Just bought a new (used) house with a well. The house has leased Culligan water softener and acid neutralizer. They want $70/month just to lease the equipment and extra when they need to add salt. I’m the kind of guy that typically would prefer to just bite the bullet and buy stuff, but don’t know much about water treatment. Any ideas or recommendations from the knowledgeable IDO crew?
What does it actually need? Have the water tested and that should tell you. Growing up to today most well water i have seen and used is not treated at all, normally just have to deal with hard water.
Agreed on getting the water tested. It will tell you hardness and if there is iron, nitrates, etc in it. You might have to pay for a test to get the nitrates and other stuff, but hardness you can figure out pretty easy by just getting a test kit from Sears or some place that sells water softeners.
Believe it or not, some well water is actually softer than city water. Mine is. We luckily don’t have a problem with high iron levels so we don’t get rust stains, but we do have nitrates, not overly high, so we installed a RO system for our drinking water.
I bought everything from Sears many years ago and it works just fine for us, but our water is nothing like some well water with odors, high iron, etc. It could certainly be much worse. My buddy has a nightmare up in the Iron Range. He has a complete Kinetico system and still has some issues.
We had a Culligan system at the last place, 10 years there and no issues. We have Kinetico in the new placenow for the las 15 years, and again no issues. The Kinetico goes through WAY less salt… I fill it Spring and Fall. the Culligan system was every other month. The prefilters on the Kinetico system, remove a lot of tannins, I change the filter at each salt fill.
duplicate
Kinetico at cabin really nice very little salt only cycle by water usage not on timed basis.
$70 a month, water softener should last 10 to 15 years on a well. Lets just say that gives you a lot of room to save money on a new water softener.
2k to 4k I would say is what I see a lot of systems go for installed. Make sure to get a metered water softener as apposed to a timed. Metered regenerates off how much water is used. Yes get your water tested to make sure you are getting the right water softener for the water.
Fleck, Northstar, Brassmaster are some of the common water softeners in our area. Lately Ive had a few customers order fleck softeners on line and call us for installs. I charge them plenty for the install since not providing the water softener but still think its a pretty good deal. Very good quality water softener, pro install and over all a good price.
I did exactly what big G did with the brands of softeners and agree with his comments, including changing the kinetico filters often.
I have a culligan reverse osmosis in the kitchen and for ice making.
I also run EVERYTHING thru the softener, everything. It helps with the RO process and when using the hoses to prevent everything from rust stains.
I purchase mine, no rent/lease.
One thing I have never done was to bleach the well. People I talk to are 50 / 50 on doing that.
Any of you guys do that?????
One thing I have never done was to bleach the well. People I talk to are 50 / 50 on doing that.
Any of you guys do that?????
Funny, I just researched well water testing about 2 weeks ago. I think you would do this if you find bacteria in your water. I believe it will essentially chlorinate your water. If you can avoid chlorinated or fluoridated water, do it.
be careful when treating well water with chlorine bleach or tablets !
there was a very shallow well where I once lived that was spring fed,the water smelled awful mousy one day so I went to investigate it.
there were two dead mice floating at the top of the water.
I went to the plumbing shop and bought two pounds of chlorine tablets and was told to only use four tablets to ‘ shock ‘ the water with according to the size of my well.
you know how it is,if four tablets are good,twelve are better and that water was putrid with rotted dead mouse smell even after I had removed them that morning.
I was also told to wait a day before using the water and to let it run at the tap for an hour until I couldnt smell the chlorine anymore.
I had it in my head with the ever flowing spring water that half a day was good with that many tablets,wrong !!!
I took a shower later that day forgetting to let the water flow for an hour like I was told.
within minutes I felt like I was a walking fireball and I turned redder than a radish.
I knew what was happening and drove into town to take a shower at the local gym,guess what?? yup,more chlorinated water !! OUCH !
next trip was into a bathtub full of saline solution.
it took three days for the burning to stop and a week and a half for me to return to a more normal color.
let my stupidity of that day be a lesson to you so you dont go through it.
At least you were squeeky clean.
Did your hair turn green? 
At least you were squeeky clean.
Did your hair turn green?
no,my hair didnt turn green but it did turn blondish for a month until it grew back out in its normal color of black,sheesh !
and no blonde jokes either !!! lol,speaking of blonde jokes,there is only one,all of the rest are true.
If you can I would see about having the outside water not going through the softener. No need to waste salt watering the yard.
If you can I would see about having the outside water not going through the softener. No need to waste salt watering the yard.
The little bit it costs for salt will pale in comparison for the cost of cleaning rust off your siding, sidewalk, fences, etc…
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>blackbay wrote:</div>
If you can I would see about having the outside water not going through the softener. No need to waste salt watering the yard.The little bit it costs for salt will pale in comparison for the cost of cleaning rust off your siding, sidewalk, fences, etc…
As well as washing your truck and boat,,,,,
HRG
I shock my well every 5 years… 2 gallons of bleach, then turn on the outside faucet until I smell bleach. Then do no use any water for 3 hours… then open outside faucet again and let it run for about 2 hours, no bleach smell present. Then bypass the Water system in house, remove the screens from the faucets, typically they unscrew from right under the spout.. and run the water in the sinks and tubs/showers, until you don’t smell bleach. I get lots of orange/rusty water through for awhile when first turning them on. I got this procedure from my nephew, who is a water treatment specialist in an area city municipality. Works for us !
If you feel you need to disinfect your well this is the best reference I have found:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/waterquality/disinfection.pdf
I do my well every two years. You can get some chlorine test strips cheap on the net and use them at your faucets to make sure your line has adequate chlorine levels to disinfect. Chlorine is most effective at about 150-200 ppm at killing bacteria. Higher levels are actually less effective.
I had a new well put in when we got the house …..softener was $800 installed (fleck) ….bypassed the kitchen cold water tap and the outside spigots….no need to drink soft water plus the pets, flowers etc benefit from untreated / fresh well water. Luckily it tastes great too…..105′ well. Our old well had high nitrates. I test water myself each year.
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