Home water softener

[flyenby]

Hi. Need some opinions on home water softeners......thanks

[Jandrews]

We have a whole house softener and R.O. drinking water system. Love everything about it. Very low maintenance. I can't drink tap water anymore...tastes like a swimming pool. And a shower without softened water feels downright crude. Amazing how easy it is to get spoiled by little things.

JA

[Steve Carlton]

Does it replace the need for a stool softener? Be nice to kill two birds with one stone...

[billybek]

Put in a Water Boss softener last year.
So far so good....

[Neilk]

How much does a whole home water softener with RO cost? We got a quote for $4,500, which is more than I really want to pay. Am I getting hosed, or is that really the price?

[Evans, Marv]

When I built my house, I talked to a couple of softener companies. Their prices at the time were $3K - $3.5K. I went online and bought the parts for a softening system for around $1,100 with twice the capacity the companies were offering. The parts for the system they were offering were around $700 to $800. The plumber installed it as part of the plumbing cost, so I can't do much of a job of estimating that part. The system I bought was a top rate system & I'm very happy with it.

[wdfifteen]

Test your water to see how hard it is. This will tell you how big of a water softener to get. I buy $500 units from Lowes and figure on replacing them every 5 years or so. My latest Whirlpool is 8 years old and going strong. If you go that route make sure you get one that regenerates based on water flow and not time. You have to add salt every month or so and clean the injector every six months or so. I have drinking and cooking water delivered and rent a water cooler/dispenser from the water company.
It all costs me about $800 a year.

[Cajundaddy]

Personally I am not a fan of water softeners unless I lived in an area like Phoenix with incredibly hard water. Why you ask?

Softeners remove all of the calcium and replace it with sodium or potassium depending on your system. They do not significantly improve taste or purification, only remove the calcium. A little calcium is a good thing. It puts a gentle coating on the inside of pipes and fixtures which prevents things like plasticizers, copper, iron, and lead from leaching into your drinking water. Think Flint Michigan. Modern folks already ingest too much salt and often not enough calcium for good health.

The softened water does feel good and improves soap efficiency but for most the cost far outweighs the benefits. It is a useful tool that is heavily oversold. If your water has moderate hardness <200mg/L consider an active carbon filter instead. About $50 for an under-sink type with common sized filter available anywhere. They remove many contaminants, taste like fresh mountain spring water, and are very low cost. Change the filter every 3 months.
http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/carbon-water-filter.php

Disclaimer: plumbers and water purification installers who make their living installing expensive Softeners and RO systems don't appreciate my opinions very much but the science and taste issues are accurate. Choose wisely.

[Oracle]

One word: Kinetico
Lifetime warranty.

[mreid]

Another word Aquasauna. Best I've owned and most importantly, no salt!

[unclebilly]

We live in the country. Our well water is terrible.

We have a cistern and a Costco water softener to knock out the iron.

We use a RO with a remineralizer for our drinking water.

The Costco water softener is $600 and it works fine. If you don't like it, take it back.

You don't want to soften your drinking water - adds salt.

[oliverjane]

I have a DuraWater twin tank water softener. Each of its tanks has 1.5 cubic feet of resin and a 48,000-grain capacity. I had this complete system set up in our large home for our family of five. Considering the substantial water consumption of the family, comparing an all in one vs two-part water softener, I believe a two-tanked water softener like this is more convenient for a larger household like ours.

[flatbutt]

My water softener uses resin to demineralize the water. The salt is used to recharge the resin.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

Personally I am not a fan of water softeners unless I lived in an area like Phoenix with incredibly hard water. Why you ask?

Softeners remove all of the calcium and replace it with sodium or potassium depending on your system. They do not significantly improve taste or purification, only remove the calcium. A little calcium is a good thing. It puts a gentle coating on the inside of pipes and fixtures which prevents things like plasticizers, copper, iron, and lead from leaching into your drinking water. Think Flint Michigan. Modern folks already ingest too much salt and often not enough calcium for good health.

The softened water does feel good and improves soap efficiency but for most the cost far outweighs the benefits. It is a useful tool that is heavily oversold. If your water has moderate hardness <200mg/L consider an active carbon filter instead. About $50 for an under-sink type with common sized filter available anywhere. They remove many contaminants, taste like fresh mountain spring water, and are very low cost. Change the filter every 3 months.
http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/carbon-water-filter.php

Disclaimer: plumbers and water purification installers who make their living installing expensive Softeners and RO systems don't appreciate my opinions very much but the science and taste issues are accurate. Choose wisely.

THe water at our place is well water, and we have a particulate filter for the house. THe taste is good. I had an aunt/uncle that had a well and softener system. I don't know if it was their well water or the result of the softener, but I couldn't drink their water or even tea made with their water. To me it tasted like a low sodium blood. I assume their water was full of iron.

I'd like a little less scale build up on our fixtures, but it's not worth paying a ton to install a softener, especially if that's going to affect the taste or make it feel like you can never rinse soap off (another thing that I noticed at my aunt/uncles house).