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Selecting a water softener

jmbjmbjmb's picture

Selecting a water softener (post #205637)

jmbjmbjmb on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 14:54
in

The posts about selecting water softeners are a couple years old.  We're in the market for a water softener, our water is hard and we just installed a tankless water heater.  Everyone says to get a Kinetico, but that's out of our price range right now.  Any suggestions on models or how to go about making a decision? Thanks.

-A +A

It's worth talking to your (post #205637, reply #1 of 4)

by DanH in reply to jmbjmbjmb [original] on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 16:49

It's worth talking to your Kinetico dealer -- when we bought they had a model that was significantly cheaper than the advertised ones, and it's been perfectly serviceable.

IIRC, there's another brand that is "Kinetico-like", in that it has two resin tanks.

But of the other "standard" styles, I'm not sure there's much difference other than bells and whistles (though do get one that somehow measures water usage vs being purely timer-driven).


We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. --Thomas Edison

I second the thought of getting one that is based on usage (post #205637, reply #2 of 4)

by glacierfergus in reply to jmbjmbjmb [original] on Wed, 01/18/2012 - 17:28

If it uses timers, it will run when it doesn't need to and you will run out of soft water when you have company or have 5 loads of laundry to do in a day.  

Kinetico is considered the caddilac of water softeners around here.  That is what we got and we have been very happy with it.  Talk to a dealer and see what options you have.  Most dealers will come out and test your water to give you an estimate.  I decided to lease ours ($30/month). some of our payment goes toward purchase and some goes toward rent/interest.  If I decide to buy it outright, I can pay it off at any time.  I think it cost us around $200 for installation, we pay $30 per month in rent and use about 1/2 a bag of salt a month.  My parents have much worse water than we do and they use a little over a bag of salt a month. 

RESIN QUANTITY (post #205637, reply #3 of 4)

by KDESIGN in reply to glacierfergus [original] on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 17:57

I just bought a new softener to replace the old one.   I opened up the old one to see what the resin bed looked like.  The resin tank is 8.5" dia. X 36" tall.  There was only enough resin in it to fill it about 1/4 full.  The total resin volume was about 2.5 gallons.  I have never seen any evidence of losing resin from that softener, so I wonder why there is so little resin in it.

This unit was made by an assembler, and I wonder if they just left out a lot of the resin.  Would they do that intentionally to save cost and make more money on the sale of the unit?

Do I have to open the new softener to make sure they put enough resin into it?

 

 

The couple of times I've (post #205637, reply #4 of 4)

by DanH in reply to KDESIGN [original] on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 18:35

The couple of times I've opened the things they were maybe 2/3rds to 3/4ths full of resin.  But the resin does degrade over time, and can actually erode away.

I have heard of the things being unfilled from the factory, though.


We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. --Thomas Edison