Home well water treatment systems

Hey guys,

Could use some opinions here. Just about to move into my new house and had the Kinetico guy out to sample the water and give me a quote on what I need.

Here are his findings. 19 for hardness and 3 for iron. From what I look up, 19 is plenty hard.

His recommendation was a whole house system and I choked when his number was $6800 installed.

House will have 3 full baths, and 2 half baths, however when my youngest goes to college next year, it will just be my wife and I at the house.

I see at HD, I could get a Aquasure Signature Elite Whole House Water treatment system similar to what I got quoted for around $1275. This would be for 48,000 grain. A 64,000 grain would be $1444. The Kinetico sales guy was quoting an 80,000 grain.

Both prices include a reverse osmosis drinking water system.

From the limited research I’ve done, 48,000 would be enough for 3 bathrooms and 4 people.

Any thoughts?

RO systems are a bit of an “overkill” for most home applications. You waste a lot of water as it takes many gallons of water to make 1 gallon of RO water. I went with a “Menards special” water softener for ~ $800. Fixed the hard water issues and makes my wife happy.

Adding a “whole house” pre-filter to the system and a carbon filter at the kitchen sink for drinking water helps a lot as well – similar to the fridge carbon filter for the water dispenser. both of these options are very cost friendly compared to the Kinetico system.

Is the quote itemized? 6@800 seems high without knowing what is included. If it’s re-plumbing supply for 3rd water line to hose bibs, RO system, softener, whole house filter….iron curtain it could be a very reasonable price. Scope of work is vague to say high or low

Well, (pun intended), I made a snap decision as the HD system was on sale for $250 off until midnight last night and went with that one. I have a connection that said he’d install for a decent price.

The install is only going to be to plumb it in to the main and hook up the RO system to the fridge. Our sink is in the island and I didn’t want an extra faucet in the island, so I’m thinking to just hook that to the fridge only.

Here is the itemized quote from the first for reference if anyone is searching the threads someday with a similar question.

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The 19 grains of hardness is not bad, any softner can handle that, but the 3 parts iron is pretty bad. People used to put an iron filter first before the softner in those cases. I am not familiar with “whole house” systems and what is included.

Our well water is pretty high in iron. I went with a local plumber that knew the water in the area and what type of softeners/filters work and what wouldn’t work. I didn’t think the big box store selections would have worked for my situation. He ended up putting in an iron filter and water softener. As someone else said, the iron filter works first and then the softener.

I put a carbon cartridge filter under one sink because my water smells unpleasant. It was $50 and has short hoses to tap right in. Works great.

$4800 for a softener is a rip off, It does have 2 tanks to achive the 80,000 grain. But I think a whole house pre filter and that 66,000 you ordered will be fine. Start at regeneration every 1000 gallons and adjust down from there as you find the water quality out of your shower.