Water Softeners

[Dorot29701]

We are in the market for a new water softener. We tried repairing our old one but it got too expensive so we are going to buy a new one. So far the only two brands we've seen are Whirlpool at Lowe's and GE's at Home Depot. Does anyone know anything about these? The price seems dictated by how many gallons it will treat...but we don't know anyone who has used these brands of water softeners. Thanks. We would like one that will last at least five years.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Why not get one that will last 10 or 20 years? Consider

among other good brands. Look for a dealer on their web site or the hone book. we use one at work and put a minimum of

8,000 gallons a day, sometimes as high as 14,000 gallons a day through it. Last week it had its first repair in five y ears of service and it took just a couple of minutes. Considering the design and simple modular parts replacement, I expect to get another 10 years out of it, maybe more.

Lowes and HD tend to sell mediocre bands at the lowest possible price, not the best overall value. Shop around.

[Rich]

Water Boss would get my vote. I had one that was so great the only problem was I would forget to add salt it was so efficient and only generated on demand.

Rich

[Dorot29701]

It's a Water Boss we are replacing. Bought it in 2001. After ordering a series of parts that didn't help, we have decided to just stop and instead of getting another more expensive part, to just get a new water softener. Glad you had better luck with yours....

Rich wrote:

[Rich]

The only thing I ever had to do to mine was the timer they have a plastic gear there to act as a mechanical fuse it fails so the clock doesn't stall and burn out cost $8 to replace and was golden for a few years after that. What parts did you need to replace? I found the unit so easy to work on it was worth the effert to fix. But I guess YMMV?

Good luck, Rich

[SJF]

You should read the thread at --

My GE unit failed as indicated after two years. I got it fixed as indicated in posted item #12 and have my fingers crossed that additional wear might bring a repeat of the problem. Two previous units, not GE, averaged twenty years each with some minor DIY repair.

Most of the softeners sold at retail stores branded GE, Sears, Wal-Mart, etc use the same control valve. Similar problems have been reported for the Sears units.

Before the fix, I searched for presumably more reliable units and found --

which has Fleck 5600 units for about $500. I have no experience with this firm, but purchase using a credit card should be pretty safe.

SJF

[Robert Gammon]

Fleck like several mfgs, offer units with timers, and units with demand driven regeneration. Demand driven is more flexible as it only refreshes the resin when needed, and may save several regens a month.

I have a Economizer 5600 after the previous unit failed due to a lightning strike on the power lines. We have had it for over 4 years and no problems with it at all, other than getting it to regnerate when we want, we think that it does it too often.

[SJF]

[SJF]

Demand driven units have an adjustment for your local water hardness. If this is set too high, the unit will recharge too often. If it's a self installed unit, check the manual for instructions. If commercially installed, the installer should have done better. Perhaps they will still make the adjustment. For information on water supply hardness, call your local water supply utility or you can get hardness test kits (aquarium supply stores have them).

SJF

[Robert Gammon]

I know the hardness, previously tested at 10 grains.

The issue is that the combination of grains of hardness, and number of people in the household do not match with the control indicators on the control head, at least when I tried it several times before. Went back and tried it again while looking at the user manual, and this time rotated it almost completely through the entire range of the People dial before I could align with 10 grainss hardness. The way i had it set before, with 2 people and 10 grains hardness, it regnerates several times a week, 40 lbs of salt goes in a flash!!