5810 seals and lubrication

[Azrael1234]

Hello,

The piston on my 5810 broke, and I bought a new seal and spacer kit. It came with a little tube of chemplex 862 to lubricate, but I’m not sure if i apply just to the piston rod or also inside the spacer cage where the piston seals.

can some one tell / show me what surfaces to lubricate. I was concerned since it interfaces to my water supply And didn’t want to contaminate something.

thanks,
jeff

 

[Reach4]

Do both. That lube is food-safe.

Sorry the piston broke. I hope mine does not.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Asker123]

Hi Azrael, after how much time since new your 5810 piston broke? and what has been your Regeneration frequency?
lol some of us are trying to make guess work about our own 5810. seems like it is matter of when rather than if. this model seems to have problem.
I installed mine new just last week and I heard that 5810 has been discontinued so I am thinking to buy a piston spacer kit proactively as it might not be available in future.
Good luck for your repair

 

[Reach4]

When these pistons break, how do they break? How about a photo? I would think they could have made these with better construction.

 

[Azrael1234]

This is my second piston that broke. I heard it snap as I was cycling through when it happened; with accompanying expletive…lol…. i called a company to replace the first time after about 2 years of service As I didn’t know what to fix. 2017-2019. so the first lasted about 2 years. This second one lasted 3 years. Definitely not built to last. Regeneration was every 7-10 days. I ended up buying spares, as I hate having hard water, and seems like we just had this fixed. This softener has been problematic from the get go. anyone have a replacement recommendation? I’ll take a picture and post once I’ve fixed it.

 

[Azrael1234]

This is my second piston that broke. I heard it snap as I was cycling through when it happened; with accompanying expletive…lol…. i called a company to replace the first time after about 2 years of service As I didn’t know what to fix. 2017-2019. so the first lasted about 2 years. This second one lasted 3 years. Definitely not built to last. Regeneration was every 7-10 days. I ended up buying spares, as I hate having hard water, and seems like we just had this fixed. This softener has been problematic from the get go. anyone have a replacement recommendation? I’ll take a picture and post once I’ve fixed it.

Pictures as promised . The seals were completely stuck inside the spacer cage. the very top part of the “plunger” broke which is the weakest part. The rod didn’t break. Cage came out of the softener just fine with the seals locked in. Took me some force to pull the two apart once they were out.

One symptom that I may have had before the break was that when I replugged my system in (say after a vacation, where I turned off power to the softener), it would always try to run some type of cycle but get stuck and would drain water out. I would have to manually trigger a real cycle and then cycle through to get it to stop. After I replaced the part that didn’t happen the first time I plugged in. Haven’t tried unplugging and repluging yet.

 

[Reach4]

Thanks. If the piston gets seized into the seals, a stronger piston would not help, it would seem.

I wonder how long the lubing action of the silicone grease lasts. Would a periodic (6 months maybe) re-lube make sense? I don't expect any of us will know.

Maybe some water is more self-lubing or self-seizing than others..