Estimate for installing water softner loop

[rrservice09]

I moved in to a new home 6 months back, and planning to get a water softner. we need an estimate for installing the loop, I am looking to buy whirlpoolsoftner from Lowes, and looking for a plumber to install it. Anybody has any idea of how much would it cost? and any recommendations for plumbers? Please help me with this.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Don't buy a whirlpool. They are crap.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Stevemac00]

I went through this about five years ago. The plumbing was simple for me because I installed it in the crawl space and had a drain close. The plumbing cost was about $300 and took about three hours. It requires three valves for a bypass circuit.

You didn't ask but I spent the money and bought a Kinetico http://www.kinetico.com/. What a fantastically engineered system with a ten year guarantee. It uses no electrical and has two ion exchangers so when one is recharging the other is working. This way there's always software.

It's definitely the Steinway of water softeners.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Kinetico is good stuff. Pricey but well engineerd and pretty much bullet proof.

 

[Craigpump]

You want to buy it and have someone else install it?

Do you take your food to a restaurant and have them cook it for you?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It's difficult to buy and install Kinetico unless you're a dealer

 

[Reach4]

I moved in to a new home 6 months back, and planning to get a water softner. we need an estimate for installing the loop, I am looking to buy whirlpoolsoftner from Lowes, and looking for a plumber to install it. Anybody has any idea of how much would it cost? and any recommendations for plumbers? Please help me with this.

1. Before choosing a softener, you should know about the water you are treating and how many people are using that water in your house. A free water test of well water is probably more expensive than one that you pay for, because it will be provided by a salesman who will be looking to sell you an expensive system. If you get your water from a town or water company, they can provide the important numbers. Hardness and pH primarily for chlorinated water. For well water, you also need iron, manganese, and maybe other numbers.
2. Before choosing a plumber, figure out where the work is needed. Choose a plumber who is local to you. A local place that sells and services softeners may be a good choice. Be aware that some places are very expensive. Culligan and Kinetico come to mind. However most independent plumbers can install softeners -- even those they did not sell to you. Note that systems that use Fleck controllers usually give good price+performance. Fleck will permit dealers to sell parts to end users. Systems based on Clack controllers are usually good, but they will not allow their dealers to sell parts by phone or internet.
3. In most cases, a softener that uses a separate brine tank and resin tank will give you better performance and will be more maintainable. This is not to say that all-in-one units do not have their uses where space is at a premium. They are in practice not usually repairable, as far as I can tell.

 

[Craigpump]

You might take the time to check your laws concerning backwash fluid.

Here in Ct, it's illegal to discharge into a septic. Pump and water conditioner guys know this and install dry wells. Plumbers don't.

 

[hj]

If softeners could NOT connect to a septic, then MILLIONS of homes in this area are in violation. As for the original question, most softeners come with their own manifold which HAS the softener loop and bypass built in.

 

[Craigpump]

I don't know about the rest of the country HJ, but back washing a softener into a septic in Ct is against the public health code.

 

[hj]

quote;
back washing a softener into a septic in Ct is against the public health code.

WHY? If it goes into a dry well is soaks into the ground, and if if goes to a septic tank, it also eventually soaks into the ground, and I cannot see where it would be a "health code violation" anyway. As I said, HERE, almost ALL softeners, including mine, go into the drain system, in fact it is illegal to dump on the ground outside, and NO ONE digs a dry well.

 

[hj]

quote; It uses no electrical and has two ion exchangers so when one is recharging the other is working. This way there's always software.

And when they BOTH plug up, you put it into bypass mode because you do not have ANY water, until Kinetico comes out, removes it, rebuilds it, and the returns it.

 

[Craigpump]

I don't write the laws, but take a minute and Google Ct "public health code water softener backwash" and read it for yourself.

 

[Reach4]

From http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/environmental_health/pdf/Hardwater-Softeners_Facts_and_Issues.pdf

The Problem (with on-site regeneration)
Backwashing softener regenerant to a septic system is specifically prohibited by the CT Public Health Code
Technical Standards for Subsurface Sewage Disposal systems. The homeowner is usually unaware of the
prohibition however, and it often happens that such backwash discharges are plumbed to the septic system,
potentially leading to the following problems:

• hydraulic overloading of marginally sized septic systems,
• spalling of cement in concrete septic tanks, baffles, drywells and D-boxes, due to the introduction
of salt or potassium chloride contained in the backwash discharge, and
• sludge buildup in the leaching system when significant levels of iron and manganese are present
in the raw water, possibly leading to leaching field failure.
• groundwater contamination​

 

[hj]

quote; • groundwater contamination

A dry well will contaminate it FASTER than if it were diluted by the volume of water in the septic tank. All of those are spurious considering the dilution factor of the tank.