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The builders of my townhouse installed a water softener back in 1984. Recently the salt container over flowed with water causing us to call a plumber.
We used this plumber before but this time he said he would give a sample of water to his water softener supplier and in 2-3 weeks he would give us a quote warning us that it would be 3-3.5k to replace our softener.
Did a little research including here and decided I need a Clack or Fleck digital metered head... Clack was slightly prefered to Fleck.
Called another plumber and he immediately sent me a quote without comming out or testing the water.
That didn't seem right so I did more research. This time I looked on Angie's list and called water quality experts with high ratings.
I am testing from 0 to 6 grams hardness with "fairly high" chlorine. I am on city water. The city site says water ranges from 6 grams to 14 grams hardness.
Before my son did not like tap water and we used a Brita my daughter thought it was fine. We had no other complaints. Given I did not even know about resin needing replaced the softener may not have even been working correctly.
Out orginal unit is a 24k unit with a autotrol timed head.
So after researching a ton...
I am confused:
1) Most agree that up flow brining is more effiecent but what this means real world is vague. the 69% less salt quote seems to be against timed units which a metered unit claims is 40% less salt...so in reality up vs down is only 29% so I am not sure how many bags that is?
Before I using 4 bags a month...so that was a ton.
2) I always read before trust the installer more than the product. The person I liked best to install something is Ecowater guy... It is proprietary ... But the other quotes for a Clack or Fleck head are all down flow brining... so less effiecent.
The warranty is crappy unless i buy the top of the line model which is 2400 plus tax.
3) Some recommend a seperate carbon tank some say they just put the carbon on top of the resin.
At 0 to 6 grams hardness I am not sure I even need a water softener but even the company that rated my water at zero still came back and quoted me one instead of just a carbon tank with control valve.
The two plumbers I called seem to be willing to do the job but they dont really know much about water softeners...
I have been looking at just buying a unit online, either (Fleck) or a unit called Gensis softeners.
Maybe a good RO is better? Maybe just a Carbon tank....
A few tried to sell me pressure water softeners and salt less water conditioners...both seem BAD from the research I did.
If I just bought the Flex unit online it would cost me 600 dollars delivered and about 400 bucks for install. A the other quotes were 1700 to 2400 ...
I do think I need chlorine removal but with the hardness I am not sure about the rest. Advice is much appreciated.
We used this plumber before but this time he said he would give a sample of water to his water softener supplier and in 2-3 weeks he would give us a quote warning us that it would be 3-3.5k to replace our softener.
Did a little research including here and decided I need a Clack or Fleck digital metered head... Clack was slightly prefered to Fleck.
Called another plumber and he immediately sent me a quote without comming out or testing the water.
That didn't seem right so I did more research. This time I looked on Angie's list and called water quality experts with high ratings.
I am testing from 0 to 6 grams hardness with "fairly high" chlorine. I am on city water. The city site says water ranges from 6 grams to 14 grams hardness.
Before my son did not like tap water and we used a Brita my daughter thought it was fine. We had no other complaints. Given I did not even know about resin needing replaced the softener may not have even been working correctly.
Out orginal unit is a 24k unit with a autotrol timed head.
So after researching a ton...
I am confused:
1) Most agree that up flow brining is more effiecent but what this means real world is vague. the 69% less salt quote seems to be against timed units which a metered unit claims is 40% less salt...so in reality up vs down is only 29% so I am not sure how many bags that is?
Before I using 4 bags a month...so that was a ton.
2) I always read before trust the installer more than the product. The person I liked best to install something is Ecowater guy... It is proprietary ... But the other quotes for a Clack or Fleck head are all down flow brining... so less effiecent.
The warranty is crappy unless i buy the top of the line model which is 2400 plus tax.
3) Some recommend a seperate carbon tank some say they just put the carbon on top of the resin.
At 0 to 6 grams hardness I am not sure I even need a water softener but even the company that rated my water at zero still came back and quoted me one instead of just a carbon tank with control valve.
The two plumbers I called seem to be willing to do the job but they dont really know much about water softeners...
I have been looking at just buying a unit online, either (Fleck) or a unit called Gensis softeners.
Maybe a good RO is better? Maybe just a Carbon tank....
A few tried to sell me pressure water softeners and salt less water conditioners...both seem BAD from the research I did.
If I just bought the Flex unit online it would cost me 600 dollars delivered and about 400 bucks for install. A the other quotes were 1700 to 2400 ...
I do think I need chlorine removal but with the hardness I am not sure about the rest. Advice is much appreciated.
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