Buying water softener

Looking at replacing water softner in new house. 4 people with pretty hard water. Know very little about them. Any recomendations, ones to as void, useful information would be appreciated. Hopefully mid price range. Culligan quoted 1200 for least expensive model. Would likely pu in myself. Thanks in advance

Geoffrey

If you’ve got pretty hard water, I’d avoid the “big box” store models. We had ours replaced last summer. We’ve got really hard water, and I knew a store-model wouldn’t handle it. I had Culligan and two other contractors out. I ended up using Dakota Water Treatment and have been pretty happy with the softener–definitely an upgrade over the 22-year old Culligan that was on its last leg.

Kinetico… going on year 13 for us, no issues.

Another vote for Kinetico. They’re not cheap but you get what you pay for.

It’s non-electric and uses very little salt. I’m very happy with mine so far.

pass0047 wrote:

Hopefully mid price range.

I’m sure Kinetico is great, but “mid-price” kind of rules them out.

I’m in Dakota county and my water stinks – literally. I run ALL water thru the softener. Had a Culligan for 15 years that did alright.
Got the Kinetico last spring and it has been doing a decent job but spendy. Can’t really tell the difference, maybe save a little salt.
My 2 daughters are gone and its me and my wife, I probably should have ordered up another Culligan and saved some money for a Otter resort hub.
Just Kidding, I’m still getting the Otter.

So how hard of water? Need to know that 1st. City or well water? Any iron in the water? Anything else in the water?

I dump all the salt in our unit, (6) 40lb bags in the spring and 6 in the fall (just did it) & good for a year. Uses NO Electricity, so I am not sure how much savings there but, doing the math over 13 years, my Kinetico is a good value. Had the Culligan at the old house…. glad I left it. Loud and a salt whore…

Well water and it has a lot of iron and I believe magnesium ( black smaller then sand debris) Put in line filter in last weekend. Ball park how much is Kinetic? Thanks for the information so far. I am in Wabasha on a shared well.

Thanks for all the advice and any more appreciated.
Geoffrey

I think our unit was around $3400 to purchase. (backin 2002) The prior owners were renting the unit and when we bought the house, we purchased the unit at that time. It is the 2 tank model, not top of the line, but I believe the next lower. They do make them down to about $1000 too… but they use electricty.

I think I paid $4k this spring.

Wow Kinetico’s have really gone up. We bought ours about 20 years ago for around $1200.00. It is a two tank model, still going strong. We have been very happy.

Had it repaired once. They replaced a disk on the head unit and it cost around $100.00 for that.

Get your water tested before making a purchase. Being on a well think I would stick with a local water treatment company to get you set up with the right softener. Kinetico are good water softeners but you pay a Cadillac price for them. They sure don’t corner the market on low salt water softeners. My north star maybe uses a bag a month. Been told it’s also around 20 gallons of water to regenerate. Not that I have any way to double check that. Lastly what ever softener you get make sure it gets programmed to what your water needs are.

I’ll start by saying my dad Sold, Rented and Serviced Water Softeners for approx. 40-years. I was along for many service calls and installs in the early days. He finally quit and granted ownership of all the rentals to the renters about 3-years before he passed away in 2011.

First, Have your water tested for everything that is in it so you and the dealer’s company know what they are dealing with.

Here is an excellent article to read and enhance your knowledge to make a better decision on your needs: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/interior-projects/how-to/a150/1275126/

Check with some of the smaller private name dealers, they may provide better service, quality & pricing. Culligan & Kinetico have BIG Names and thus Big Prices.

When looking at some units, the tanks may be the same physical size but have greatly variable about of Grains of Resin from 25,000 to 60,000 or more. The more grains the harder the water and the more water you can use between regeneration’s.

Outside of the two big names mentioned, most softeners come with an Autotrol or Fleck Valve Control Head. The most popular are the ones the meter the usage to determine when you used the limit of water before a regeneration. The only real electric usage is to run the timer/clock set so that it regenerates when it is most likely nobody will be using water (generally the wee hours of the morning 2am-4am) so you don’t draw hard water into your water heater. The rest of the work is done by water pressure.

The units at Mills Fleet Farm and other Big Box stores may have the same Control Head as your neighborhood plumber or water dealer has. The big thing is the number of Resin Grains for how much water it’ll handle.

Here is an online calculator to help you determine the size of softener needed: http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/water_softener_sizing.htm

Personally, my home had a softener with a fleck metered valve when we bought it and had 5-6 (depending on College schedules) of us living here with Chaska City Water at 24-26 gpg, thus according to the calculator we need 11,700 grains removed per day with a 48,000 grain unit, it was regenerating every 4-days. Now with just two of us, it only regenerates once every 12 days, assuming per the calculator 75 gallons per person per day.

On the webpage with the calculator, I clicked on an ad and found I could replace mine for approx. $900 buying online, but I’d prefer buying from a local neighborhood business or someone using (Mike W) or sponsoring this website “IDO”. http://www.qualitywatertreatment.com/PDF/6700XTR_Spec_Sheet.pdf

Good Luck and happy bathing!

PS: A Simple test to know if you have hard or soft water is to wash your hands with Soap. If after washing and rinsing a little, your hands don’t slide easily and feel a bit slippery, you have hard water. With Soft Water, your hands with continue feeling slippery for a while because they are clean.

you can’t buy a Kinetico at Fleet Farm or Walmart….. for instance in St. Cloud, Schultz Soft Water handles them. They are a family owned local company, they come to your house and test the water and make sure the right unit is installed for water condition and capacity needed.

I am on our 15th trouble free year with a low cost unit I bought at Menards. Electric free is no big deal, the electric controllers do not use enough electricity to matter. If I have to buy another new one soon I’ll still be money ahead of some of the other options. My well water has 16 grains of hardness and 3 ppm of iron.

Electric free is one less thing to go wrong and power outages don’t mess with the unit/timer either. Sounds like you got a good one.

I replaced a 20+ year old Culligan unit about 5 years ago with a Morton bought at menards. It was in the $500 range. I installed it myself and as long as you know how to solder, it wasn’t too difficult. My wife and I are happy with our water. At the most, I have added 6 or 7 bags of salt this year

One thing to keep in mind, your softener will use the amount of salt it’s programmed to use based on the hardness of your water. If your softener uses very little salt it because of settings of the softener and the type of valve it has (metered or not).

Carroll had a lot of good info there. It’s important to get your water tested so you can properly size the softener and get the settings entered correctly.

Thank you all for the wealth of information. Very helpful. Will start with getting water tested.

Geoffrey

Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen anything electronic go wrong with a water softener. That is unless they are hitting that 15 year mark or older. Most by that point should be close to replacement time. Most common issue seems to be folks don’t clean the venturi on them regularly. Loss of power isn’t really much concern either as settings are stored for a few days in many newer water softeners. If you do need to reprogram most are not much more difficult than changing a tv channel. Just push the button and then up or down arrow. Some of the nice features you get with electronic water softeners are flow meters, flow indicator, softener capacity read out, daily water usage readout and more.

What is the “Venturi”?

Most water softeners I know of have some form of venturi.

http://www.northstarconditioning.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/NozzleVenturi.jpg

THX Mike!

This is another common type.

http://hostedmedia.reimanpub.com/TFH/Step-By-Step/FH08APR_SOFFIX_03.JPG

Mike W installed a North Star softener in our house a couple years ago. Works flawlessly and uses little salt. Softener setting based on number provided by the city of Woodbury.

PS-thanks for the reminder on the venturi!

the best thing about the kinetico non electric is that it only recharges when it needs it by the water used not on a clock at a certain time of day that is where the salt savings come into play along with being better on your septic system if on one.

dalet wrote:

the best thing about the kinetico non electric is that it only recharges when it needs it by the water used not on a clock at a certain time of day that is where the salt savings come into play along with being better on your septic system if on one.

Electronic valves can do that same thing….it all depends on the valve and how it’s programmed.

For me, because I have high iron I have my softener set to regenerate every 5 days.

The other thing to consider is the benefit of programming regeneration’s to occur at a certain time of the day, typically 2:00am. If your softener regenerates whenever it needs it strictly based on water use it can regen at any time of the day. If it regenerates during a peak hot water use time you will be using hard water during that regeneration time. This will also fill up your water heater with hard water (if your using hot water at the time).

dalet wrote:

the best thing about the kinetico non electric is that it only recharges when it needs it by the water used not on a clock at a certain time of day that is where the salt savings come into play along with being better on your septic system if on one.

Most newer softeners recharge on an as-needed basis. Mine tracks water usage on the display and regenerates when the reserves gets below a level that the softeners determines based on water usage trends.

Hey Everyone

I recently shifted to a new place and the water supplied here is hard.I need a water softener to convert hard water into soft water.My friend suggested me ,I read the reviews about different softeners ,I found them good.But before buying,I am thinking to go through forums related to water softeners.kindly suggest some good quality water softeners.
Thanks
Regards
Valerie sabin