Need to buy a water softener (extreme DIYer here)

[steppinthrax]

So I have a 3K sq foot home.

We've been living in the house for around 6 years now. I live in MD. We have well water. There are 4 ppl in my family (including myself).

So anyway, last night I got a water test kid that test pretty much everything. I had no Nitrates, Nitrites, Chlorine, Lead, Copper, Iron. However my Total Hardness was 250 PPM which apparently is 14.6 GPG. I have an iron of .3 (which was measured as .31 by the home inspector 6 years ago). I've always known that I have iron because it shows up in sinks toilets etc.

I'm a pretty handy person (kitchen remodel, replacing water heater etc), I was in Home Depot looking at water softeners and I like the footprint that the Water Boss Softeners have. I like that they are a full digital interface and real low to the floor. I also read that they use very little salt. But I read lots of the reviews. Apparently they are either very good or horrible. A lot of people point to Fleck softeners instead. So here are my questions.

1. Is Water Boss good? I think the biggest thing that attracts me to WaterBoss is the fact that they save salt. I was reading about a family of two who adds salt every 5 mos or so!!! Are other softeners on the market just as good?

2. When looking at water softeners I see a lot of them on craigslist. Many of the expensive systems are a two part unit (tank and brine tank). What are the advantages of having both units separate versus an all in one?

3. My biggest concern is brine efficiency and recharge efficiency. It seems that they are all the same if the water softener is using ON DEMAND regeneration v.s. Timmed regeneartion. Meaning it measures the amount of water and regenerates on water use. Is this correct? I'm pointing more twords the waterboss because they seem to advertise how little water they use and how little salt they use. However I'm looking at a GE unit (https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-40-200-Grain-Water-Softener-GXSH40V/203219780) that seems to be of better quality (less complaints).

What softeners have the highest efficiency in terms of brine and recharger water use.

Thanks

 

[ditttohead]

In all reality, any softener can be made efficient but nothing is free. It is typical for resin to fail in these ultra high efficiency designs. The real salt savings can be had by limiting your water usage. Here is an article I wrote on the topic that was published several years ago. https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/164-165

I would strongly advise ignoring all the marketing hype about how much more efficient every unit is compared to everyone else's. I can program the 5800SXT to use 15 gallons of water per regeneration... this does not mean I should. Just like a car can get 75 MPG, this would basically make it a moped. A lot has to give to get these "amazing efficiencies". And... how can every system be more efficient than everybody else's?

It is now just a math and marketing game. When you look at the big picture, even the most efficient system vs a more reliable and cost effective unit will only save a half of a bag of salt per year.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[steppinthrax]

In all reality, any softener can be made efficient but nothing is free. It is typical for resin to fail in these ultra high efficiency designs. The real salt savings can be had by limiting your water usage. Here is an article I wrote on the topic that was published several years ago. https://view.publitas.com/impact-water-products/2018-catalog-final/page/164-165

I would strongly advise ignoring all the marketing hype about how much more efficient every unit is compared to everyone else's. I can program the 5800SXT to use 15 gallons of water per regeneration... this does not mean I should. Just like a car can get 75 MPG, this would basically make it a moped. A lot has to give to get these "amazing efficiencies". And... how can every system be more efficient than everybody else's?

It is now just a math and marketing game. When you look at the big picture, even the most efficient system vs a more reliable and cost effective unit will only save a half of a bag of salt per year.

Thanks for your reply,

It seems what you are pretty much saying is that as long as the water softener is sized properly to the home, efficiency for the most part dosen't matter. You didn't say this but I believe I should stick around Metered water softeners since they recharge based on dialed in hardness and gallons of water used. Example if only 10 gallons or so is used for the whole day, a timed water softener would recharge regardless wasting water and salt, whereas a metered one would not, until it reaches a gallon set point based on the hardness dialed in and water used.

So if I stick around a metered water softener that is sized properly for the house, efficiency should not matter? Is an over-sized water softener a bad thing? I was told that a larger water softener is just more expensive it is, however your recharge time would be much longer.

So I should really pay attention to the "quality" of the water softener, that is a lower quality softer would require parts on the reg and be hard to work on, in the long run it would cost more to operate than a higher quality model.

So a new thing I was looking at was Fleck water softeners. It seems a lot of people speak highly of Fleck. I saw this online.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fleck-buil...452285&hash=item2ccdb97a32:g:Xz0AAOSwu0ZaDxSz

It's a 5600 SXT which seems to be a term I see again and again on here and other forums.