# Culligan Mark 89, water SALTY after regen.



## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

Culligan Mark 89 Water softener. After the softener cycles, it does not seem to be flushing the brine from the resin tank. I have to run 5-10 gallons of water through the faucet to finally get fresh water. Also seems that there is an unusually large amount of water in the brine tank... Are these related? It is annoying because the ice maker in the fridge keeps getting a dose of salt water late at night. 

Salty ice does not make for a good drink. :wink:


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> Culligan Mark 89 Water softener. After the softener cycles, it does not seem to be flushing the brine from the resin tank. I have to run 5-10 gallons of water through the faucet to finally get fresh water. Also seems that there is an unusually large amount of water in the brine tank... Are these related? It is annoying because the ice maker in the fridge keeps getting a dose of salt water late at night.
> 
> Salty ice does not make for a good drink. :wink:


This should be a simple fix.
Step 1) unit into bypass,,, red in blue out..
Step 2) start cleaning cycle let water stop running to drain
Step 3) on top of the valve body, metal plate with 3 phillp head screws.. remove, careful not to break or cut rubber ring..
Step 4) there will be a screen in 4 plastic arms ... remove and clean screen, and that what is called injector and throat assembly ... 
Step 5) put things back together , return blue in and red out... let unit finish out cleaning cycle..

Step 6) report back here...


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## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

*Actually a Culligan Mark 49*

OK, so I removed the top of the injector/throat assembly. It is a little different than what you described for the Mark 89. I found a "tube" made of mesh. (which I assume serves the same function as the screen you described.) I removed it and cleaned it up. It was 99% plugged with rust. I re-assebled the unit and let it finish cycling.
The softener would then not draw water from the brine tank. A couple of soft taps on the valve body corrected the issue. The unit seems to work as it should. It pre-flushes, then makes brine and pumps it back into the resin tank, finally it does the after flush. The result:

Water salty out of the tap. :furious:

I don't understand how the brine is not being flushed from the resin tank. As I stated, it completes the final flush cycle. Is there a valve that is not functioning properly? Any further insight would be much appreciated.


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> OK, so I removed the top of the injector/throat assembly. It is a little different than what you described for the Mark 89. I found a "tube" made of mesh. (which I assume serves the same function as the screen you described.) I removed it and cleaned it up. It was 99% plugged with rust. I re-assebled the unit and let it finish cycling.
> The softener would then not draw water from the brine tank. A couple of soft taps on the valve body corrected the issue. The unit seems to work as it should. It pre-flushes, then makes brine and pumps it back into the resin tank, finally it does the after flush. The result:
> 
> Water salty out of the tap. :furious:
> ...


Culligan does a backwash at say 4gpm or lots of water and noise for about 6minutes give or take some.. then it does a brine draw and slow rinse for about 50 minutes, again give or take some, 
then a rapid rinse while water is going to the brine tank, then the float in the brine tank will shut off water for the next cleaning cycle and continue out with a few more minutes on the rapid rinse..
Now the times may not be totally correct, been awhile and I have never timed the cycles on the culligan..


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## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

Yes, the brine tank does fill back up during the final cycle. The float rising is what stops this cycle? (This the second loud cycle lasting about 5 minutes.) Obviously all that flush water is bypassing the resin tank for some reason. I assume the inside of that valve body is as gunked up as the screen was. The flush water must be entering the valve body and going straight out the drain hose on the other side.

Maybe I need a bigger hammer... Cast brass can be so brittle. ;-)


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> Yes, the brine tank does fill back up during the final cycle. The float rising is what stops this cycle? (This the second loud cycle lasting about 5 minutes.) Obviously all that flush water is bypassing the resin tank for some reason. I assume the inside of that valve body is as gunked up as the screen was. The flush water must be entering the valve body and going straight out the drain hose on the other side.
> 
> Maybe I need a bigger hammer... Cast brass can be so brittle. ;-)


Culligan does not use a Time refill of the brine tank really in a normal sense, but a float time, when float tops out, water to brine tank stops and there is a few more minutes of rapid rinse..
Might you have a photo of this?
Brass?
Mark 89 is plastic, the Mark 49 is a brass body....


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## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

Yes, Mark 49. I thought I had clarified that in my second post but obviously not. :whistling2:

Anyway, here are a few pics.


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> Yes, Mark 49. I thought I had clarified that in my second post but obviously not. :whistling2:
> 
> Anyway, here are a few pics.


Way cool,,,,, simple rebuild like I did for a friend in TX years ago......

That has the Culligan timer on it.... arg........ but the rest of it is the brass of the Fleck 2510 valve....
Could be that the seals and spacers and the brine piston are in need of a rebuild..
That valve dates back to the 70's, but do not freak, parts that I talk of are in use today in the 2510 so no worries there, that unit could go another 15 years,, might have to replace the resin............ but saving in the long run.


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## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

:surrender: 
Well, this unit is about 25 years old. I'd say it doesn't owe me anything. That being said, how do I proceed? I am a homeowner with amateur plumbing skills. (I installed a full hot water baseboard heating system) I suppose it would be easy enough to repair if I had instructions and could locate the parts. I don't see self repair as an option at this point.
I am curious as to whether culligan would repair this unit. I may be better off to replace it, being the age that it is. I have seen the fleck water treatment systems online with free shipping. Culligan is running a special right now. A pretty decent (and modern) system is $999 plus installation. Do you have any insight on new systems and what might be a better choice? As said before, I have plumbing experience and these are very simple to install.
I don't mind paying extra for a quality unit. (You get what you pay for.) But I also don't like paying for labor when I can do the job myself in a couple of hours. A friend of mine recently paid about $3K for a unit installed, half of that was labor. My budget is about $1500... 

Any insight?


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> :surrender:
> Well, this unit is about 25 years old. I'd say it doesn't owe me anything. That being said, how do I proceed? I am a homeowner with amateur plumbing skills. (I installed a full hot water baseboard heating system) I suppose it would be easy enough to repair if I had instructions and could locate the parts. I don't see self repair as an option at this point.
> I am curious as to whether culligan would repair this unit. I may be better off to replace it, being the age that it is. I have seen the fleck water treatment systems online with free shipping. Culligan is running a special right now. A pretty decent (and modern) system is $999 plus installation. Do you have any insight on new systems and what might be a better choice? As said before, I have plumbing experience and these are very simple to install.
> I don't mind paying extra for a quality unit. (You get what you pay for.) But I also don't like paying for labor when I can do the job myself in a couple of hours. A friend of mine recently paid about $3K for a unit installed, half of that was labor. My budget is about $1500...
> ...


A couple of hours of rebuilding the valve with new parts and new resin and you are most likely in the range of under 400.00
As long as the culligan tank(media) is going strong... you should be able to get another 20 years out of it.
list of items 
Main Piston
Seals and spacers
brine piston or new plastic brine piston assembly
new timer (Fleck 3200 12 day)
brine and main cam 
new brine float assembly
resin if needed..
If the above does the trick and water is good again leave media alone for now and change down the road...

Some will say replace with new, but if current can be fixed then that saves landfill of tank and other parts..

I myself am waiting on a valve like yours to get in so that I can pull parts from with maybe a rebuild in mind for a day that it needs to take the place of another as a core charge..

Just some thoughts ... 
I like using some thing until there is NO Repair possible because there are NO parts for the repair..
Way to many years on a farm and in Bush Alaska where one has to work with what is there ....


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## Lehouillier (Apr 8, 2010)

Do you have any suggestions as to where to find these parts? The timer on my softener seems to work perfectly. It keeps perfect time and always cycles appropriately. The resin seems to be working well also. When it recharges we get soft water for several days. I have the cycle set to recharge every third day. My system seems to work well in every aspect other than the rinse cycle. As previously stated, it fails to flush the brine from the resin, despite the last rinse cycle running as it should. I really believe there is simply a valve corroded and stuck somewhere. My problem is that I have no knowledge of how these valves are assembled or what is inside them for parts. Is there an exploded diagram or a parts list somewhere on the web?


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## Akpsdvan (Mar 25, 2010)

Lehouillier said:


> Do you have any suggestions as to where to find these parts? The timer on my softener seems to work perfectly. It keeps perfect time and always cycles appropriately. The resin seems to be working well also. When it recharges we get soft water for several days. I have the cycle set to recharge every third day. My system seems to work well in every aspect other than the rinse cycle. As previously stated, it fails to flush the brine from the resin, despite the last rinse cycle running as it should. I really believe there is simply a valve corroded and stuck somewhere. My problem is that I have no knowledge of how these valves are assembled or what is inside them for parts. Is there an exploded diagram or a parts list somewhere on the web?


Here is a link to the Fleck 2510 manual..
http://www.pentairwatertreatment.co...eatment/Manuals/2510 Service Manual 40097.pdf
In it you will see what items that will look like what you have on your Mark 49
Here is a link for where you should be able to find the parts for the rebuild
http://softenerparts.zoovy.com/category//
The main reason that I would change the timer would be more control over the Backwash, brine draw/rinse, rapid rinse and the brine refill..
You will see on the timer part of the manual some of the setting for that.

Here is a photo of what I did for the friend in TX with his mark 49
sorry that it is a bit out of focus..


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