Culligan Brine Tank Fills with water

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KeithHen

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I'm not sure how old it is but maybe about 15 yrs., Gold. It's got the digital blue screen, model 01018857.

During Brine Rinse the salt brine tank begins to fill up with water.
Water drains out constantly from the exhaust hose during both the Backwash and Brine Rinse cycles. Total time is about 1 hr. & 50 minutes.
At every new generation cycle, water keeps rising until it finally reaches the tank's float.

Had service on it and they suspected a failed brine valve. This was not a Culligan service person.

I went to the Culligan store and explained the issue and they provided me with a new piston (I think it's the same thing as the valve). I changed it but didn't fix the problem.

I've removed the head and cleaned out all the openings, screens, all other areas that might have had blockages but all was pretty clean.

Any ideas of what else I could try?

Thank you!
 

Taylorjm

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I agree with reach. If your brine tank is pushing water out the overflow then your float switch is bad. Could be lots of reason why it's bad, doesn't really matter when you think about it. Everything has to fail at some point. You should be lucky it's a small part and fairly easy to replace after 15 years of service! Sorry if I sounded condescending, I just had a similar conversation with a customer about why a part failed after 20 years. I told them, does it really matter why it failed after 20 years? Fact is nothing lasts forever. You can either question why something failed, or just fix it and move on. lol
 

KeithHen

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I agree with reach. If your brine tank is pushing water out the overflow then your float switch is bad. Could be lots of reason why it's bad, doesn't really matter when you think about it. Everything has to fail at some point. You should be lucky it's a small part and fairly easy to replace after 15 years of service! Sorry if I sounded condescending, I just had a similar conversation with a customer about why a part failed after 20 years. I told them, does it really matter why it failed after 20 years? Fact is nothing lasts forever. You can either question why something failed, or just fix it and move on. lol

It's all good. Thanks for the responses. I investigated the valve area and all looks fine to me and I'd like to troubleshoot it further but I'll pick up a new one.
 

Old

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It sounds like you *do not* need a new safety float. From your description it sounds like the softener is not drawing brine. Every time the softener regenerates it keeps filling the brine tank with more and more water because the water is not being drawn out.

Do not use a generic safety float on this model. The brine line flow control is located in the the safety float assembly on this unit, not in the softener head like most softeners. Most generic floats do not have a brine line flow control built in. You would also need to match size of your BLFC (.45gpm if I remember correctly) or reprogram the softener to correspond with whatever size BLFC you could get with a generic float. Integrated BLFCs are available for clack/fleck floats but are not common and would likely have to be special ordered. But from your description you don't need a new one anyway.

Did you replace the main piston/seal/spacer pack or just the brine piston and retainer (white thing with metal screen)?

Did you check to see if the injector and screen are clean? Injector and screen are located under the small metal cap with 3 screws right on top of the head. Need to put on bypass before you remove the cap.
 

Reach4

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It sounds like you *do not* need a new safety float. From your description it sounds like the softener is not drawing brine. Every time the softener regenerates it keeps filling the brine tank with more and more water because the water is not being drawn out.
Shouldn't the float stop the water before it overflows anyway?

Do not use a generic safety float on this model. The brine line flow control is located in the the safety float assembly on this unit, not in the softener head like most softeners. Most generic floats do not have a brine line flow control built in. You would also need to match size of your BLFC (.45gpm if I remember correctly) or reprogram the softener to correspond with whatever size BLFC you could get with a generic float. Integrated BLFCs are available for clack/fleck floats but are not common and would likely have to be special ordered. But from your description you don't need a new one anyway.
What does the fill rate matter if it is the float that determines the the fill level? Calibrated BLFCs are important when you fill by time.
 

Old

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Yes the float will stop the water before it overflows. He never said it was overflowing. He said: "At every new generation cycle, water keeps rising until it finally reaches the tank's float". I interpreted that as the water is not overflowing but reaching the float and stopping.

The float on this softener *does not* determine the fill level. It it is a safety overflow float only. Fill level is determined by the BLFC (located in the float valve) and timed refill on this Culligan softener.
 

Reach4

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Water drains out constantly from the exhaust hose during both the Backwash and Brine Rinse cycles.
I mis-read that. I was thinking the overflow from the brine tank, and I guess he meant the drain line.

So my thought of a failed float valve was wrong.
 

KeithHen

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Thanks for new replies. To answer your questions, yes I replaced the brine piston and retainer (white thing with metal screen), and I already had made sure the injector and screen were clean, and yes it wasn't too bad and I then cleaned it fully.

I 'did not' replace the main piston/seal/spacer pack. I took it out and looked at it removing the outer screw-on caps and it did show some wear on the white seals but wasn't sure how abnormal that wear really was.
Is this potentially the issue?
If so, can I just replace the white seals or do I need to replace the whole thing?

Thanks much for your reply.
 

Old

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Thanks for new replies. To answer your questions, yes I replaced the brine piston and retainer (white thing with metal screen), and I already had made sure the injector and screen were clean, and yes it wasn't too bad and I then cleaned it fully.

I 'did not' replace the main piston/seal/spacer pack. I took it out and looked at it removing the outer screw-on caps and it did show some wear on the white seals but wasn't sure how abnormal that wear really was.
Is this potentially the issue?
If so, can I just replace the white seals or do I need to replace the whole thing?

Thanks much for your reply.
Yes next thing I would do is replace the main piston/seal pack. The piston and seals/spacers come as a one piece unit. Replace the whole thing.
 

KeithHen

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Ok, I changed the seal kit and after a new regeneration the water went down to normal depth. This appears to have been the issue.

Thanks for all of your inputs!
 
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