repair for Culligan water softener valve stuck - No More E1 code! 

There is no way I’m going to try this myself, but thanks for taking the time to do this. Very helpful for people that are mechanically brave. You also helped me to realize that I just need to call culligan and have a professional take care of it.

Don’t use petroleum lube. Use a water base lubricant like silicone lubricant. The petroleum lube will jell over time and cause major problems. Plus you don’t need to remove the entire valve. It can be serviced while still on the tank. Just bypass water and pull the piston seal pack. Clean in and lube.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this video. It saves us anywhere from $1600-$9k as we were considering taking the advice of plumbers and replacing the unit. Our unit too had all of the same errors yours did, but we followed step by step and it works just fine now. Liked and subscribed, keep it up! 👍

Like the video. Good comments below also about not using petroleum lube. To start, this did solve my problem. The plunger was really stuck in there. As a warning, when you pull out the plunger, be careful! I broke mine in half and had to order a new one. Luckily I found it online for $200. After the install of the new one, everything has been back to business as usual. Glad I found this video and it's still relevant as of this posting. Thank you House Doc!

I was going to take the whole valve body apart, then got stuck when I couldn't get the control housing off. I then turned to this video. After watching the video, I realized that I actually had to take apart very little, just enough to get the main valve spool out. I cleaned up as shown and it works great now. This video saved a lot of time and money. Thank you.

Thank you! Your video helped me fix my water softener. Culligan parts were $200, but saved a technician's trip fee!😊

Followed your instructions to a tee and now have a working water softener. Thank you so much!

Wow, thanks alot! Had culligan repairman out here at least 3 times. It would work a little while and then get stuck again! This should save me alot in repair costs. Thank you so much!

I did exactly what Ray said, with the exception of removing the guts from the tank. E1 code problem fixed. Thank you!!!

Thanks so much for the video. I thought I was in over my head but your step by step instructions proved to be a lifesaver.

Haha I’m glad I watched the whole video and didn’t take it all apart right away!

Thank you for the excellent video. I followed your lead, I used the food grade silicone grease and it works like a champ. Thank You teacher. 🙏🏼

I just followed along disassembling everything, rinsed the screen on the first little white piece without ever taking out the bigger black piece. Put it all back together and it’s working. Thank you!

Cannot thank you enough for this video. I have a very very old culligan with no digital features. It would not shut off no matter what I did. I did exactly what you showed and if fixed the problem. Was thinking I was going to be out $600-$800 on a replacement. Kudos!

Thank you for the video! Your a life saver! I'm sure you saved a lot of people a lot of money. 👍👍👍👍👍

Awesome video, thanks Ray! I have a slightly newer unit but everything was basically the same; only difference was instead of two screws holding the valve body to the bypass valve there are two pins, so even easier to take off and replace. Main valve was even more stuck that yours. I got some o-ring grease from Home Depot and after reassembly it went through a full regen no problem. Even if it happens again I now know how to replace if needed. Saved me the time and money of calling the culligan man for such an easy fix!

hey, just did this due to the E-1 code. my softener is very much like the one here, maybe one version newer. worked great. did not need to remove the motor unit from the softener - just took the parts off as you described with it all connected to the tank. took the piston, metal rod, black hollow cylinder valve, and all filters off. my filters were actually pretty clean. went out and bought some danco grease and gooped it on the piston, metal shaft, and o-rings. my piston was pretty much stuck, which was the problem, so a bit of grease helped with the movement. just a couple of plastic parts operates this whole thing. just ran a regen mode and it went through without the E-1 code. success. thanks!

This video was very helpful. I followed it step by step and worked out well. Probably saved me hundreds of dollars. Thank you

Just another guy saying thanks. My softener was passing to the drain line, no error code showing but I could hear it and see it in the floor drain. I pulled the main shaft out and it was really sticky. I'm surprised that little motor could move it. I cleaned everything up and that seems to have solved the problem. So thanks for showing how to dismantle everything. The only thing is I wouldn't use vaseline, it can degrade plastic and rubber. I used silicone lubricant instead.

Thanks alot! Great video and excellent step-by-step. Appreciate it. This helped me solve my leaking valve.

Hi Ray, Great Job Man! Much appreciated! The price of that valve assembly is outrageous. I have a few O-rings to replace in my unit the challenge is to get the right ID, OD and cross-section. Your video will help me . Thanks

Thanks for the help. I had an old manual timer and was able to access the valve without taking off from the tank. Got a slight leak, may need more Vaseline than I applied.

Thank you so much! did this on my unit today and so far so good.

Man, this is a fantastic video. Thanks a ton!

Excellent, informative video, thank you! Following your advice here, my E1 code is cleared.

Good video! I have almost...the identical unit. My motor is stuck and was considering getting an entire new unit since it’s 17 years old, but I’ll give this a try first! Thanks again!

awesome, just saved me $200 + dollars, I did not have to remove unit from tank as you said

Thanks Ray , This is very informative . I had the same problem , several times with E 1 error code . Couldn't find any to fix the issue. Not mentioned in the manual DCO190687 03/20 either . Followed as you demonstrated . Works fine. thank you again ..

thank you very march! 谢谢您！

Thank you for the video.. my unit is a bit different, but I got it up and running in an hour and so far, so good.. Saved me $600

Nice work! I do all my own fixing also. I was going to say something about you using a petroleum product for lubing O rings and seals but it looks like a few people beat me to it! But I'll add this. Petroleum will attack the rubber over time and can trap bacteria. Silicone grease is the right choice here. Other than that I really enjoyed watching your videos.

Awesome video very simple thanks

Thanks!

Thanks for the help

hey culligan man here, nothing wrong with what you did to get it working but a big no no is the petroleum jelly use faucet grease petroleum eats rubber so your gaskets will fail prematurely vs using faucet grease

I would suggest to leave the control on the tank. The white crust you see on the motor is a small leak that happens probably only in regen from the brine piston on top. This needs replaced with the seal pack or lower piston because a bad piston causes the code. The seals on the piston are torqued to a certain ft/lbs and shouldn't be taken apart. The white seals on the piston where originally black. Turning white is a sign that they are no longer good and may tear leading to a constant trickle of water to the drain. Vaseline also destroys rubber. Use silicone valve grease. It's cheap and won't destroy the rubber orings.

Sorry to comment twice, but I tried to comment to your comment to my comment - and I guess that is just too much for RU-vid! Thank you, House Dr. Ray. You saved me hundreds of dollars. Honestly, for the Culligan Man to step into my garage, it starts at $200. A few notes. Some people report that petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline) should not be used. I tried in further investigate this, and this claim is challenging to fully accept at face value. The best I can say is the petroleum jelly “possibly, but not likely” could be a problem. Which is pretty vague. But silicon gel lube is likely better regardless - due to its reported longevity. And at a price close to $5 on Amazon (for SuperLube) I would simply use this instead - if you can wait for it to arrive. Next, if the top screw is just impossible for you to access and remove, then it is not a big deal to remove a single screw holding the switch assembly, and then remove the C-clamp holding that big white cam the sits in front of the top screw. This really only adds a few minutes to the overall procedure.

Thank you!!!

Sure on it. Thanks . Can you now come over put it all together

***HEADS UP BEFORE YOU START*** It worked like a charm. HOWEVER, after moving the resin tank out to take off the control head and then putting it back, it stirred up A LOT of sediment that went throughout my water lines affecting my dishwasher, water heater, wash machine, faucets and shower heads. It took a lot of work to get things up and running in the house, still waiting for more appliance malfunctions!

That "little Wire" is from the water flow sensor. There is a turbine inside the pipe with a magnet that triggers a Hall Effect sensor switch, telling the softener how much water is flowing through it.

I just had to fix this Error. My device just calls it “ERR 1”. It sounded like the back flush was running non-stop, but it may have been at a slower rate. The problem appears to be a that long black piston assembly. It gets stuck, in an open position, so the water keeps running. I did all of the work right on the water softener - you don’t have to take it off. First put the water on bypass and that stops the non-stop running water. Then unplug the unit. I did disconnect the drain line (took seconds) and some water ran out. I believe that may be useful to do. Then I lifted the plastic housing off exposing the motor. The two screws at the bottom holding the sliding plate are simple to get out. Not so much for the one up top. A small ratchet wrench or socket wrench might work, but I had none. I had to use a small slotted driver in the Phillips screw - not elegant, but it worked. Then you can pull off the motor assembly. This exposes the big black piston assembly at the bottom. Yank that out as the video shows. Mine was stuck and hard to move as well. I had to take the whole thing apart to get the piston out. I cleaned it up, lubed it up, and put everything back together - and it is working fine. Now, after I took off the bottom 2 screws and removed the sliding plate, I plugged it back in and tested it. The motor ran as expected and it reset the system to is appropriate resting position. This confirmed that the big black piston was the problem, and by reseting the position it makes it easier during the reassembly phase - the black piston needs to be fully pushed in.

great video ! I hate the brand though, they are very close source. I have a medallist and ended up buying a water2buy 200 for 400 bucks. will try to repair the medallist and sell it as I changed the resins myself 4 years ago. BTW not recomended to use petrol based grease on O rings, there are silicon water based lubricants for that. The diff vs the medalist is the connection to the bottle, your model has an adapter I can see changing from two tubes from the valve into one big threaded one (with the barcode) for a standard bottle? (maybe). I will use the salt recipient of the medallist adapted to the model 200 the hybrid may be the best of both. Thanks

Hey I'm gonna give this a shot this week. Just a question for now though, this is the first house I've owned with a water softener, I've been getting this E1 error for quite some time now. I wasn't aware of the bypass because that side is so close to the wall, so for the last few months I've just been unplugging from the wall and plugging it back in to clear the error / stop the draining. Do I have to worry about any damage or bad water in the meantime until I can follow these steps and try and fix it?

Got everything taken apart, cleaned, lubed, and put back together again. Then I plug it back in and the screen doesn’t display anything now. Can’t get any codes or anything to appear on the screen. It has a dim green backlight so I know that power is at least running into the unit. Any idea what happened or what I need to do to fix it from this point?

i snapped the seal pack assembly near the top when putting the piston back in. What are the chances JB Weld can repair the plastic?

Nice video. Any recommendations on troubleshooting a Culligan water softener that is not using any salt?

I have question. I followed your video instructions,and when trie to see it worked . The motor would go thru 1 and 1/2 cycle and stop. Any suggestions.

An even quicker way to fix is to unplug the power to the softener and let it sit for five minutes, if it restarts with a 12:00 just restart! Maybe it was a power surge??? You may have to refill the brine tube up to the float.

Thank you! Great video. Unfortunately my plastic shaft broke, it was very stuck and when I pulled it out it broke. Do you know the reference or what is the exact name of this part?

I replaced all the subject valves, brine screen, and piston with new ones, but didn't saturate the parts with silicone grease. The motor, cam, and associated parts worked for five minutes, with or without water, and then stopped with the phone icon displayed ... indicating service attention required. Does this imply the E 1 code? Also, when I unplug the transformer and run the water in service mode, the drain hose continuously passes water until I operate in bypass mode. My micro-switch does not appear to engage the cam at all throughout the entire revolution. I would appreciate your comments. Thanks Ray.

Anyone know size for piston O-Ring (i think needs 7 piece) for Culligan gold series. or where to buy from?

Hello and thank you for your helpful video. I woke up today and found a E1 code. My unit is similar to yours, if not the same one. So I unplugged it for 10 minutes today to "reboot it" per your advice. When I plugged it in, the E1 is gone but the flashing phone icon is still there. Now my concern is that when I unplugged the unit, I kept hearing water running for the whole duration. It is still running now. Why is it doing this and what should I do about it? Please respond because I don't want any further damage. Thank you.

So do you still think that you have to remove the whole thing or can I just remover the the motor without removing the tank?

What was that last grey wire you removed? Mine does not have that

I work for culligan you can do all of this with out taking the whole head off just take the motor off and pull the piston out and grease it up and please don't use Vaseline it's petroleum based wich is gas that will eat away at your gaskets use silicone grease please I rebuild these units all the time they are good units

Why engineers don't prefer to use selonoid valves to contol the water ? for more smooth pass ? or not to stress the tank ? thank you

You should never use vaseline on O-rings. Always use plumbers grease or silicone grease. That stuff will not swell and soften the rubber seals like vaseline or petroleum grease will.

The last wire you plug behind the by pass valve is a FLOW METER. Please don't be stuck again USE SILICONE GRASE not petroleum grease because gonna change by time . Please don't take apart the tank just the motor mechanism

When can you come over and fix mine?

Water from the discharge house keeps running. I did exactly what you did, but the water keeps discharging. Any ideas as why and how to fix it, other than yanking out this useless system?

Can some one tell me if the white plate is to fit around the piston?

First of all, if it’s running at the drain, 99% of the time it’s a bad piston. You don’t need to take the valve off. Wear and tear parts usually run about $250 to have repaired and rebuilt ,generally last 5-8 years depending on the water quality. Cleaning the piston is a short term fix. Those seals are factory torked. Vaseline is the worst thing for seals, you need silicone! Vaseline will ruin the seals. Unfortunately your repair won’t last.

WOW and Culligan is trying to charge me over $600.00 for a new motor!

The Grey wire measures your water useage

Much easier to do while sill on tank...- cull tech

Do not do this! 😂 so complicated...

Do not do this. In two months you’ll end up calling Culligan. Trust the experts.

Thanks for the help

Thanks!