Water softners???

[DoubleAron]

We are looking for water softners for our house.

We had Culligan come in and give us their song and dance. It's like $1200 to buy outright or something like $35 per month.

Menards and Sam's Club has the Morton ones that are like $375-$425.

What have people used and is there a big difference between the different brands?

Thanks

[indyzmike]

The ones that Fleet Farm and Farm & Fleet sell are good ones. I installed one last year and it works fine. The valve is the main part and the Fleck 5600 is one of the most popular. Parts will be availiable if it requires a rebuild many years down the road. Get one that regenerates by metering the water usage. I wanted to get the digital display but found it to be no benefit over the standard dials. Get the fine mesh resin if you need more iron filtered out.

They are on sale:
http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/534820-metered_water_softener.html?lref=%2fcatalog%2ffind .aspx%3ft%3dwater%2bsoftener

[03Mach1]

Give Soft Water of Waukesha a call. They installed one for us a few years ago and zero problems. It was around $900 installed full of salt. They will do a water analysis as well so you know what size unit you need and if you need an iron filter etc.. They were on time everything as promised and discarded the old unit as well. Definitely get an on demand one that goes by gallons used.

[u_say_go]

dont bother with a water test...either you need a softener or you dont. Go to Fleet Farm or Menards and pick up whatever they have on sale. The only thing you really need to worry about it getting one that is best suited for the number of people living in your house. Culligan is a total rip!
Simple to install too. water in, water out, plug in the power cord.
good luck

[twirkin50]

I bought a Water Boss at Mendards for around $375. Bigger unit, and it works great. Uses very little salt and you can control the regeneration cycles based on water usage and not a set time. Has decreased our electric bill and salt bill. Very easy to install. I have not done copper pipe sweating in years, but turned out awesome. Installed 2 inline shutoff valves and a bypass valve.

[indyzmike]

One thing to watch for, I had a softener with an Autotrol valve and the inlet and outlet piping is reversed from the Fleck valve. A little more work to make a crossover if you hard plumb it.