The Culligan softner plumbed in backwards is pretty stuid I’ll give you but it wouldn’t hide the problem your describing. It could very well reduce the presure in the house. A softener is not a filter. Depending on the unit it could function almost perfectly even in backwards.
Most likely it wouldn’t be able to regenerate, so once the resin bed was depleated(1-2 weeks of regular use) you would get untreated water. If the softner doesn’t have a inlet screen(they usualy don’t) the resin bed would be lifted up and forced into the control head(this can be very time consuming for the Culligan man to clean out a good 3-4 hours to disassemble and reassemble). Resin in the control head will reduce flow.
The resin bed could also make it into you pipes throughout the house. Take off one of your airators and look for tiny red or brown beads. If you find them thats what belongs in the softner. having it in your pipes will reduce your flow. To fix that problem just take off the airators and run the water. If you lost a significant amout of bed they’d need to add more to get the softner working again.
You can go off suing anyone you want in the end I don’t think you will find it very fruitfull. If you are handy with legal actions or have a lawyer on call at no cost I’d say go for it you might get something. If you are paying out of pocket to make lawsuits happen you could just be costing yourself more.
Pumps tanks and softeners all fail at some point or another. You will always have to pay for them sooner or later. Unfortunatly in your case you paid for them sooner. The average life on the pump and pressure tank is 10 years. The warrenty for a pump is 5 years on a good one and a tanks tend to only be covered for a year. Based on what you know the pump and tank were not brand new to begin with. If you are succesfull in suing the above what can you reasonable expect to get? I’d think a pro-rated replacement cost on the pump and pressure tank and Culligan fixing their misstakes.
You will find conflicting ‘experts’ all over in these feilds. Many people do not understand how pumps and pressure tanks work to begin with. The building inspectors for the towns generaly don’t know jack about how things should be. I wouldn’t expect a general housing inspector to be any better. Most housing inspectors don’t pretend to know anything about it thus don’t include wells in their inspections.
If you are buying a home that doesn’t have city water it is reasonable to request a well water company do an inspection as a condition of the purchase agreement.
People occasionaly call me when considering a purchase because they see my stickers on equipment. I have records for any work me, my father or grandfather has ever done there. I can give them a rough idea of what future expenses may be. What I can’t do is be 100% certain a peice of equipment isn’t going to fail a day after they buy the house. It’s like buying a used car you can get a lemon. The only thing you can count on is a warenty that will cover anything that goes wrong. Most houses don’t come with those as an option.
If I were in your situation I would accept the fact you had to pay for the pump and pressure tank. I would argue with Culligan for ‘your’ money back on the softner and to have them remove it. Then use that money(plus some more of your own) to buy a softner from a reputable company in the area that won’t put it in backwards.
For reliable imformation on water treatment and to help find a company worth their salt check out wqa.org I recomend Autotrol or Fleck softners
Whatever you chose to do good luck in your endevors.