Culligan Water Softener Question

[Rick]

Hello, new to the group so please let me know if I broke rules, etc.

Just bought a house with a Culligan System 23 softener. It's probably about

12 years old. The people who had the house before weren't very good about maintenance or keeping records, and I never got to talk to them so I don't know the story with the softener. It was unplugged at move-in, with the culflo valve bypassing the system. BUT, the adventurous sort that I am, I decided to fire it up anyway with a manual recharge. There was about 1' of salt in the tank, and some brine perhaps a foot over that. I kept an eye on it the whole time, and the cycles seemed to go in proper sequence - but it seems the valve for the final rinse stuck open and as long as the culflo valve is on "soft water" a rinse runs to the drain - even if timer is unpluggeeed. I have gone back to hard water to stop the rinse. From perusal of earlier posts it seems to be a good bet that the valves are dirty - so here are my questions:

1- can you give me any other things I should do/should have done before returning the softener to service? Was I crazy to just turn it on? The water does seem to be soft when it goes through, but of course I'm not sure if that just in my head because in theory the water is not going through the resin if the rinse is going on, right?

2- I'm planning on cleaning and restocking the salt tank as specified in the manual this weekend, but perhaps only after I look at the valve system. I would consider myself fairly adept at figuring stuff like this out but was wondering if the valves are especially tricky, will I be needing O-rings, CLR, etc?

3- There is evidence of problems before because the area around the softener shows some signs of corrosion and even rust where the drywall corners have been wet. I'm thinking the brine line must have been leaking pretty bad at some point - any thoughts?

I really don't even mind the hard water and I like experimenting with this sort of thing so I'm, not ready to say "hey, Culligan Man" just yet because I don't want to pay anything if I don't have to. Any caveats or further advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick

[Gary Slusser]

"Rick" wrote

system. I

further

You didn't harm anything. Water is going through the resin bed during all positions/cycles of the regeneration. And if you don't know how long the rinse etc. is supposed to last, how do you know it's going too long? Each cycle has it's own length of time, so do another manual regeneration but before that, look to see if the timer has gone past where you stopped it. If it has then there isn't anything stopping it except you. lol

Since the water feels soft, and the brine doesn't rise any higher than it was (24" off the floor) it seems to be working correctly.

Gary Quality Water Associates

[RIck]

I'll give another manual recharge a try. The reason why I knew (or thought I knew) the final rinse was going too long because it was still going 4 or 5 hours later, after the brine cycle had stopped. Plus, the little cycle drive wheel is alligned in the circular cutout of the wheel that has the salt setting on it. (or as the manual says, the toothless section of the cam gear is over the the small idler gear) which is supposed to mean that the recharge cycle is over, correct?

thanks for your help, I'll let you know what happens after the second manual recharge.

-Rick

[Gary Slusser]

"RIck" wrote

I can't answer that question. I'm not familiar with that valve. But since it ran to drain 4-5 hours, it's broken somehow.

Call the company and get an idea what they think is wrong, like a stuck piston or damaged seal etc. and what they'd charge to fix it. Then if you want a quote on a new one non-proprietary softener let me know.

Gary Quality Water Associates

[RIck]

Thanks for the replies, Gary - but as I stated in the first post as of now I don't want to pay a dime for softening (other than salt, etc.) I haven't had our water tested but based on prior experience it's not horribly hard. If I can't get this one working I will wait until I can't stand hard water anymore and then I will install one myself. This is basically due to the fact that I do not trust salesmen of any sort and I trust my ability to compile knoledge about a subject more than that of salesman that has not been referred to me by someone I trust.

I have seen your posts all over this newsgroup, and hoped you would reply to my post. Obviously you know your stuff when it comes to softeners but how familiar are you with taking them apart and rebuilds? That is what I want to do and it is a perfect situation because if I can't do it I don't care - I just want the option. Please don't turn this into a sales pitch.