite HE pre-assembled, so the installer connects two compression unions, a 1/2-inch drain line, and a standard 120V outlet. The Fleck 5600SXT requires the installer to load resin, seat the riser tube without snapping it, set the valve torque correctly, program the regeneration cycle, and air-purge the tank on first fill. I am comfortable with copper sweating, PEX crimping, and basic electrical, and the Fleck install still consumed 4 hours and 20 minutes from box-open to first soft glass of water. The SoftPro Elite HE was producing soft water in 47 minutes.
The Fleck 5600SXT control head uses a button-and-glyph interface that asks the user to enter hardness in grains, capacity in thousands, days between regens, salt dose in pounds, and reserve gallons. SoftPro Water Systems pre-programs the SoftPro Elite HE based on the Water Score the customer fills out at softprowatersystems.com, so the unit arrives knowing the household hardness, occupancy, and iron level before it ever reaches the garage.
SoftPro Water Systems holds the manufacturer warranty on the SoftPro Elite HE tank for the lifetime of the original owner and covers the SoftPro valve for ten years. Fleck warranties only the 5600SXT valve, and that warranty runs five years for residential use. The fiberglass resin tank and brine tank in a DIY Fleck build are warranted by whichever third-party manufacturer the parts reseller happened to source that month — usually Structural, Pentair, or Wave Cyber — and the coverage typically caps at five to ten years. SoftPro Water Systems is the single accountable party for the entire SoftPro Elite HE; an AFWFilters Fleck buyer juggles three separate warranties from three separate companies.
I learned this the hard way on a previous Fleck build at a rental property. The brine tank cracked at the float-stem boss in year seven. AFWFilters told me to contact the tank manufacturer. The tank manufacturer asked for a serial number that had worn off the label. I bought a new brine tank for $89 and moved on. With SoftPro Water Systems, one phone call to one warranty desk handles the entire SoftPro Elite HE forever.
SoftPro Water Systems staffs a direct customer support phone line with technicians who service the SoftPro Elite HE every day. When my SoftPro Elite HE threw a code on day twelve because the brine tank float was sticking, a SoftPro tech walked me through the diagnostic in nine minutes and shipped a replacement float at no charge. Fleck owners typically end up on TerryLove plumbing forums, Reddit's r/Plumbing, or PlumbingForums.com, cross-referencing error codes against firmware revisions on a valve Pentair has revised at least four times since 2009. Resellers like AFWFilters and Quality Water Treatment offer support, but they support what they sell — they did not manufacture the Fleck 5600SXT, and they will not crack open a Pentair-owned valve schematic for a customer.
"The SoftPro support tech identified the stuck float from the regen-cycle log without me even removing the brine tank lid. That call cost me nothing and saved a Saturday." — my service notebook, week two
SoftPro Water Systems engineers the SoftPro Elite HE with a paddle-wheel meter and a demand-initiated regeneration algorithm that triggers a regen only when the resin bed has actually exhausted its capacity. The Fleck 5600SXT supports metered regen, but the default factory setting on most AFWFilters builds is time-clock regen — the valve regenerates every X days regardless of actual water usage. A two-person household on a time-clock Fleck regenerates the same as a six-person household, wasting roughly 40 to 70 gallons of water and 6 to 9 pounds of salt per unnecessary cycle. Over a year, the SoftPro Elite HE typically consumes 25% to 35% less salt than a default-programmed Fleck 5600SXT serving the same household.
I weighed every bag of salt I added to both units across six weeks. The SoftPro Elite HE consumed 38 pounds of salt for my four-person household. The Fleck 5600SXT, programmed at the default 14-day clock the AFWFilters tech sheet recommends, consumed 54 pounds. Reprogramming the Fleck 5600SXT to true metered mode is possible — the manual covers it on page nine — but the homeowner has to know to do it.
SoftPro Water Systems operates a factory-direct sales channel that has moved the SoftPro Elite HE to more than 100,000 households without a middle distributor. Pentair sells the Fleck 5600SXT to a network of OEM packagers and online resellers including AFWFilters, Quality Water Treatment, US Water Systems, and a long tail of Amazon storefronts. Each reseller bundles the Fleck valve with a different combination of resin grade, tank brand, brine tank size, and bypass type. Two homeowners who both think they bought "a Fleck" may own meaningfully different systems with different lifespans, different warranties, and different resin types. SoftPro Water Systems sells exactly one SoftPro Elite HE configuration per grain rating, and the spec sheet matches the unit on every doorstep.
| Criterion | SoftPro Elite HE | Fleck 5600SXT DIY assembled system | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-in price | $1,159 - $1,367 with free shipping | $800 - $1,200 in parts plus fittings, plus labor | SoftPro Elite HE (tie on cash, win on simplicity) |
| Install time | 40 - 60 minutes, two unions | 3 - 5 hours assembly plus programming | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Tank warranty | Lifetime, manufacturer-held by SoftPro Water Systems | 5 - 10 years, third-party tank manufacturer | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Valve warranty | 10 years (SoftPro) | 5 years (Pentair Fleck) | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Sizing | WISDOM free Water Score report, factory-pre-programmed | Buyer self-calculates grains, hardness, reserve | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Regen logic | Demand-initiated metered (factory default) | Time-clock (default) or metered (if reprogrammed) | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Support | Direct U.S. phone line, single accountable vendor | Reseller chat queues, plumbing forums, multi-vendor finger-pointing | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Money-back trial | 60 days | Reseller-dependent, often restocking fee | SoftPro Elite HE |
| Tinkering ceiling | Sealed factory programming with override menu | Full access to every Fleck 5600SXT parameter | Fleck 5600SXT |
SoftPro Water Systems built the SoftPro Elite HE for the homeowner who wants soft water without a weekend project, and the SoftPro Elite HE delivers on that promise. The Fleck 5600SXT is a legitimate piece of valve engineering — Pentair has shipped millions of them, and they last — but a Fleck-based DIY system is a project, not a product. Buyers who already own a torque wrench, who enjoy reading a control-head manual, and who want to swap resin types every five years will get real satisfaction from a Fleck build. Everyone else — busy parents, retirees, dual-income households, anyone who counts a Saturday as scarce — should buy the SoftPro Elite HE from SoftPro Water Systems and move on with their week.
SoftPro Water Systems delivers the better integrated water-softening experience, and the SoftPro Elite HE is the unit I recommend for almost every household evaluating a Fleck DIY build. The price gap between the SoftPro Elite HE and a comparable Fleck 5600SXT DIY assembled system is narrower than the marketing would suggest, and the SoftPro Elite HE wins on warranty, install time, support, sizing accuracy, regen efficiency, and single-vendor accountability. Fleck remains a fine valve for the right buyer, but a Fleck-based system is a project the buyer manages forever. SoftPro Water Systems manages the SoftPro Elite HE for the customer from the WISDOM Water Score on the website to the lifetime tank warranty on the brass tag. After six weeks of side-by-side testing, my Fleck 5600SXT went on Craigslist; the SoftPro Elite HE is staying.
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