Brine tank overflows.

[Alan]

A few days ago, I noticed that the salt level in my old Culligan softener(model # 4464-95) was lower than the level of the water. I added salt which of course made the water level much higher than normal. This morning I noticed the brine tank was filled to the top and overflowing, albeit *very* slowly. I took out the float and valve assembly and could find nothing wrong with it. Culligan is a pain. They want me to set up an account with them and then wait a week before they would send someone to look at it. You call the local number and all you get is some far away answering service who know absolutely nothing about softeners. Another dealer said he could come tomorrow, but when I said it was a Culligan, he said there was no point, because he can't get Culligan parts. Is it a matter of simply lowering the water level to normal or below or is there something else I should be doing like replacing the float valve, if Culligan will sell me the parts?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If water is leaking past the float vale it will overfill the tank. It may be possible to just replace a seal in the valve, but I can't see it so I'm only guessing. Could even be some crap stuck in there so it will not close properly. If you can open it without doing damage, give that a try.

[SJF]

I had this problem twice with my previous softener. The first time it was a failed gasket in the control head which was replaced successfully. The second time, it was a pinhole leak in the body of the control head so I replaced the entire softener. In both cases, I found a very small trickle of water from the control head which drained into the brine tank. It was then so full that it would overflow during recharge. This may not be your problem but is a possibility you may want to check out.

Don't know if there are other sources for Culligan parts but I would check online or with other repair facilities if you find the problem. Quite possibly, Culligan only rebrands a unit from some major manufacturer and a good supplier can crossbrand it. --- SJF

[Alan]

I ended up going to the local Culligan dealer. He thought it is likely a problem similar to yours and says the float valve should have nothing to do with it. I agreed to his suggestion that he come and look at it, but he had to call the call-centre to make an appointment for himself to do it.