Correct Settings for Culligan Softener

[mrmoosey]

I have a Culligan Medalist Series 8" Soft-Minder Meter Water Softener. 24,000 grain capacity, 0.75 CuFt3 resin, 8 x 44 tank. I have well water. Hardness test is 6 gpg with 0.3 ppm iron. Family uses 100 gallons of water per day. Water smelled of "rotten eggs" and laundry was getting "rust" stains. Had a Culligan guy come out he recommended water softener. The guy installed it but left it at the "factory settings", which were:
8.0 lbs salt
buu = 10 mins
br= 60 mins
CapG = 870

The installer told me to leave it at "factory" but I'm not sure he is right since we only use 100 gallons per day and we have such a low hardness/iron. just need to know what salt setting and CapG figures to set my softener at. At this point I am almost tempted to just remove the gray Metered cord and set it to regen every 7 days.

If anyone could help me it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time.

 

[Bannerman]

Normally, 0.3 ppm iron will require the hardness setting to be compensated by an additional 1.5 gpg, raising the hardness setting to 7.5. As you have not posted a comprehensive lab report for your raw well water, recommend using at least an 8 gpg hardness setting since there could also be some amount of manganese present, which the hardness setting would also need to compensate for.

8 lbs salt per cubic foot of resin is the usual recommendation for the best balance of salt efficiency, water quality, and useable capacity. 8 lbs X 0.75 ft3 = 6 lbs salt total, which will regenerate 20,000 grains capacity in 0.75 ft3 resin.

100 gallons/day X 8 gpg = 800 grains per day softening load.

20,000 gr capacity / 800 gpd = 25 days - 1 day reserve = an estimated regeneration frequency of 24-25 days.

24-25 days may be OK when always using salt which includes an iron removal additive, or if some citric acid is layered between each bag of salt while refilling the brine tank with additional salt.

Most programmable controllers are equipped with a 'Days Override' setting which will cause regeneration to occur after x-days, only if the programmed capacity has not been consumed before that day. Suggest reviewing your controller's settings to program the DO setting (or similar function name) to cause regeneration to occur after the number of days you choose, without needing to fully disable the gallons countdown meter.

Is the sulfur odour present in only hot water, or both hot and cold? Sulfur odour in only hot will be usually due to a reaction with the WH's anode rod, so if a magnesium rod is currently installed, replacing that with an alternate material such as aluminum, zinc or a powered rod, will usually resolve the issue.

If the sulfur odor is present in both hot and cold water, a softener will not correct that situation, so you may want to consider also installing a backwashing filtration system containing 1 - 1.5 ft3 of catalytic carbon, which I anticipate will resolve the odour issue at point of entry, while also reducing/removing many other contaminants that maybe present.

 

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[mrmoosey]

Thank you so much for your reply. You have been a huge help.

 

[Reach4]

Do not expect a softener to deal with rotten eggs smell.

I would start by sanitizing my well and plumbing. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my write-up.

If the water heater is generating H2S, a powered anode can minimize that production. But sanitizing, including the WH, will help by itself for some amount of time.

A softener can help the rust thing. Culligan softeners are more expensive, and they don't support DIY repair etc. But they do have people to come out , set up, and repair. That works well if you are not so cost sensitive.