Water softeners

[JLamm]

Folks, For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I know nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions? Thanks,

John

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Capacity is mainly related to recharge time, IOW for the most part, a bigger unit only recharges itself less frequently.

[Ross Mac]

I just purchased one from RainSoft for $875 installed and it works great. In my last house I had one from Rayne. The Rayne was more expensive but did have a nice feature that only cleaned the filter dependant on usage as opposed to every few days or so....That uses less salt. Make sure all of your outside water is separated from the inside water and the test it when they leave. On my last install I found that I was using all kinds of salt because they did not separate one of the faucets outside. Yes, half an acre watered with soft water!!...Also you will have a choice of using sodium chloride or potassium chloride. If you don't like the idea of having salt in your water the potassium is actually good for you. Like eating a banana or two a day..... Good luck with whatever system you buy....Ross

[Ross Mac]

I just purchased one from RainSoft for $875 installed and it works great. In my last house I had one from Rayne. The Rayne was more expensive but did have a nice feature that only cleaned the filter dependant on usage as opposed to every few days or so....That uses less salt. Make sure all of your outside water is separated from the inside water and the test it when they leave. On my last install I found that I was using all kinds of salt because they did not separate one of the faucets outside. Yes, half an acre watered with soft water!!...Also you will have a choice of using sodium chloride or potassium chloride. If you don't like the idea of having salt in your water the potassium is actually good for you. Like eating a banana or two a day..... Good luck with whatever system you buy....Ross

[willshak]

On 1/1/2005 10:46 PM US(ET), JLamm took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

I have had one for many years. The first was a Culligan (bought, not rented). I replaced that one with a Sears Ultrasoft 800 a few years ago. The Sears one had all the latest digital amenities, like as needed operation, digital readout of water usage per day, salt level, etc. The 800 is currently on sale for $670. US (til Jan 8, 2005. After which $900). I don't know who actually makes it, but all the Sears softeners have the same 042 (dot) prefix number.

[Samuel Warren]

We built our new house 14 months ago, at 8 months I opened the water heater and was astonished at the amount of build up in the bottom in that time frame. So my wife and I began to entertain ideas and estimates.

We installed a Kinetico 3 months ago, and we love it. We purchased a dual tank system, while one tank is replenishing, the other still supplies the soft water. We got the option where all actions (replenish, flushing, etc) is done by the valve body, thus no electronic board burn-outs to replace every few years. Plus no hit on the electric bill.

Also our system replenishes based on how much water is used, rather than time based like most systems. It cycles every 500 gallons for our water hardness which was 13 grains. So therefore when I had a heavy water load like over the holidays it replenishes more often , and I always have soft water. When my usage is low like on vacation for a few weeks it may only replenish once for that month. Which in the long run saves on salt and water for the replinish process.

It has a lower salt usage in the replinish process than any other system we compared it too. I marked off the original salt level in the Brine tank when it was installed. I checked on it yesterday and it only has gone down about 2 inches, which at that rate I won't need to add any salt for over a year and a half.

It came with carbon filter tanks, a master by-pass valve, a inline filter with a blow-off valve to keep the "dirt" out of the system, 250 pounds of salt, and they even installed a master water shut-off valve closer to my crawl space door for me. We also get two complete resin repacks over the life of our system.

For a grand total of $2300

My advice go with a proffesional system and not these cheesy do it yourself models which have to be replaced every 5 years. You may save money at the purchase, but in 5 years you will buying another system after the "box-store" brand wore out or suffered electronics failure.

My system is warrenty at 20 years, if your purchase 4 (5-year life) systems for an average of $800 a system, there goes $3200, plus the trouble of reinstall. And again many systems replinish based on time and not water usage. So the upfront is more but you save in the long run.

They have tons of "gadgets" to show your water usage and salt usage, but that "junk" is there to impress you for about five minutes and then you will most likely never give it thought again.

My .02 worth.

This message was written on 100% recycled spam. SAM >>

[J Kelly]

You'll need it. Mine needed a complete controller rebuild at 9.5 years, plus new distributor tubes (one was cracked) and resin. Cost me a couple hundred bucks. No warranty since I was not the original purchaser. When I moved I bought a nice system from Gary Slusser at Quality Water Associates, who used to post here all the time. Its using less salt than my Kinetico was using. I couldn't be happier. It cost around $600 for a 48,000 grain unit.