Educate me on water softeners....

steveinaz

I know nothing about water softeners. What's the insider tips? I want something I can maintain.

motorhead43026

Hey Culligan Man, call Steve.

stones89

plug and play. Just keep salt in the brine tank and your are good to go. Are you getting a neutralizer also - are you on a well?

Mikey081057

Add a reverse osmosis system to your kitchen sink for more purified drinking water.

steveinaz

City water, no more well. Our city water here is very good tasting.

gmcman

Call culligan. We did 10 years ago, have the gold system.....no issues.

I would check out the RO systems first .I believe they waste a lot of water to capture a few gallons of RO water.....can add $$$ to your water bill.


I would get your water tested first by a lab, get what filters you need with your install.

charley95

I've been down this road. No way for me on Culligan! Their parts and service are Culligan exclusive and can be expensive. I ordered mine from ohiopurewater.com and have had excellent luck with their product. The Culligan I had was equipped with a digital timer and was always crapping out and became expensive. The Ohio softner I have has the mechanical regenerate "on demand" timer which has easily replaceable inexpensive parts. I think I got this recommendation from someone here on the forum who used this outfit. I can't recommend them enough! You can call them and get a live person for tech support too! They are a great outfit to work with.

pitdogg2

steveinaz wrote: »

City water, no more well. Our city water here is very good tasting.

Then may I ask why the need for a softener? Is it that hard ?

charley95

The model I bought from them was the Fleck 5600 Econominder Mechanical meter "on demand" 48,000 grain capacity for $560 shipped to my door. It was very easy to install and works much better than my old Culligan even when it did work right.

warren

If a small amount of shampoo lathers a softner isn't needed. The hot water is softened not the cold..

charley95

warren wrote: »

If a small amount of shampoo lathers a softner isn't needed. The hot water is softened not the cold..

Not the case with mine, both hot and cold are soft.

steveinaz

pitdogg2 wrote: »

steveinaz wrote: »

City water, no more well. Our city water here is very good tasting.

Then may I ask why the need for a softener? Is it that hard ?

yep...for the water hardness issue.

steveinaz

Thanks Charley for the suggestions. I prefer a "purchased" system that I can maintain/repair myself. Our new house has a plumbed-in water softener "loop" in the garage, so I assume it's gonna soften hot & cold.

gmcman

charley95 wrote: »

The model I bought from them was the Fleck 5600 Econominder Mechanical meter "on demand" 48,000 grain capacity for $560 shipped to my door. It was very easy to install and works much better than my old Culligan even when it did work right.

Fleck is some good stuff, If mine ever craps out that's what im going with.

scubalab

With Culligan, you pay for the service. With as simple as it is to buy and dump a bag of salt into the softener, I figured I could handle it, and I decided against the 'service'. Around us, Culligan is a joke and way overpriced. I installed a nice all in one softener (I think from Sam's Club) about 7-8 years ago and it has been working flawlessly. The one I installed three years prior to that one was a joke (compact unit I got at Lowes). In the short time I had that one, I must have dumped several hundred dollars into replacement parts.

My advice? If you're handy, just pick up a unit with good reviews, install it yourself, and just add salt pellets when it gets low. We have VERY hard water and go through about two 40 lb. bags per month.

And, if you've never had softened water... it takes some getting used to. I've used a softener for the past 17 years, but for the previous 29 years, had hard city water. I still have not gotten used to the 'soft' feeling of the water! I feel like it takes 10 times as long to rinse soap off, but it's much better on our appliances and fixtures.

Like Pittdog, I'm also wondering why you need a softener with city water? Is it that you just prefer softer water? If your water tastes good now, a softener may change that...

nooshinjohn

Just make certain you are using a dedicate 20 amp circuit and upgrade the power cable. MIT and PS Audio both make great softener cable that will make a profound impact on water quality.

steveinaz

Maybe I don't need one? See how dumb I am about these things? LOL

pitdogg2

steveinaz wrote: »

Maybe I don't need one? See how dumb I am about these things? LOL

I'd do a water hardness test. Unless you have high Iron or other liquid rock that is staining stuff or clogging stuff maybe you don't. My water runs about 450ppm of hardness mostly liquid rock. You can get testing done then find out what you need to combat your problem.

scubalab

Not saying you don't need one Steve. It's a matter of preference. Some people (myself included) prefer hard water. However, living in limestone country and having a private well, it's almost a necessity for us to have a water softener. We have a lot of iron in our well water too, and the iron out pellets help a lot.

I will say that when I plumbed our addition, I ran a dedicated line bypassing the softener for our hose bibs AND a spigot at the kitchen sink. Why the spigot you ask? Well, long story short, fast brew coffee makers (Bunn, Keurig) don't like soft water. Something at the molecular level with the water and the coffee grounds causes a coating of sorts on the coffee grounds. They somewhat 'gel' up and create a damming effect. When we brew coffee with 'soft' water, we overflow the filter basket and spill hot water and coffee grounds all over the counter! A hard water line solved that problem for our morning coffee!

motorhead43026

I have city water and have to break the stalactites off the shower head so often. So don't think city water cannot be hard.

pitdogg2

motorhead43026 wrote: »

I have city water and have to break the stalactites off the shower head so often. So don't think city water cannot be hard.

we are not thinking that way, But what you may be seeing is that some municipalities use lime and sodium hydroxide (Lye) to raise the pH in drinking water and it can cause crustiness as well. It also will raise the hardness level but will dissipate out. I have kept fish for 40+ yrs so water comes out at high pH then when you age the water the drops pH drastically. Mine comes out at a pH of 8.8 to 9.0 and settles to 7.6 within 24hrs. this drop can be detrimental to fish they need a stable pH. On the back side you can have huge amounts of co2 in you water and aging will gas it out and the pH skyrockets.

motorhead43026

Columbus, Ohio water is considered moderately hard. That is even after they treat the water @ 7 grains per gallon @ the plant. I need a softer myself.

motorhead43026

Steve Google your city or manicipality water co, they should have info on your water hardness.

pitdogg2

motorhead43026 wrote: »

Steve Google your city or manicipality water co, they should have info on your water hardness.

you can call also ask them to send it out to you. they must do it once a year anyway it's mandatory.

lightman1

steveinaz wrote: »

Maybe I don't need one? See how dumb I am about these things? LOL

Don't move to Flint, MI.......

Stew

I've installed two of these:

https://www.ohiopurewater.com/categories/?categories_id=274

One in my house 10 years ago and one I'm my mom's house a few years ago. They work great. No affiliation.

Here's an old discussion:

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2119206#Comment_2119206

Stew

If you decide to install something like this, I'll be happy to help you size it. If you get something a little larger and dial the salt dose back, you'll use much less salt.

msg

Interesting, Al.
Curious, is it soft water that makes it feel like you can't get your hands rinsed?

scubalab wrote: »

Not saying you don't need one Steve. It's a matter of preference. Some people (myself included) prefer hard water.

I will say that when I plumbed our addition, I ran a dedicated line bypassing the softener for our hose bibs AND a spigot at the kitchen sink. Why the spigot you ask? Well, long story short, fast brew coffee makers (Bunn, Keurig) don't like soft water. Something at the molecular level with the water and the coffee grounds causes a coating of sorts on the coffee grounds.

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nooshinjohn

nbrowser wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Just make certain you are using a dedicate 20 amp circuit and upgrade the power cable. MIT and PS Audio both make great softener cable that will make a profound impact on water quality.

What about the pipe interconnects and the crossover pipe? Huh huh huh?

They should be pure oxygen free copper with a rhodium overlay for increased flow and durability.

tonyb

Steve,

Best thing you can do before going out and spending the coin.....ask a neighbor. See if they are even using one, and what kind/brand.

Personally, I've never seen that much difference between regular store bought softener's and the brands they sell.The only thing you really have to maintain is keeping it full of salt. They last anywhere from 8-10 years give or take some. I use the salt with the rust inhibitor in it to keep the salt content from rusting out the copper pipes.

The reverse osmosis thing for the kitchen is a good idea also, can get a bit costly though if you want to do whole house systems. As you age, your sodium consumption isn't going to benefit you and is something you'll sooner or later have to watch. You might want to think about offsetting the sodium a water softener throws in or just drink the majority of your water out of a bottle. The other stuff like cooking and showering wouldn't matter so much.

Just a few thoughts, you can spend 4-500 on one, or a thousand, the process isn't complicated on what these things do. Tricky part is dialing them in to your specific needs and tastes and they all have adjustments to dial them in, add or subtract the amount of salt they throw into your water. Also, you want them to regenerate while your sleeping and not using water, so set the timer for a night time regeneration.

That's all I got.....