Culligan Mark 812 Water Conditioner - Time to replace?

[rstier]

Hi,
I just purchased a house with a Culligan Mark 812 Water Conditioner. The conditoner was put in about 13 years ago. It doesn't seem to be doing much to condition the water as soap doesn't lather good and there is a strong iron smell to the water. Also, spots on the glasses, etc.

I have it doing a recharge about 2x per week and there is only 2 of us in the house. I had recently sanitized the brine tank and the salt level is adequate. Any suggestions on troubleshooting this? Could it be the media has reached the end of its useful conditioning life and if so, is that replaceable? I hate to have to replace the system as it is not in the budget right now.
Thanks,
Ron

[Gary Slusser]

I don't know their model numbers so I don't know what type control valve is on your softener but... if it unclamps or unscrews from the tank, you should be able to replace the resin fairy easily. If the control has two collars covering dovetail type tank connectors, then it is fairy difficult for a DIYer to replace the resin. But it may not be the resin.

Does it use salt? If not poke a stick down through the salt to see if there is a hollow spot under the salt keeping the salt up out of the water. That would be a salt bridge. Other causes of not usign salt are a blocked drain line or injector, injector throat or injector screen. Is there more water in the brine tank than is normally in it?

Post a picture of the tank to control valve area and the face without the cover on it.

If you get around to a new softener, I suggest one using the Clack WS-1 or Fleck 7000SE control valve. IMO they are the best choice for any DIYer.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[rstier]

Actually, I did a little more probing and might have found the fix. I unscrewed a metal cover on top of the control valve and removed what I believe was the injector and screen. They were dirty with sediment build up, so I cleaned them out. I initiated a manual recharge and the tube in the brine tanks inserts and picks up the water, so that seems good. I also put some iron out in the brine tank. Today it seemed better, so I will have to see how it goes over the next few days. The control valve is mounted with a dovetail type connector, so it may not be easy to remove it and change the media. I am guessing I would have to unsolder the in/out pipes to the valve if I need to go that route. Thanks for the help!
Ron

[Gary Slusser]

Glad to hear you fixed it.

Usually you remove 4 screws fron the plate that holds the yoke or by-pass valve on to the back of the control valve to get the control off the pluming without unsoldering pipes.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[rstier]

Hi Gary,
I'll take a look for the screws as that sounds much easier. Thanks for your help!
Ron

[rstier]

Looks like I am back to hard water and the iron smell. I think I will try replacing the water softener media. Any recommendations on the best media to use?
Thanks,
Ron

[Gary Slusser]

The best.... based on what? I use a lot of Purolite C-100 but used Sybron C-249 for many years although it costs a bit more. Either is good and both are basically regular mesh. Fine mesh has higher salt efficiency BUT causes a larger pressure loss across the softener. SST-60 has the best salt efficiency. Salt efficiency being K grains/lb of salt used per regeneration but... if a softener is sized correctly, it will have excellent salt efficiency to begin with. If you have say over 3 ppm of iron, I use SST-60, it is best for high iron due to the bead construction which prevents iron fouling which is the downfall of the other two types.

I'm not sure you have your softener set up correctly. Or you wouldn't have soft water for X days after regeneration and then it go hard, if that's what is happening. if it is, go to my sizing chart page on my web site and then the calculator page. Use current water test data, even if you have to get a water test. You can find my web site by clicking on my name above.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[rstier]

First of all, thanks Gary for taking the time out to answer my questions. This is new territory for me so your responses have been very helpful. I think I will take your advice and get a water test done first and also check your sizing page. A few remaining questions I had if I need to replace the media:

1-It sounds like SST-60 would be the best for me since I have the iron issue. Where could I purchase that? A local store would be best but online would be fine too.
2-The Culligan 812 has 30lbs of underbedding media as well as the 1.4 cu ft of resin. Should I be replacing the underbedding as well and if so, any recommendations there?

Thanks!!
Ron

[Gary Slusser]

"underbedding" is gravel. There are no negatives to having a gravel underbed and a number of positives to having one. It comes in a couple different types and I like little stone type. Any local or internet dealer will sell you resin and gravel but you'll get a better price on the internet.

I'd tell you 1.5 cuft of resin and a bit less gravel. Before selecting a resin, you need the water tests. When you get the price for SST-60 resin and gravel, and then look at replacing them with the difficulty of your type tank, you may opt for a new softener.

Getting the resin out of your tank is very difficult and the only way I know how is to use water pressure to 'pump' it out the other 3/4" hole. You need an open ended distributor tube to do that unless you lay the tank down or hold it upside down and flush it out into buckets wit hasalt bags with little holes in to drain the water out of the resin so you can throw it in the garbage. You will do better by replacing the gravel rather than trying to separate it from the resin which rarley works for me.

Gary
Quality Water Associates

[miki]

We also just purchased a home with a Culligan Mark 812.

I've never had a home with a filtration system before and know little about them. There's a pipe outside the garage where it's located that shoots water into the drive everyday.. What's that all about? We have a slight to moderate sulfur smell to our water. Rock salt is the only thing the previous owner has done with this system.. We just bought a small Brita to put on the faucet..Should we get a water quality test to make sure the system is operating properly? Thanks..Miki

[Gary Slusser]

You don't say if you have city water or your own well. If you well, yes have the raw watr tested for hardness, pH, iron, and manganese would be nice. Coliform bacteria and nitrates if you didn't have them tested for when you bought the place.

If city water, use the highest highest figure on the water co's web site and their water quality report.

The water in the drive way is the water from a regeneration of the softener.

Also have a hardness (and iron if your own well) test done on the cold water from the kitchen sink.

[miki]

Thanks..I have well water. I know so little about filtration systems...
Should the system flush once a day? There's only two living here. It takes a long time too. Seems like it goes on and on..

Do people have other ways to pipe the water away from the house? For instance running a pipe underground for a distance. What about into the septic system? Also..will a charcoal filter on the sink take care of the sulfur smell? Thanks...

[Gary Slusser]

When the unit regenerates is based on its programming. And it takes about 90 minutes to finish.

Hot water only odor is caused by harmless bacteria that colonize trhe water heater. Turning the temp up to 140f kills them. Removing or replacing the rod with a different material/type will prevent teh odor IF you ca ngte to old rod out without dropping any of it back into the tank; which is usually impossible.

Carbon/charcoal is a great place to grow bacteria, so don't use it to get rid of this odor.

You can buy a test kit and test your before and after the softener water for hardness. That will tell you if the softener is working correctly as to removing all the hardness in your water.

You can run the discharge water into the septic or sewer system or a dry well but some of those choices are not allowed in most areas.

[TwLloyd]

Hi

Our softener is about 15 years old on well water. For the most part, it has worked fine. I found if I add one bag of Rust remover to 3 bags of salt there is very little rust buildup in the house and the wife doesn't complain about her hair turning orange.

Now, my problem. A couple months ago I had to replace our well tank. Since then, it seems the softener regenerates but am getting a lot of rust in the house and the slick feeling in the shower is long gone. When the water first came back on, we had some black water in the house for the first few minutes, so I figured the valve was plugged somewhere.

I took off the valve, rinsed it out in the bath tub, pulled everything apart I could find to take out, cleaned everything I could. I had a lot of black pieces in the but when I was done, but nothing big enough that it would seem to plug the entire unit. This seemed to help for about one shower, then back to the same thing.

The salt level does not seem to be dropping, even though I have manually regenerated it multiple times. I have not added salt since the well tank was replaced, I thought maybe the screen in the bottom of the brine tank was plugged so I took it to the car wash and sprayed it with high water pressure, still no better.

The softener is working to some degree because if I bypass the unit, you can see the water turn orange in the house. But it is not working as it should because the toilet, shower and sinks are getting very rusty and there is no slick feeling in the shower.

Should I try clearing the valve again? Is there something or some place I should pay special attention?

Thanks for your time.

Tom

[Gary Slusser]

Hi Tom. Look to make sure the unit it not plumbed backwards.

Other than that, as long as it is using salt, I'd guess bad resin.

You cold replace it but on your model it may be difficult. And since it is a time clock model, you may want to replace it with a metered/demand regenerated new softener. If so I suggest one with a Clack WS-1 control valve.