Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I know
nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,

John

"JLamm" wrote in message
...
Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I
know
nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,


Capacity is mainly related to recharge time, IOW for the most part, a bigger
unit only recharges itself less frequently.

--

SVL

"JLamm" wrote in message
...
Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I
know nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,

John

I just purchased one from RainSoft for $875 installed and it works great. In
my last house I had one from Rayne. The Rayne was more expensive but did
have a nice feature that only cleaned the filter dependant on usage as
opposed to every few days or so....That uses less salt. Make sure all of
your outside water is separated from the inside water and the test it when
they leave. On my last install I found that I was using all kinds of salt
because they did not separate one of the faucets outside. Yes, half an acre
watered with soft water!!...Also you will have a choice of using sodium
chloride or potassium chloride. If you don't like the idea of having salt in
your water the potassium is actually good for you. Like eating a banana or
two a day.....
Good luck with whatever system you buy....Ross

"JLamm" wrote in message
...
Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I
know nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,

John

I just purchased one from RainSoft for $875 installed and it works great. In
my last house I had one from Rayne. The Rayne was more expensive but did
have a nice feature that only cleaned the filter dependant on usage as
opposed to every few days or so....That uses less salt. Make sure all of
your outside water is separated from the inside water and the test it when
they leave. On my last install I found that I was using all kinds of salt
because they did not separate one of the faucets outside. Yes, half an acre
watered with soft water!!...Also you will have a choice of using sodium
chloride or potassium chloride. If you don't like the idea of having salt in
your water the potassium is actually good for you. Like eating a banana or
two a day.....
Good luck with whatever system you buy....Ross

On 1/1/2005 10:46 PM US(ET), JLamm took fingers to keys, and typed the
following:

Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I know
nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,

John

I have had one for many years. The first was a Culligan (bought, not
rented). I replaced that one with a Sears Ultrasoft 800 a few years ago.
The Sears one had all the latest digital amenities, like as needed
operation, digital readout of water usage per day, salt level, etc.
The 800 is currently on sale for $670. US (til Jan 8, 2005. After which
$900). I don't know who actually makes it, but all the Sears softeners
have the same 042 (dot) prefix number.

--
Bill

We built our new house 14 months ago, at 8 months I opened the water heater
and was astonished at the amount of build up in the bottom in that time
frame. So my wife and I began to entertain ideas and estimates.

We installed a Kinetico 3 months ago, and we love it. We purchased a dual
tank system, while one tank is replenishing, the other still supplies the
soft water. We got the option where all actions (replenish, flushing, etc)
is done by the valve body, thus no electronic board burn-outs to replace
every few years. Plus no hit on the electric bill.

Also our system replenishes based on how much water is used, rather than
time based like most systems. It cycles every 500 gallons for our water
hardness which was 13 grains. So therefore when I had a heavy water load
like over the holidays it replenishes more often , and I always have soft
water. When my usage is low like on vacation for a few weeks it may only
replenish once for that month. Which in the long run saves on salt and
water for the replinish process.

It has a lower salt usage in the replinish process than any other system we
compared it too. I marked off the original salt level in the Brine tank
when it was installed. I checked on it yesterday and it only has gone down
about 2 inches, which at that rate I won't need to add any salt for over a
year and a half.

It came with carbon filter tanks, a master by-pass valve, a inline filter
with a blow-off valve to keep the "dirt" out of the system, 250 pounds of
salt, and they even installed a master water shut-off valve closer to my
crawl space door for me. We also get two complete resin repacks over the
life of our system.

For a grand total of $2300

My advice go with a proffesional system and not these cheesy do it yourself
models which have to be replaced every 5 years. You may save money at the
purchase, but in 5 years you will buying another system after the
"box-store" brand wore out or suffered electronics failure.

My system is warrenty at 20 years, if your purchase 4 (5-year life) systems
for an average of $800 a system, there goes $3200, plus the trouble of
reinstall. And again many systems replinish based on time and not water
usage. So the upfront is more but you save in the long run.

They have tons of "gadgets" to show your water usage and salt usage, but
that "junk" is there to impress you for about five minutes and then you will
most likely never give it thought again.

My .02 worth.

This message was written on 100% recycled spam. SAM

"willshak" wrote in message
...
On 1/1/2005 10:46 PM US(ET), JLamm took fingers to keys, and typed the
following:

Folks,
For the first time, I'm considering buying a water-softening system. I
know
nothing about them. Any advice, guidance, cautions?
Thanks,

John

I have had one for many years. The first was a Culligan (bought, not
rented). I replaced that one with a Sears Ultrasoft 800 a few years ago.
The Sears one had all the latest digital amenities, like as needed
operation, digital readout of water usage per day, salt level, etc.
The 800 is currently on sale for $670. US (til Jan 8, 2005. After which
$900). I don't know who actually makes it, but all the Sears softeners
have the same 042 (dot) prefix number.

--
Bill

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:24:17 -0500, "Samuel Warren"
wrote:


For a grand total of $2300

My system is warrenty at 20 years,

You'll need it. Mine needed a complete controller rebuild at 9.5
years, plus new distributor tubes (one was cracked) and resin. Cost
me a couple hundred bucks. No warranty since I was not the original
purchaser. When I moved I bought a nice system from Gary Slusser at
Quality Water Associates, who used to post here all the time. Its
using less salt than my Kinetico was using. I couldn't be happier.
It cost around $600 for a 48,000 grain unit.