Household Water Softeners

[The Critic]

I have been tasked with finding a properly-sized water softener for my girlfriend's house.

I have no experience with water softeners so any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[bdcardinal]

We have had a softener from Rayne, a local company, for probably as long as my family has owned the house. Also have a reverse osmosis thing under one of the kitchen counters for the fridge water dispenser. Rayne takes care of all the servicing on them and are extremely reasonable as far as pricing goes.

 

[Alfred_B]

Will you be installing it?

 

[Kjmack]

Originally Posted by The Critic
I have been tasked with finding a properly-sized water softener for my girlfriend's house.

I have no experience with water softeners so any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

How large a house ?
How many people ?
Has she had a water analysis done ?
Is this well water or city water ?

I have a water softener and have experience in keeping it working correctly .

 

[bdcardinal]

So the house is 50 years old, just over 2,328 sq ft according to Zillow, and there are 2 of us living here. It is about $66/mo for the service and they take care of everything.

 

[HangFire]

Well or city? Acidic or basic?

An even more basic question... what problem are you trying to solve with it?

Another basic question, have you tried a whole house filter yet?

 

[Linctex]

Water softeners are like semi-trucks.....

Take a Cummins engine, an Eaton trans, and Rockwell rearends in a common frame....

and slap whatever badge on the hood you choose - -
there are all the same components underneath.

You can assemble the components from Fleck for a fraction of what ever brands (Kenworth, Peterbilt, etc.... LOL!) - or even put your own name on it, it's all the same parts.

 

[ls1mike]

We had a test of our water done and were provided with a list of what to do correct our issues. Hard Water and high iron. We have a salt barrel a Charcoal filter and I cannot remember what the other one is.. They work awesome..

I fill the big salt barrel once a month. The other two tanks look like big fiberglass welding tanks. They are good for 10 years each. One of them gets back flushed to the outside daily.

Have it tested to see what you really need.


Mine is like this minus the very small tank and the four small additional chemical dispensers.

 

[doitmyself]

I'm not so sure that is correct Lintex. From my "internet education", I have read that mail-order companies trying to do the ultra competitive "Walmart cheapest version" are taking a name brand valve (Fleck, Clack, Autotrol) and then cheaping out on everything else (tank, tubes, resin, etc.). Of course, I have no proof to support this other than interweb chatter, some from water treatment professionals with an agenda.

My 2 cents:

- Check to see if your California location bans traditional water softeners: https://www.pelicanwater.com/blog/update-california-ban-salt-based-water-softeners/
- Determine water quality with a proper test or obtaining the publicly available municipal test.
- Follow the formulas available on the internet to determine proper size and and set up for efficiency. I "think" California has laws about not running over 6 lbs. salt/cu. ft. setting.

IMO, Avoid cabinet models, big box store house brands, proprietary brands (i.e., Kinetico, Culligan). Lintex is correct that you can buy a quality generic brand of water softener built with one of the 3 USA valve companies: Fleck, Clack, Autotrol.

If this thread continues past my first bullet point above, I can provide cook book instructions (links) to properly size and set up a softener.

 

[Andrew1972]

First you need to get a hardness test done so you can properly size it.

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted by ls1mike
We had a test of our water done and we were provided with a list of what to do correct our issues. Hard Water and high iron. We have a salt barrel a Charcoal filter and I cannot remember what the other one is.. They work awesome..

I fill the big salt barrel once a month. The other two tanks look like big fiberglass welding tanks. They are good for 10 years each. One of them get back flushed to the outside daily.

Have it tested to see what you really need.


sounds like dad's Kinetico system. their local dealer came out, tested our water, turns out our old waterboss system wasn't close to strong enough for our well.

there was a noticeable difference once the new system went in.

Dad has a maintenance contract with them, they deliver salt every month, and change the element in the iron filter. (Not sure of the cost)

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted by Kjmack
Originally Posted by The Critic
I have been tasked with finding a properly-sized water softener for my girlfriend's house.

I have no experience with water softeners so any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

How large a house ?
How many people ?
Has she had a water analysis done ?
Is this well water or city water ?

I have a water softener and have experience in keeping it working correctly .


Thank you. It is a 3-bedroom, 2 bath house. 1,368 sq ft. Built in 1973. City Water. 3 people live here.
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
So the house is 50 years old, just over 2,328 sq ft according to Zillow, and there are 2 of us living here. It is about $66/mo for the service and they take care of everything.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by HangFire
Well or city? Acidic or basic?

An even more basic question... what problem are you trying to solve with it?

Another basic question, have you tried a whole house filter yet?


City water.

I have been asked to research (and purchase) a water softener to "improve water quality."

No testing has been done, and I am not sure where to go for that. Any recs?

Thanks.

 

[Rand]

To the OP:
what is the complaint with the city water?
taste? stains? smell?

you could install a R/O filter system to fix most of that..
(city water should be fine for showers, dishes, clothes etc)


Originally Posted by ls1mike

Mine is like this minus the very small tank and the four small additional chemical dispensers.

I dont think they are chemical dispensers its a water filter system and a small pressure tank.... looks too small for whole house use.. might store the filtered water.. my R/O system looks similar (4 filters and an R/O element) but I dont see an R/O element in that setup, however that blue line that is following the white pvc pipe is probably the drain line for the R/O filter. Since we know that white pipe is for the wastewater from backflushing.. the blue line being wastewater from R/O filter going to same place makes sense.

 

[KrisZ]

Make sure regular water softeners, the ones that you need to add salt to, are allowed in your city. A lot of counties in CA are banning these because of the salt brine run out. In my county I could not install one. I ended up getting a Culligan system and they come in every 56 days and exchange the tanks. I pay $39 for a two tank system.

 

[Donald]

Around here HomeDepot will test your water for free. You can send in a sample and they will test it. If it looks like you may need some water conditioning, someone will come out and do an even more detailed test still at no cost.

I think Culligan will try and oversell and there are huge commissions for their sales people.

If you have hard water you typically need to use a lot more soap/detergent than normal. Look at the shower head, are there a lot of deposits?

 

[StevieC]

My dad/mum have a Culligan system for their well water. The water is quite hard and full of iron to begin with and by the time their system treats it all it's super clean and soft, it's actually hard to get hand-soap fully rinsed off your hands because the water is so soft. My folks also find that they hardly need any soap in the washing machine / dishwasher to get things clean as well.

They maintain it themselves now but had Culligan install it and maintain it the first year so they could watch what needed to be done. They have found the rock salt instead of the pellets is better for their setup but you might find this to be different depending on your water. There is usually settings for each type in the water softener head unit.

They have a screen type pre-filter on the well supply line, iron master (remover), water softener, carbon filter, uv-light and flow activated pressure booster along with a large blatter storage and supply tank so the booster pump doesn't run dry. They also have an under the counter R.O. water system for drinking/cooking (Some of this equipment is only required because they are on a deep well) It looks like Nasa in their cold room with a maze of pex piping though.

 

[KrisZ]

I also forgot to mention, if your city/county doesn't allow water softeners that use salt, don't fall for those salt free water softeners. They are actually filters that filter out some of the particulates, but they still leave a lot of minerals and the water will remain hard.

 

[Volvohead]

We have a well, so the water is as hard as rocks. We currently have a 12-14 year old Clack system in our house. Never a problem. Clack is a generic manufacturer for other brands, but sells independently as well.

The most important thing with a softener is to correctly size it for the condition and amount of water you expect to pump through it, and to correctly set the regen cycle. Many installers are clueless.

We opted for a 2 cu ft model with a turbulator (to churn the bed on regen), and clean the resin every few months with a dose of ResClean. It softens as well now through the entire cycle as it did when brand new.

We also opted for a potassium-based system for various reasons. That has become rather expensive lately.

What I've found with any softener is that letting the salt get too low in the brine tank makes for a bad experience. I try to keep ours at least 3/4 loaded most of the time.

I would also avoid the models that use water pressure to run their systems, because they clog and jam up (even with a pre-filter). The electric-run models are more dependable in our experience.

If you don't need softening, don't buy one. They are not filters. Some municipal water has bigger issues than hardness. Test your water before doing anything.

 

[Volvohead]

Originally Posted by Linctex
Water softeners are like semi-trucks.....

Take a Cummins engine, an Eaton trans, and Rockwell rearends in a common frame....

and slap whatever badge on the hood you choose - -
there are all the same components underneath.

You can assemble the components from Fleck for a fraction of what ever brands (Kenworth, Peterbilt, etc.... LOL!) - or even put your own name on it, it's all the same parts.


After doing a lot of research, this is true. Companies such as Fleck and Clack actually make the control heads for some of the big brands.

Removing the big brand name plate usually results in a nice cost savings for the exact same equipment.

But I can still appreciate people who pay for the monthly service. Write the check, and they do the rest.

 

[MNgopher]

There is a big difference between trying to soften water and "improve the water quality". What exactly is the water issue that is to be fixed? If it isn't hardness, then a softener is not what you really need.

I've not had trouble with the big box units, but I install myself and am capable of basic troubleshooting too. We go through about 5-6 40 lb bags of salt per year. (About $40 a year), plus $450 for the unit itself. Tough to justify the monthly costs I'm seeing from some, but that's just through the experience here.