[stoney]

I am in the process of replacing most of the water valves to our toilets, our main water shut-off valve, water pressure regulator, the flush assemblies in most of the toilets, and the toilet seals in our home because of hard water. While I was a Home Depot getting everything sorted out as to what I need, the plumbing guy suggested that I look into a water softener.

I know nothing about them and from what I can tell, the only variety that actually works are salt-based. Everything I'm reading says that those are not good for use with any kind of drinking or cooking, because of the salt content.

I am not a fan of salt in general, so adding it to our water is not something that I really want to do. However, if it keeps me from needing to replace my appliances due to scale build-up, I am very open to the idea ($900 dishwasher later).

Does anybody have experience with a water softener? What would you change post installation vs. pre? Anybody removed one for reason other than not functioning? Logic behind that?

 

[toodles]

How hard is your supply water? Like do you know the TDS or conductivity figure?

Salt based water softeners aren't really much better except the scale they make is easier to remove. If anything, you'd be better off using RO water but a small RO system will be more expensive to purchase and run. I'm pretty amazed your TDS would be so high that it's damaging stuff though? Perhaps some kind of descaling treatment run periodically would be the best option?

 

[eric strt6]

Having lived with really hard water and high sediment loads in the mountains and now hard water in Livermore I can offer a few tips. We had/ have water softeners in both locations. The mountain house has a system by Hauge that used Potassium salts which supposedly were better for the environment. The Livermore house uses sodium based salts. I prefer the potassium salt based water softener because unlike our current system it doesn't burn the eyes.

We installed an under the kitchen sink reverse osmosis system to provide water for cooking and drinking as the softened stuff tastes nasty

 

[Westy]

Don't know much about them other than the house I grew up in had very hard water. The house had two water circuits, showers, toilets,washers etc used softened water while any faucet you might drink out of had pure well water. Doing that could be quite expensive in a retrofit situation.

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

Soft water feels really creepy, like take a shower with Jerry Sandusky creepy.

 

[DirtMcGirk]

We had one at our house here in Phoenix. It was kind of a pain in the ass to always remember to check the salts on the regular because we used a lot of water.

And you never felt 100% clean. I noticed my skin was softer, but I was breaking out a lot more as a result, and I never felt like the soap came all the way off of me. We did have to run an RO/DI system under the sink for drinking water/for the dogs/for the aquarium.

But in Phoenix you also get that massive scale build up on everything. In the house I am in now it doesn't have one, and you have to CLR **** a lot more, the washing machine beats up clothes more, but you do feel a lot cleaner and you don't feel like Jerry Sandusky was roughhousing with you in the shower.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

We have very hard water and deal with descaling a lot - I don't like softeners. What I would like but have not chased is a solar still or something like it that would provide a few gallons a week of demineralized water.

 

[stevew]

but you do feel a lot cleaner and you don't feel like Jerry Sandusky was roughhousing with you in the shower.

don't CLR your butthole with the toilet brush then...

 

[Ray Evans]

Softeners work on Ion exchange basically the little resin beads inside grab the minerals the you see on your nice glass. The newer softeners on the market today use a lot less water during the regen cycle. The Potassium based salt is way to expensive so I would stick with regular salt. The water is not good for watering your grass or plants so if possible have a line installed bypassing your softener. As for the taste you can hardly tell. I do have a RO system for cooking and drinking. Theres no way that anyone unless your rich could afford to use RO throughout the whole house the system would be huge depending on the size of your house. Also the newer systems use a lot less salt.

 

[jonKranked]

i grew up with a salt based water softerener. i'm still alive.

just eat a lot of bananas to offset the sodium?

 

[C.P.]

Ask this old house just did an episode with a water softener install:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/ask-toh/video/0,,20658259,00.html

Pick scene 4 in the video link at the bottom of the screen

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

I have a filtration/softener system in my house (well water)....there is definitely no salty taste in the water, and no scaling at all. When I bought the house, the water quality test results were pretty much perfect across the board. Maintenance is virtually non-existent....check the salt level in the tank and add when needed, which is maybe once or twice a year.

I really see no downside to having it, other than cost (no idea what they cost)

EDIT - Upon looking at the website of the company who made my system, it appears they make a saltless system. Might be what you want, though I know nothing about them. (look for the Kinetico SRS system).

http://www.kinetico.com/