Rain Soft

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Patman

Patman

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Does anyone here have the Rain Soft water and air purification system in their house? If so, what do you think about it? Is it worth the money? I had two of their reps over at my house tonight and the system sure does look impressive, but it costs a lot more than I figured it would. They claim you'll more than make up that difference in money you save on soap products and other cleaners, as well as reduced gas bills. Is this true?
 
I've had a Rain Soft water system in my house for 17 years. Bought it in Kentucky, used i5 for 5 years, moved to Tennessee, Rain Soft deinstalled it, I moved it, Rain Soft installed it in my new house for free. Performance has been excellent, Service has been prompt and excellent. This year it had a problem (two motors failed). Out of warranty service was a little expensive, but not outrageous.
I do think the system was expensive initially, but I don't regret it.
You don't need any special soaps or detergents, but all soaps and detergents perform better, Tea and Coffee, and tap water taste much better, Appliances and faucets do not fur up, Showers are much more pleasant. I use less shampoo. Clothes last through far more wash cycles.
When my daughter got married she insisted on a Rain Soft system in her new house...

You might find that a cheaper system does not last as long, but might be better value overall...
I'm content with mine.
 
Tree Hugger, up here our Rain Soft systems come with a lifetime warranty on everything, so we wouldn't have to worry about repairs later on.

What I want to know is if you really do save money on lower natural gas bills and stuff like that? They want $106 a month for this system (first six months for free), and that's over ten years and then it's paid off. They did say they were giving us a 5 (or 10?) year supply of a whole bunch of Rain Soft soap and detergent products too. That alone would probably save us a bundle!

Our tap water here sure was full of a lot of crud! Interestingly though, they also tested our Brita filtered water and it was pretty clean, not much dirtier than their Rain Soft system. But we don't have Brita filters on our shower heads or in our washing machine!
smile.gif
 
Quote:

Does anyone here have the Rain Soft water and air purification system in their house? If so, what do you think about it? Is it worth the money? I had two of their reps over at my house tonight and the system sure does look impressive, but it costs a lot more than I figured it would. They claim you'll more than make up that difference in money you save on soap products and other cleaners, as well as reduced gas bills. Is this true?

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It's not true. Your savings on soap and other cleaners will not even offset the cost of the salt and the water used in the regeneration cycle.

That said, we have a Fleck system in our house even though we are on city water. Soft water is much more pleasant than semi-hard water that the city provides. Once you try soft, you will never go back. That's why a softener for me is not for saving money on soap.
 
You can go to your local Menards/Home Depot/Lowes and get a Morton System Saver Softner for about 2 or 3 of your monthly payments, and then you own it. I had one in my previous house for several years, and installed one in my new house. Works great, and has demand regeneration, so it saves salt. Even if it craps out every 5 years, its LOADS cheaper than the system your looking at.
http://www.systemsaver.com/morton-website/product-list/water-softeners.html
 
I have a good friend who used to work in water purification, adsorption, etc. for one of the OEMs.

Apparently most of the people who sell these things are charlitans, with little to no knowledge. Filter people are even worse apparently.

His suggestion was to go RO, or else use a large size sediment filter coupled with a carbon block adsorbent for places where it counts, like the dringing water, fridge, etc.

Of course if you have mineral issues, this doesnt help much, but if you just want assured cleanliness, this is the smart way to go, per his reccomendations.

Might not be relevant to you, but this is what I heard, so others may glean off some info...

JMH
 
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Tree Hugger, up here our Rain Soft systems come with a lifetime warranty on everything, so we wouldn't have to worry about repairs later on.

What I want to know is if you really do save money on lower natural gas bills and stuff like that? They want $106 a month for this system (first six months for free), and that's over ten years and then it's paid off. They did say they were giving us a 5 (or 10?) year supply of a whole bunch of Rain Soft soap and detergent products too. That alone would probably save us a bundle!

Our tap water here sure was full of a lot of crud! Interestingly though, they also tested our Brita filtered water and it was pretty clean, not much dirtier than their Rain Soft system. But we don't have Brita filters on our shower heads or in our washing machine!
smile.gif


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Am I reading that right? $12000?? Dear ----!!!!
 
I'm reading this thread with interest because I'm considering some kind of water purification system for my drinking water (the rest of the house doesn't matter). The problem is that there is no one system that gets rid of everything. Certain systems target only certain contaminants (heavy metals, solvents, organisms). Naturally, whatever system I choose would be topped off with reverse osmosis.

It's not a burning issue in my house as the city water here is rather good quality.
 
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I'm considering some kind of water purification system for my drinking water (the rest of the house doesn't matter)

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It matters very much, because when you shower you absorb a large dose of chemicals and contaminanats through your skin and via your lungs. A ten minute shower equals drinking x-number glasses of tap water. There are shower filters.
 
Yep, $12,000 is a crazy amount of money, I'm definitely going to look into a much cheaper solution. I'm sure there must be a way I can get both a water softener and purification system into my entire house for under $1000. I'm just going to have to do a little more research to see what's available up here.
 
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what happens to the sodium in the process ?

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The ion exchange process leaves sodium carbonate as result, otherwise known as washing soda. The resultant water has a slippery feel and small amounts of soap create large amounts of suds. Where I lived in Michigan, I had 80 grain hard water with 10PPM iron and a trace of sulfur. I had a home built softner and iron filter system made up from used parts. (My dad was in the water softner business for 20 some years and I helped him part time do installation and service). My water tasted terrible and stunk to boot. My system cleaned up the water 100%. I never noticed any salt taste. I don't recall any of dad's customers mentioning it either.

All you ever wanted to know about water softning
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Lake Ontario water is pretty soft, so there won't be much mineral buildup in the water heater. What irritates the skin most is all the chlorine that has to be added to keep the plague away. Have you considered a charcoal filter, plus UV treatment if you're worried about bacteria buildup in the charcoal?

I suspect there's a slight risk of legionnaire's disease with no chlorine, but tons of people live on wells with no chlroine, and stay healthy.
 
Quote:

Lake Ontario water is pretty soft, so there won't be much mineral buildup in the water heater.


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We must not be getting Lake Ontario water here in Mississauga then, because our water is extremely hard!
 
I paid about 3-4000 for a 50,000 grain capacity two tank softener + triple filtered and reverse-osmosis filtered under-sink unit to supply a faucet (and fridge ice-dispenser). That was 17 years ago.
Sounds like the financing is a rip, but the unit should be good. We got a load of 'products' too, no big deal in my opinion...
If the system includes the reverse osmosis setup, ask 'em for a straight puhase price.
You could do the whole deal with lesser quality kit for about $1000 easily, and check the warranty on that set up...

As I said, you could get the cheaper kit and replace it every 8-10 years, and it might end up cheaper overall, or not...

I'm happy with my choice. If I were doing it again, I might have gone the cheaper route. (I wouldn't be without a system now, for love nor money...)
 
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