Thread: Water Softner Resin

I have a Culligan water softener and if I understand correctly the resin bed has a life expectancy of 10 years.

Can I assume that the resin can be ditched and replaced with new resin? If so does anyone have any ideas as to how to remove the resin without trying to lift the resin tank outside to dispose of the resin since the tank also is weighed down by the remaining water in the tank?

Thank you.

Hi Raymond,

The only thing I have heard of is replacing the tank. Never heard of anyone replacing resin in a tank.

Thanks Gunnar.

Replacing the resin is pretty common. The beads come out very easily, once you drain off most of the water.
They sell resin beads to re-build these units, I'm sure you're water softener supply house has what you need.
Dom.

Thanks Dom,

I have also taken a look on You Tube and found some good videos on the subject.

A note of caution. Yes you can replace the resin but before you go to that expense, turn the water supply off. Observe the tank diameter and while observing have someone turn the water on. If the tank expands due to the pressure in the water supply you might want to consider replacing the entire unit and forget just replacing the resin.

I've never heard of a water softner exploding but they do and will someday leak. If you have to buy a new tank the cost of the resin beads is insignificant.

I would not go by the normal life expectancy of resin to determine if repairs need to be done. I would look at how often I need to do the regeneration process. If when the unit was new I had to do regeneration once every 5 or 6 days, and now I am down to one day, then something should be done.

Some of the resin tanks are accessible to replace the resin and some are not. It depends on the type of unit that you have.

How often you regenerate the unit and your water make up (how hard it is etc.) determine how long the resin will last.

Quite often, all you need to do is have the resin cleaned to bring it back to original capabilities.

If you decide to replace the resin, keep in mind there are all kinds of sizes and types that you will need to pick from. Make sure you get something similar to what you are currently using.

Jeff