best water softener

[nenenc66]

i need help in choosing a water softener. i've read about these 5 water softener products and their comparison--pelican,gmx,etc. what do you thing of these products? are they reliable? i have high blood pressure and we're planning to use the water for drinking also. i saw that pelican doesn't use salt.
we have a water softener that brokedown 2 years ago. inherited it from the previous owner. don't know the name of the company were they got it from or the name of the softener. the house was 8 years old when we bought it but we don't know what year the softener was put in. we are new to this. my husband thinks we should get a new one instead of having it fixed because it looked obsolete. by the way we have well water. do we have to test the water again to determine what kind of softener to get? thanks.

 

[Gary Slusser]

You really don't want to buy any of what you've mentioned. They are not softeners and do not work as described.

Being in upstate NY, test for pH, iron, manganese, hardness, Coliform bacteria, nitrates and if possible, sulfates and chlorides. If you have any odor, what is it, H2S (sulfur)? If an odor, is it in the hot water only or hot and cold?

You should check the toilet tanks for a clear to black slime or oily film on the water.

Take a picture of the face of your softener's control valve and the softener and post them. We can tell you what control valve you make and model. What did the softener stop doing or start doing it shouldn't have?

As to drinking softened water... you get 7.85 mg/l (about a quart) of added sodium, if you;re using softener salt, per grain per gallon of ion exchange. I.E. if you remove say 15 gpg you get 15* 7.85 =117.75 mg of added sodium (only) per quart. A slice of white bread is usually 120-160 mg of sodium. So et one slice less a day and drink the quart of softened water and reduce your sodium intake for that day.