Any Recommendations for Water Softeners?

[Traveshamockery]

Here in Central Texas, our water is so hard and I have finally convinced my husband we need a true water softener.  He bought one of those magnetic things a few years ago and he swears it works, even though we have horrible problems with lime buildup in every freaking pipe and shower head in the house.  He's an engineer - go figure.  We also have a water-cooled AC unit that is very efficient but the lime buildup in there causes a lot of problems.  Again, the magnetic thing my husband bought doesn't take care of this, even though he says it makes it better than it was.   

So we are going to get one.  The "Easy Water" thing they sell on the radio - that's magnetic, too. 

Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone?  I don't want to spend $7K on a system, and I don't care if it uses salt or not.  I just want to know what works and what works best.  It's only the two of us in the house so there isn't a huge demand but I want my soft water!  I'm tired of itchy skin and dry hair. 

[IassaFTots]

I am planning to get a house water filter soon, because I suffer from the same thing, but for the moment all I have is a Reverse Osmosis system in my kitchen.  Which is great, but I can't take a bath in the kitchen sink.   

[Thor]

We had a very good one at the last house I lived in up in MN, but I'll be damned if I can remember the brand or find it again on the internet. It was a softener/ filter two piece unit. The "filter" part only needed to be changed out every ten years. (It was a combination of several different types of filters.)

[Janice]

We also have a bad hard water problem here. But the system we use cleans it up nicely. We've been using it for about 15 years now since we first bought the house.

Its called Kinetico. It uses gravity instead of electricity as most of them do. There is a main unit outside the house where the water main enters to treat all the water that enters the house. Then they also put a reverse osmosis unit under the sink strictly for drinking water.

Without it the water stains the glass shower doors and the tile. I think theres a lot of iron naturally in the water here. I later learned that one of my neighbors has had the same Kinetico unit for about 25 years now.

This brand was recommended by the guy that does This Old House and another one of those shows called Hometime. But that is why we decided to try it. Has worked out quite well for us. Wasnt cheap, but has turned out to be a good investment.

[CG6468]

About 3 months ago we had our 26+ year old Culligan unit replaced with a Fleck softener. It was recommended by our softener salt supplier. No problems at all.

Softener


We also had a Reverse Osmosis system installed for drinking water at the kitchen sink.

Puromax RO Systems

[Traveshamockery]

I have seen lots of great reviews for Fleck but excuse me for my blondness but the pictures only show the meter part.  It does come with the tank, right? 

The Fleck ones seem to be reasonably priced. 

[DLR Pyro]

I got the GE smartwater system from Home Depot a few years ago and it cleared up the problem of scale build-up in my tankless water heater as well as the hard water deposits on our glass shower doors.   I use potassium chloride pellets rather than the sodium chloride pellets.  They are twice the cost but better for your skin and they reduce your sodium intake.

[Eupher]

We also have a bad hard water problem here. But the system we use cleans it up nicely. We've been using it for about 15 years now since we first bought the house.

Its called Kinetico. It uses gravity instead of electricity as most of them do. There is a main unit outside the house where the water main enters to treat all the water that enters the house. Then they also put a reverse osmosis unit under the sink strictly for drinking water.

Without it the water stains the glass shower doors and the tile. I think theres a lot of iron naturally in the water here. I later learned that one of my neighbors has had the same Kinetico unit for about 25 years now.

This brand was recommended by the guy that does This Old House and another one of those shows called Hometime. But that is why we decided to try it. Has worked out quite well for us. Wasnt cheap, but has turned out to be a good investment.

Thank you for that link, Janice. I requested a quote from Kinetico. Let's see what they come up with.

Our water is moderately hard. It isn't ridiculous, like I've seen it in some places, but it needs some treatment. Our water comes from a local reservoir, and it's generally okay, but our drinking water is filtered through the refrigerator -- not a great way to do it, but better than nothing.

We're interested in a whole-house water filter to remove "the big stuff" and we can go from there. I'm not convinced that an RO system is wanted or needed in our house.

[Chris_]

Do you have any local companies you can call for an estimate?  There's one here that advertises on the radio... they would be the first people I would talk to (Rock City Machine).

[Traveshamockery]

We ended up going cheap with a Morton's System Saver that we got at Sam's for $398.00 + $200.00 today for the plumber to come and fit the water pipes. 

It's quite confusing - we have a Kinetico dealer here and their quote for us was $3000.00.    . 

We're going to try this out - the plumber that came out to hook it up says you don't need to spend a gazillion dollars on a system unless you have a lot of people living in your house.  We have two people here.  I am most concerned about our water-cooled AC unit where the lime builds up.  If we can just prevent that from happening, it'll be worth it. 

I've researched the magnets, the electrical impulse units, etc., and they all promise a lot.  So we'll see what happens with this.  We decided we'd rather spend for a cheap system and have it replaced every three years if necessary than go all out with a $3K system. 

Who knows?  I hope we did the right thing. 

[Eupher]

That's another problem out here - plumbers.

I have never in my life seen a group of guys less motivated to work. They're all in business for themselves, but they're all lazier than hell. Don't return calls, hell they don't even bother to answer the freakin' phone! 

You definitely have a point, Trav. We are going to be in this house a maximum of 10 years. Replacing 3 of those units at $400 equals $1,200, plus $700 for the freakin' plumber (if you can find one that is alive), and hell, it makes no sense to plunk down a lot of money for super-clean water.

We're just looking for something that's going to clean some of the sediment out (there is some, since it comes from a reservoir) and maybe soften it a little. We don't need no stinkin' RO water.

[IassaFTots]

That's another problem out here - plumbers.

I have never in my life seen a group of guys less motivated to work. They're all in business for themselves, but they're all lazier than hell. Don't return calls, hell they don't even bother to answer the freakin' phone! 

You definitely have a point, Trav. We are going to be in this house a maximum of 10 years. Replacing 3 of those units at $400 equals $1,200, plus $700 for the freakin' plumber (if you can find one that is alive), and hell, it makes no sense to plunk down a lot of money for super-clean water.

We're just looking for something that's going to clean some of the sediment out (there is some, since it comes from a reservoir) and maybe soften it a little. We don't need no stinkin' RO water.

I only have an RO for my kitchen.  Currently in a box.  It cost $100.  And, with the cost of Brita filter refills, at $40 every 3 months, worth it.  My water has so much chlorine.  When I had to drip my faucets for the freezes this winter, I put a washcloth in one sink so I wouldn't hear the drip.  Damn water bleached holes in my washcloth!

[CG6468]

I have seen lots of great reviews for Fleck but excuse me for my blondness but the pictures only show the meter part.  It does come with the tank, right? 

The Fleck ones seem to be reasonably priced. 

Yes. It comes with everything any other softener has.

[Traveshamockery]

So far, so good with the cheaper water softener.  I can see a huge difference already.  My skin doesn't itch anymore and my hair definitely feels softer.  I will be doing laundry and running the dishwasher today.  Can't wait to see what it does for that. 

[DLR Pyro]

So far, so good with the cheaper water softener.  I can see a huge difference already.  My skin doesn't itch anymore and my hair definitely feels softer.  I will be doing laundry and running the dishwasher today.  Can't wait to see what it does for that. 

feels funny when you take a shower doesn't it?  Like you aren't getting all the soap off of your skin.  You get used to it after a while...

[Janice]

feels funny when you take a shower doesn't it?  Like you aren't getting all the soap off of your skin.  You get used to it after a while...

Good way to put it.

[Thor]

The thing is that a water softener won't necessarily get the sediment out. It still needs filtration. I had a water softener at the house I had in Becker, MN. The shower stalls were still stained with water deposits.  The Ramsey house had the complete softener/ filtration system. It was WAY WAY better. The water in Ramsey had tons of Iron in it and smelled like sulphur half the time (well water) and we weren't really that far from the Mississippi river. (½ to 3/4 mile as the crow flies)