AO Smith Softeners at Lowes?

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AZR

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I saw that AO Smith has partnered with Lowes and will start selling softeners and other water treatment devices at Lowes. I checked out their site and saw two products, a softener:

https://www.aosmithatlowes.com/products/water-softeners/ao-wh-soft-400t/
Genesis-XL40K.png


and a salt-free descaler/softener:

https://www.aosmithatlowes.com/products/water-filters/whole-home/ao-wh-dsclr/
ao-wh-dsclr-main.png


Does anyone have any insight into these products? I have had good luck with AO Smith water heaters, but didn't know they made softeners.
 

ditttohead

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LOL, 8 gpm Service flow rate at 15 PSI drop. Good luck with that one. Looks like another "Lowest Bidder" unit that looks pretty.

Salt free softener... nice try. It is a scale reduction unit... we manufacture thousands of these, their performance is nothing like a softener. Most people honestly cant even tell if they are installed or not.
 
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Master Plumber Mark

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Smith makes shitty water heaters, especially the ones sold at lowes...

Here is a peice of junk we are taking out tomorrow morning.....
I guess you could also call this a de-scaler too...

I wonder how much the sucker paid to have this junk installed
 

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AZR

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Sounds like a no go then :)
Thanks for the info.
I just wish Lowes or Home Depot would sell a good quality device. It would make it so much easier if you could drive out and pick something up and know you're not buying junk.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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Nice glue on the PVC pipe work... hillbilly 101. :)


DITTO...I threw that tank away this morning and for kicks I decided to see what the resin looked
like in this chamber......

Took the top off and poured it out on my lift gate.... only to find
that the unit was just full of water and had only a coffee cans worth of some kind of clear sand
left in the bottom of it..... Either they got screwed by someone or the chlorine in our water had totally disintegrated the resin bed over time......
 

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ditttohead

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That is probably the magic media that anti-scale systems use. It is basically an anion resin that has been modified. That stuff is the most expensive media we stock, and does it work? I am still waiting for someone to show me a way to test the water after it goes through the media. I have seen it have some affect in some applications but not consistently enough to actively push it.
 

Mo Howard

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I got it because the iron spec was better than the other units I noticed and that is the problem around here...everything is working great but it has only been 3 weeks - replaced a very old Rain Soft unit.


I saw that AO Smith has partnered with Lowes and will start selling softeners and other water treatment devices at Lowes. I checked out their site and saw two products, a softener:

https://www.aosmithatlowes.com/products/water-softeners/ao-wh-soft-400t/
Genesis-XL40K.png


and a salt-free descaler/softener:

https://www.aosmithatlowes.com/products/water-filters/whole-home/ao-wh-dsclr/
ao-wh-dsclr-main.png


Does anyone have any insight into these products? I have had good luck with AO Smith water heaters, but didn't know they made softeners.
 

Treeman

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I got it because the iron spec was better than the other units I noticed and that is the problem around here...everything is working great but it has only been 3 weeks - replaced a very old Rain Soft unit.

The spec sheet states that it can handle 10ppm iron. Ouch.

The guys around here start showing signs of cardiac arrest if you mention trying to manage iron much over 1 to 1.5ppm with a softener, LOL. Some sources claim that up to 2ppm is possible, but is really inefficient.

What say you pros. That 10ppm iron claim almost seems like false advertising.
 

ditttohead

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It is absolutely true, in the same way that a Honda Civic can tow 10,000 pounds. Just because it can do it does not mean it is a good idea. In all reality that unit can probably handle 50 ppm iron. At 10 ppm iron, the system will have insanely bad efficiency and you will be chemically stripping it regularly and the resin will not last very long at all.

In theory resin can handle 50 ppm of chlorine... 200 GPG hardness, etc... these are just ridiculous and silly marketing claims. They could throw almost any number they want in there.
 

JacobWin680

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Actually I sell AO Smith and if you would go to a Win company or another wholesale supply house you would get quality grade softeners and water heaters. What we sell is far beyond what Lowe's sells. It's all about profit with Lowe's so AO Smith has to make a much less quality product to get the cost down to what Lowe's will pay to stock the product. It's a necessary evil from a business standpoint, but wholesale is always better than retail.
Same with Moen,Delta,and other brands of faucets sold there. Not the same quality as the same brands sold at wholesalers like me.
 

Ryan Symons

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AO Smith bought Hague. Basically slapped a new skin on the old waterboss piece of crap. Packed bed , on demand regeneration....that happens when you are using water and bypasses while regenerating , big box store selling a big box of
 

lidanny

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AO Smith bought Hague. Basically slapped a new skin on the old waterboss piece of crap. Packed bed , on demand regeneration....that happens when you are using water and bypasses while regenerating , big box store selling a big box of
Ryan what brand of softener would you recommend? I live in NJ so I am out of your service range otherwise I would have given you a call. I looked at some of your photos and it looks like you are installing Fleck?
 
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