Water Softeners

[D45]

My subdivision has a community well.....that is also "treated' before sending it out to the 40 houses. Basically just makings the water potable

The previous owner had a softener system, because of the obvious specific plumbing and shut off valves in the basement

The house also had a whole house spin on canister filter

I've decided after living here for over a year, that I need to either purchase or rent system

So........school me on softeners. What features do I look for and what brands are better?

What grain size?

We have two full bathrooms, and one half bathroom.....

 

[jade97]

My new house (2900 sq ft house 2.5 bath) is on a well and I purchased the largest GE Softener ($800 unit I got for around $500).

It seems to work better than the $3000 Ionics System (Fleck Head?) I bought for my last house (municipal water, 1600 sq ft house 2.5 bath).

House has 2 adults & 2 kids 7-11 yo

Just my $0.02

 

[trukkins10]

I bought mine from qualitywaterforless.com . Its the Fleck 5600 metered valve. Very user friendly. Call the help number on the site. They'll ask a couple questions and suggest the best grain capacity for your household. You need to find out the hardness of your water tho. See if your town has that available on their website, or you may need to get your water tested.

 

[Showkey]

Any water softener should be sized to the size of the home and # occupants.

Just getting softener at a big box store might be a risk or guess. Then you need a water test to see what problem or issues you need to resolve like iron, calcium, harness level etc etc. Whole house filter means there might be sand or silt or grit in the water. Sometimes other issues like acidic water or large iron need a separate unit to fix. If the test show general hardness then a big box softener would be fine. Many times you get what you pay for in softeners.

I would only choose a unit that measures use and regen on amount of water used.

My last house had a Kenetico ($$$$) but when l sold it was still working after 17 years.

 

[JonnyMac]

First thing is to get your water analyzed. Only costs a coule couple of hundred. The results will give you a better indication of what to get. Over softening will cause as much trouble as too hard...
Ive just been installing industrial humidifiers and that was the advice of rhe manufacturer.

 

[rburke65]

Only 2 of us in the house and when I needed another softener it was a GE unit at HD. Been ok for 2 years now. I do have a mud/dirt filter ahead of the softener.

 

[PeterT]

I have a Kinetico, it does not have any electronics, it meters the water old school and runs the recharge based on gals.
In previous homes I had GE, or Culligan, but everytime the power would trip the damn things would regenerate.
I think HD does Kinetico now, but I used a local water company. Very happy with it. It was plumbed with a bypass on it, and i accidently flipped it,, after 2 days the water left water stains on everything around the sink, the water was skunky and horrible.
That showed me how important the softener was for me. This is my 2nd Kinetico and I've yet to have a single problem with them.

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

I just bought one from http://ohiopurewater.com, customer service was top notch. They have a form to fill out and they'll recommend one for you.

 

[homebuilt burner]

If you can, reroute it to the ground floor, that would save carrying salt downstairs.

Others have hit it correct, get your water tested first.

PeterT is right no electronics for me either. K.I.S.S.

 

[thammel]

Do what the poster above did - use qualitywaterforless.com or qualitywatertreatment.com. I installed one myself, also a neutralizer, since we're on a well. It's not difficult to do, and as he said a metering Fleck 5600 valve works great. You'll have one fiberglass tank for the media (which is pressurized with the valve up top) and a separate brine tank which is not pressurized. It's really pretty simple.
Tom

 

[vmusch]

Get one free off Craigslist or cheap, rebuild it if needed.

http://www.softenerparts.com/Default.asp

 

[38Chevy454]

Kinetico, was installed at my house when purchased and works good. As said by Peter, it recharges based on usage. All mechanical and no power required.

 

[James-W]

Some places rent water softeners. The rental place will install the water softener for you, and they will maintain it too. That is to say, they will deliver salt and put it in the water softener for you and if there is a problem they will repair or replace the softener for you. You pay a rental fee each month and you pay for the salt you use in the softener. What they charge depends on the area you are in, but around here the charge is about $15 per month for the softener and the salt is about $7 per bag. I say the charge is "about" that amount because there is more than one place that rents them and the cost also depends on how large a unit you are renting.

In any case, you can, if you want to, buy the water softener from them and it is my understanding the price they charge to buy it is competitive with other places that sell water softeners. They may even deduct part of the purchase based on how long you have been renting the softener. I am not saying you should rent one first, I am just saying it is an option that you MIGHT want to look into.

 

[jgorm]

I did a bunch of research and concluded that the carbon filter delivers 90% of the benefits claimed by the softener companies. Granted it won't reduce Ca, but if you don't have very high levels, it won't change much. Softeners use tiny carbon filters that need to be changed all the time. I added 2 huge carbon filters, and 2 prefilters to my house feed. 50-5um gradient-> 1um absolute-> T -> 2 carbon (20x4") ->T->house. It was awesome! No chlorine smell, great tasting water, etc. I oversized the hell out of it and could go 2 years before changing any filter.

 

[trukkins10]

I did a bunch of research and concluded that ... Softeners use tiny carbon filters that need to be changed all the time.

Softeners use tiny resin beads that attract the calcium ions in water. The brine (salt/water) clean the resin beads during a regeneration, so you have constant soft water. Very minimal maintenance on softeners. Resin can last several years, its a contained system.

 

[jgorm]

Softeners use tiny resin beads that attract the calcium ions in water. The brine (salt/water) clean the resin beads during a regeneration, so you have constant soft water. Very minimal maintenance on softeners. Resin can last several years, its a contained system.

I understand how they work, replace a Ca++ ion with a Na+ ion. My point was that a simple carbon filter might be more useful for the majority of people that don't get excessive Ca++ build up on their faucets.

The water treatment industry is full of BS marketing claims, sleazy marketing tactics and salesman, and boat loads of pseudoscience.

 

[thammel]

We have a well and I installed a neutralizer and softener. I drink iced tea - home made. So when the softener is on the fritz, so to speak, (let's say I let the salt get low, or it hasn't recharged, etc.), the iced tea is cloudy. When all is working well, the iced tea is crystal clear. I notice a distinct difference when the water is softened. And the soap definitely suds a LOT better in the shower with softened water.

Now, I did plumb all my outside spigots to an unsoftened line, thinking that the minerals wouldn't hurt my outside stuff. ( I can switch from unsoftened to softened quite easily, the way I ran the lines with valves) And I have 4 outside spigots.

Another tidbit...I ran an unsoftened line to my furnace humidifier. Here's why: Before I did that, my prior AC evaporator coils (A frame) in my furnace had the aluminum fins corrode and basically being eaten away. My materials engineer told me it was the chloride ions from the softened water. So when I replaced the system, I was surely going to switch to an unsoftened line!

Tom

 

[reader2580]

I think HD does Kinetico now, but I used a local water company. Very happy

I bought a Kinetico from the local dealer. He explained that when you buy a Kinetico from Home Depot you are still buying the system through his company. The Kinetico dealer has to pay a $500 commission to Home Depot for each sale. The Kinetico dealer is basically just renting space from Home Depot.

Kinetico really makes nice softeners except for the cost.

 

[D45]

This seems really confusing and complicated......haha

I was hoping to go buy one, install it, and be done

 

[Highbeam]

This seems really confusing and complicated......haha

I was hoping to go buy one, install it, and be done

You can. The first step is knowing what to buy. The companies that sell the quality equipment (I prefer cleanwaterstore.com) will test your water for free and tell you what equipment is required to resolve your issues. They will tell you and give you pictures on how to install it. Ship the system right to your door.

Then you're done.

I am on a well with an iron/manganese/sulfur problem. Not hardness so I don't need a softener even though a softener will remove a little bit of iron it also needs salt and has other undesirable characteristics. I installed a manganese oxide system that removes the things that are bad in my water only. Works great.

Like a previous poster I too have untreated taps and treated taps. It is great fun to have new people taste and smell the difference between treated and untreated water. The lack of staining of fixtures and clothes is the biggest benefit though.

I am a licensed professional engineer in the drinking water industry. I am installing a multimillion dollar version of the same manganese oxide system right now. There are real, scientifically proven systems out there to fix just about everything that could be bad in your water. Start by finding out what's wrong with your water.

 

[Trey T]

The primary objective of quality drinking water in a household is to prevent scale build up, while maintaining a certain mineral content (i.e. calcium & magnesium). Scale build-up is cause by formation of calcium carbonate (primary value of determine hardness) from calcium and magnesium ions present naturally in the water.

The ideal solution is to alter the charges of the calcium and magnesium to prevent the formation of scale (aka calcium carbonate or "hardness"). I've heard of the descaler stuff or non-salt water softener in the market but never really look into it because the technology is fairly new and it's not being studied widely in civil/environmental engineering.

I don't recommend ion-exchange at all because you're introducing other chemical into it, like salt/sodium. If you don't size it properly and remove all of your minerals, your drinking water will no longer be a quality drinking water.

 

[James-W]

You can. The first step is knowing what to buy. The companies that sell the quality equipment (I prefer cleanwaterstore.com) will test your water for free and tell you what equipment is required to resolve your issues.

That's basically what the rental places will do, at least around here they do. Someone will stop by your house, check out the current plumbing and figure out the best place to put everything. They will test the water, explain what you need for equipment, and they will tell you what it will cost per month for the equipment. Obviously, buying a water softener and doing everything yourself will save you money in the long term. But this way they set everything up fopr you and there is no large initial cost.

 

[D45]

Scale build up seems to be my biggest struggle

I drink the tap water and it tastes great, and clothes don't smell either after being washed

It is more to help the pipes and the scale

 

[cbracer]

Or a citrius based system that makes it softer but doesn't remove it. Nuvowater.com
haven't used it yet but the guy at the plumbing place says it's the best at removing scaling.

 

[Lucas156]

I read somewhere that softened water is bad to drink because it doesn't have any minerals for your body like natural water does? I just filter the city water with my fridge filter. We don't have any calcium scale problems.

 

[2talltim]

We have a Rain Soft system and it's been great. The great part is it has a life time warranty on all parts. In 15 years I've paid for 2 service calls at $60 each, one to replace the valve body and a few o rings the second time. They are pricey but I'll pay it for that warranty, my aunt has replaced hers 3 times in thr same span she just keeps buying the ones at lowes.

 

[JimbosGarage]

I have about 2,500 sq. ft. 2- 1/2 baths, laundry room, and kitchen. I bought a sears Kenmore it works great, About $850 hardly ever have to add salt.

 

[Trey T]

I read somewhere that softened water is bad to drink because it doesn't have any minerals for your body like natural water does? I just filter the city water with my fridge filter. We don't have any calcium scale problems.

It's not bad per-se, you can drink distilled water which contains zero mineral (should) but the byproduct of softened water is the amount of sodium and magnesium you'll ingest if druken. Mineral is important which I recommend of not using softener to remove hardness; I looked into the scale remover by electricity and the technology looks promissing and a good alternative to conventional water softening.

Average person consume about 2000mg of salt (sodium) everyday. A softened water will provide about 50mg/L of sodium. If we intake 2L of soften water each day, thats only 5% of your total daily sodium intake.