Water Softener Advice needed..

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Jun 7, 2005 | 08:58 PM

Fair 96

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Laughing Gas

Joined: Jul 2004

Posts: 769

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Water Softener Advice needed..

Hello all

Well my truck is currently running fine so I guess I got no more excuses for not installing a Water Softener. I am unfamiliar with them but I do know I would like to purchase one and not rent it. I went to lowes and they have Whirlpool and of course Sears has Kenmore and then Menards has another brand. My concern is what to buy and how hard are they to install. I want a decent one but dont need all the bells and whistles. Just a good dependable one. Also wondering about the regeneration is it automatic or do I program that for a set number of gallons or am I not able to control that. Anyone have any suggestions. Our water is very hard and I am tired of lime wrecking our faucets, we are a family of 4. I tested and the water is about a 25 or more according to the home test strip . Also should I run a line to bypass the softenre for drinking water. Was thinking of only doing that to the cold side of the kitchen sing and our 2 outside watering faucets.
Thanks any help appreciated....

Jun 7, 2005 | 09:39 PM

ColtM4

Elder User

Joined: Dec 2001

Posts: 527

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From: Central WA USA

From what I have been told, get a ecowater they are a bit more expensive up front but can be repaired if need be. I'm told kenmore and the home depot type stuff is unitized and cannot be serviced if you need parts. I have a manual regeneration/timer, but it came with the house, if I were to get a new one, I'd buy automatic regeneration, they are just more efficient. I regenerate whether I use water or not which is a waste, but that is what timers do. From what I can tell if you can sweat copper pipes and install ball valves and unions and can run plastic drain tube to a drain, it is easy. Minor wiring required, plug in for many units. Run bypass for outside hose bibs, you don't really need to water plants with soft water unless you use it to wash cars. If at all possible you want soft hot water and soft water to the kitchen and bathrooms.

Jun 8, 2005 | 12:32 AM

bigdaddyII

Postmaster

Joined: Oct 2004

Posts: 4,155

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From: Southern Louisiana

One of the best water softners on the market today is the Kinetico system. It regenerates itself automatically and uses 2 diffrent sets of tanks, so it regenerates itself with treated water and also gives you the benefit of having soft, treated water while it is regenerating. The company comes out and installs it as well as services it and it comes with a drinking system for your sink. It is a bit expensive but I promise you it is worth it. Dont mess around with the stuff from sears and other stores of the like. They do have good systems, for about a month, than you have to start changing filters and stuff. Whats the point of having a water softner if you have to continuosly worry about it? Also, the Kinetico system runs on the pressure of your water lines, so when the electricity goes out, you can still have treated water.

Jun 8, 2005 | 07:48 AM

mleichtle

Senior User

Joined: Jun 2003

Posts: 165

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I was told you need to check for clear water iron also, that will tell you what size you need. Sears does the test for free, they use the drops instead of the strips which are more accurate. Most newer ones run by how many gallons you use, just punch in your hardness number, keep it full of salt and walk away. You set it to what time of day to go off.

Oct 29, 2019 | 10:50 PM

ford2go

Cargo Master

Joined: Apr 2003

Posts: 3,476

Likes: 224

From: Frequently frozen MN

We got one just for a particular problem -- it's a Fleck ( I think) or possibly another obscure, but commercially successful brand.

The deal is that our plumber steered us to a local company thasnd they t recommended an appropriate size setup-- and helped quite a bit with what to expect. They did do the install, but it wasn't outrageous. System works well and we I'm pretty sure that it's sized correctly.

The only bad deal was that I initially set it up to drain outside because we have a septic system. I like to limit what goes in there. Not a good plan - the drained water killed grass in that area and the weeds came in -- still working things out.We drain in the septic now and it seems ok.

I've done a lot of stuff myself and it's usually worked out. But for something like this you might want to see if there's a small local company that deals in several brands. Our system has parts from 2 different companies. We lucked out in the company that we used but YMMV.

You didn't mention Culligan -- they used to be the big deal. The will sell their systems as well as rent them. At least they used to -- we had one in my first house.

Good luck,

hj