You'll be better off with your Culligan than any box store softener.

Call the Service manager at Culligan and tell him/her that you'll have your softener rebedded at the quoted cost of $300 plus $150 for the service call if they will apply a credit for the $150 you've already paid and ask what the warranty on the new resin will be.

Another option is to look in the Yellow Pages for independent water treatment companies. They will be the ads with no brand name. They can re-bed your Culligan with generic (industry standard resin). They may be less expensive or they may not.

Another option is DIY. Depending on the size of your resin tank new resin will cost more than $100 and less than $200 for 10% cross-linked resin. Replacing resin can be a PITA, messy job if you're not experienced and/or careful. Spilled resin spreads quickly (like spilled gasoline) and is tough to pick up. If you're not mechanically inclined don't do it.

Thanks for the info. Yellow Pages? What's that? ;)

I'll give Culligan a call next week, and hopefully they'll agree to waive/credit the new service charge.

Just for comparison, what size is your Culligan? If there's a # like 948 or 1054 in the model # or what is the height and diameter of the resin tank?

Tank diameter is 10" and height is 55". I have no idea what the model number is. The manual only says "gold series", and the original order and subsequent paperwork has even less info.

FWIW, the system is outside the house, protected only by a vinyl cover over the controls (which was added well after the system was installed, and after the sun did its damage to the plastic, thanks to the original Culligan installer who failed to even mention this need. The cover was added by a friendly technician who fixed the system a couple of years ago after high input pressure blew a seal. Can you tell I'm somewhat disenchanted by our local Culligan dealer?)

No business bats 1000 and techs come and go. You say you got 8 years of reliable service from the Culligan and chlorine does degrade resin so a re-bed is normal and $300 if they credit you for the $150 you already paid isn't a bad deal.

As I said, one option is to find a local INDEPENDENT water treatment company for repair or replacement.

Just for the purpose of discussion... your Culligan is a 1.5 cu ft softener. IF it was sized correctly for your water conditions and usage a replacement industry standard softener from an online seller would run you under $600 delivered plus the cost of an environmental cover for the control valve. You'd have to assemble the softener, plumb it in, and program the control valve. You can get a plumber to do the hook up and we can help you do the programming. If you're not willing to learn how it works and service it yourself (some people are and some people aren't) then you'd still have to find an independent pro to service it for you.

If you go this route you need to get your water tested and provide some additional info and details to properly size the softener.

Very good point about the 8 years of service, and I really should focus on that and not some of the relatively small issues I've had. I think what got me was their comment about chlorine effectively voiding the warranty, when nearly every municipal water system I've experienced uses chlorine for treatment. Makes me wonder why they'd even put a warranty on the resin in the first place. The 3rd party repair option will definitely be considered, as well.

That's good info about a possible replacement, and the caveats about going that route. Ordinarily I'd be willing to do much of the work myself, but in recent years that available time has become more and more limited. Most weekends I'm "lucky" if the lawn gets mowed!

Your comments here are appreciated, as are those I've been reading on other threads.

Don't confuse the ethics of the marketing department with the competency of the engineering or production departments... they live in different universes.

AFAIK no softener company offers a lifetime warranty on the resin. Some do offer a lifetime or 10 year warranty on the resin TANK.

Think of the chlorine deteriorating the resin the same as the highway wearing down your tires. Both the resin and the tires are consumables and have a finite life and must be replaced when worn out.

Frankly, I would have expected the service tech that was there to offer you a re-bed at that time for $300 plus the $150 he was gonna charge you for the service call and made you a happy customer. That is what you have to discuss with the Culligan service manager or better yet the owner.

The problem may be as simple as a plugged outlet manifold. This can be pulled and cleaned. I really can,t see the resin degrading to the point of pressure loss in eight years. Unless there is abnormally high chlorine residual in the water supply. Adding a carbon tank before the softener to remove the chlorine will certainly extend the life of the resin and give your family much higher quality water.
RJ

"The problem may be as simple as a plugged outlet manifold"

In THIS instance the Culligan service tech was on-site and diagnosed the problem as a resin problem and priced the repair which was replacing the resin. If the OP agrees to the repair (regardless of price negotiations) and that is NOT the problem then the OP should refuse to pay.

"Adding a carbon tank before the softener to remove the chlorine will certainly extend the life of the resin..."

It will, but at the risk of removing the anti-bacterials from ALL the water in the house. A subject of great debate among water treatment and (public) health professionals. Re-bedding a softener at 8, 10, or 15 years is a maintenance cost far offset by the reduced cost of premature plumbing, fixture, appliance repair or replacement, and the money saved by using far less detergent and clothes lasting longer afforded by a water softener.

"... and give your family much higher quality water"

A completely subjective opinion and also a subject of great debate.

Closing the loop...

Culligan did return to pickup the softener to rebed it. No service charge, and they added a 10% discount. The tank was only gone for a few days and was returned by the end of the same week. Water pressure has returned! That, and we again have wonderful, glorious soft water.

All things being equal the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

You've found a water treatment company that apparently values its customers and treats them fairly.

And thanks for letting us know how it turned out.

Or an even simpler and maintenance free solution is electronic water softeners, a new technology where you don�t have to deal with salt or maintenance, units are affordable, and have a 10 year warranty. And they WORK. Pretty cool, we have been happy with our Scalewatcher 3 star. Try aquagenesisusa.com they have a lowest price guarantee for the Scalewatcher, there�s also EasyWater, it�s a lot more expensive though but they also wirk. Best of luck.

So, you joined this forum to post an ad for your company. Are you incapable of reading the site TOU which expressly prohibits what you just did, or did you just choose to ignore the rule and attempt to steal advertising space?

Regardless, your "expert" opinion about softening is worth exactly nothing as you have quite handily demonstrated a marked lack of understanding of the process. Further, $800 to rebed a softener is highway robbery. For your customers' sake, I certainly hope your well drilling knowledge is greater than your softener knowledge.

Have a nice day!

I have a similar Culligan model, but it has a filter screen up top at the distributor tube that appears to make it near impossible to remove the tube. I have not figured out how to get the screen out and already slightly damaged the plastic in trying to pry it out after emptying much of the resin and water. Nothing on the Internet about this. Other than this, it should be easy task per all the instructional videos online.

For everyone who told you to buy resin from some third party company you found on the internet enjoy having the same issues but even more so before. Anybody can buy cheap resin from China and label it the same as resin made in the USA but it won’t come close to giving you the same results. As for no systems offering a true lifetime warranty that’s not accurate because Eco Water and rain soft are the only two companies I have come across who truly do offer a lifetime warranty on their top packages. Oh yeah and another thing both of those companies I mentioned DO NOT VOID LIFETIME WARRANTY WHEN CHLORINE OR CHLORAMINES ARE PRESENT BECAUSE THEY FILTER THEM OUT. Have a good day!