Culligan mark 89 recommended settings, and general questions

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Rcwells

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Hello! I recently bought a house that appears to have a Culligan mark 89! I was told that the previous owner never used it. They lived there for nearly 10 years, and I see that there is a bag of salt in the room next to the softener, so either they lied, or that is one really old bag of salt. The softener is set to be bypassed.

So:
1. I know very little about water softeners except from what I've learned by googling the past 2 days. I did download/print the manual for this model.

2. I think my water has a lot of iron, when I run a bath for my kids, the water has a slight orange tinge. I looked in the back of the toilet tank and it is very coated in orange. I will be sending a water sample to budgetwater on Monday (let me know if they are okay to trust). How well do WS take out Iron? The water tastes/smells fine to me.

3. How should I approach this thing to see if it is operable? I read the manual about how to clean the brine tank, so I figure I'd start with that, but honestly I don't know how to tell if the thing works at all, or WHAT it should ever look/sound like if I set it to be used.

4. Can someone tell me what settings I should set it to? I played with the dials (go me...), and I have no clue what they SHOULD be. I did a search of the forum for this model, and read several of the posts. I see a lot of math, but I don't really understand how the numbers work out. The manual talked about how often you want to flush it, the salt setting, and the float. But it didn't say what recommended settings are.

Thanks in advance for all the help! I hope I don't have to buy a whole new system...

P.S. Does soft water taste salty? I guess I'll find out if I get this working!
 

Rcwells

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I am on a well, this is what I received today from budgetwater.com

PH: 7.6 Iron: 1 TDS: 219 Nitrates: 0 Tannins: 0 Manganese: 0 IB: 0 FR: 0 Hardness: 12 grains
We will be calling you to discuss the fix, you are going to need an iron filter and softener if you wish to make this water better.
When softening water we also recommend you not drink water since it will have salt in it. Removal of salt is done via Reverse osmosis so we will provide you with a treatment system for A-Z fix and you can pick and choose what you wish to do, you are never under obligation to buy anything from us.
So, I'm looking for advice. I dont know what "1" iron means, but he says thats "quite high"
 

Reach4

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1 ppm (mg/L)iron is not "quite high". It is significant. But it is on the edge of where you might let the softener remove the iron vs having a separate iron filter. There are lot of prior threads discussing merits. Some deal with 4 PPM with a softener only, but for that much, separate iron filter is much better.

Do you have sulfur smells? A filter that could handle iron+sulfur could be attractive.
 

Rcwells

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No sulfer smells, water tastes/smells fine. I was concerned with the iron because if I run a bath for the kids, the water has a yellow/orange tinge to it. I'm in this house for the long haul (hopfully), so I want to get it right for the duration (I don't want to keep changing things out every few years).
 

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I'm thinking it might be best to scrap the aged (and probably broken if it hasn't been used in a decade), and replace with the latest/greatest softener out there that would last me a few decades. And maybe that alone will get rid of my iron. The water sample I sent them was from the sink right next to my well pump, the bath is upstairs. Maybe I should get THAT water tested, could it be different? I have copper pipes so no reason for any rust IN the pipes...
 

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That bit about not drinking softened water is bull. Yes, there is some sodium. But considering that you will have maybe 15 mg of sodium per liter and a normal salt intake is around 3000 mg per day, you would have to drink a lot of water to be significant.

Take look at http://www.qualitywaterassociates.com/softeners/sizingchart.htm including the calculator link at the bottom. That should get you started. There will be some variance of opinions, but take a look.

Check your inbox.
 

Rcwells

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Okay, I tinkered with my Culligan mark 89 last night. The main valve (bypass) seems to work okay, and it looks like some of the plumbing works. But I think the motor attached to the timer needs repair. When I told it to do a manual cycle, I heard it hum, but the motor inside never spun the parts around as it should according to the youtube video I watched. There seems to be a fair amount of corrosion on/around those parts as well.

So, do I:
A. call a plumber to come fix this existing water softener
B. buy a new water softener (I'll take any pointers for reliable brands!)
C. Buy a new softener AND Iron filter
 

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Okay, I've been looking at this page regarding my size:
http://www.qualitywaterassociates.com/softeners/sizingchart.htm

I know I want high efficiency of course. I'm looking at Fleck 5000, 5600, and 7000. For my needs (17 compensated hardness, 4 people), I only need 32,000 grains (right?). But in order to get more efficiency from the chart above, I have to get more than 1.0 cuft (1.5 to get 6lp PER ft). But to get more than 1.0 cuft, I have to go up to 48,000 fleck system. So I'm a bit confused at this.
 

Reach4

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I plugged your numbers into http://www.qualitywaterassociates.com/sizing.php and got a bigger size. You may have missed the " __ is the minimum cubic foot size of softener required for your capacity needs."

The deal is that you don't want to attempt to get 32,000 grains of service from a "32,000 grain". That would take 15 pounds of salt per cubic foot, and you still might be short of 32,000. It is a convention that should be viewed as another way to say 1 cuft. Yet everybody does it, so it is not some new creative marketing misrepresentation; it has history.
 
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Rcwells

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Yeah, I saw that it said I needed 2 cubic feet of media, I was just looking at them because according to the charts I needed 32000 grains, and the 32000 grain flecks say "It is also ideal for for homes up to 4 people and less than 20 grains per gallon of hardness in the water".

In order to get 2cuft of media, I have to go up to the 64,000 grain, and the Qualitywaterassosiates site says, regarding 64,000 grain models, "This water softener is ideal for homes with 2-6 people and up to 41-50 grains per gallon of hardness".

So, even tho it says 64,000 grains, and I need 32,000 for my hardness, I want the 64,000 so I can get 2.0 cuft of resin? So I guess now I am between the fleck 64,000 grain On-Demand 5000 ProFloSXT, 5600 SXT, or 7000 SXT. I'll probably get fine mesh to proglong the life due to the 1.o iron. Or am I completely off regarding my math...
 

Rcwells

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Okay, I think I understand the chart a little better, maybe.

To use the chart below, find the Salt Dose Capacity that is closest to the above Total Grains of Capacity needed. Round that up or down to the next 1000. That is the Capacity you will set your control valve/softener for. You will program the salt dose to the Salt Dose (total lbs) above that figure. Then you will calendar override for the number of days between regenerations.

So, even tho I only NEED 32,000, I get the 64,000 tank that has 2.0cuft, and SET the tank to around 32,000, and only use 8-10 pounds of salt to get 3800-3640 efficiency?
 

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Even tho you only NEED 32,000, you get the 64,000 tank that has 2.0cuft, and SET the tank to around 40,000, use 12=2*6 pounds of salt to use about 4080 grains per day efficiently.

It's close. You could go with "48000" tank with 1.5 cuft tank and set the capacity to 30000. Use 9=1.5*6 pounds of salt each regen and still regenerate about every 7 days. With iron, regenerating more often has an advantage. We are figuring that you have 1 ppm iron. Maybe it is 1.5. Maybe it is 0.8. . Either of these two sizes of softener is reasonable. 1 cuft would be undersized.
 

Rcwells

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Okay, I went with the Fleck 7000 SXT 48,000 tank (1.5cuft), standard resin. I'll probably set it to 30,000, use the 9 pounds/regen, and set the DO to 8. As for the rest of the settings, I'd love one of those handy little charts that has the best settings for me! I'd also take recommendations on what salt is recommended (or AVOID AT ALL COSTS). I figure I could just pick it up at the store, or possibly "subscribe" to it online?
 

Reach4

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For salt, you might consider the

Morton Rust Remover Water Softening Pellets which has citric acid which may be all of the treatment you need (I dunno) or

Morton System Saver II Water Softening Pellets which is cheaper than the rust remover version and still has a little citric acid in it.

Here is my version as a starting point for settings if your BLFC is 0.25. If BLFC is different, then at least BF changes and maybe Bd. I make mistakes, so try to see if the numbers make sense.
 

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Rcwells

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My softener arrived today! Unfortunately it was upside down... I took pictures of everything, the cap that was over the pipe in the resin bed was broken off, and some of the resin had spilled out into the box. Also the pipe was not pushed down all the way anymore, I was able to push it down an inch or so until it met resistance.

I sent all this to discount water softener s, but I was wondering if this is not "that bad". I'm not too concerned about the resin loss, it was probably a cup or two of resin that has fallen out. But I'm concerned with the main pipe that had came "up" in the resin bed, I'd heard that that is bad.
 

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Rcwells

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I got my softener installed, seems to be running well! My brine tank has what looks like a waste drain line hose attachment, which puzzles me. I have my brine line hooked up properly, but this extra hole in the tank with this nozzel attached is a little odd. It doesnt connect to anything on the inside, its just a port with a ribbed nozzel for pushing on a hose. Am I just supposed to run a waste line to my drain from here, in case it screws up and overfills?
 

Reach4

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Sounds right regarding the overflow. Even without a cutoff float, the overflow is unlikely. With a cutoff float, overflowing from the brine tank very very unlikely.
 

ditttohead

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The piece you are referring to is a safety overflow and should be run to a gravity drain if the brine tank is installed in a highly water sensitive location, otherwise don't worry about it. It is also used to hold the brine well to the brine tank.
 

joerolando2701

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Hi I have a mark 89 and I'm having trouble removing the seal pack it seems to only come out about an inch before I can't pull it any more any advice? I don't want it to break off inside how hard do I have to pull it?
 
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