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Water softeners
I think our old softener is about history, I've followed the manual doing cleaning cycles, etc. but it don't help much anymore. I've always kinda gone the el cheapo route (Sears, this is probably about our fourth or fifth one. Just wondering what other folks do, buy the high dollar Kinetico, rent from Culligan, or go the Sears route again? Do the rental companys furnish the salt or do you maintain it yourself, that is kind of an issue with us because neither I or the Mrs. can lug bags of salt to the basement anymore so we wait for one of the kids to show up for salt duty. Thanks. Frank.
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Water softeners
We had an expensive Kinetico installed about 7 years ago now. The water here is hard with a small amount of rust. It has been a trooper, we've never done anything to it other than add rust-saver salt. No electronics to go bad either and it's twin-tank design gives continuous soft water during regeneration. I'd buy again even though it was expensive. We had a Sears on city water where the electronics died right after the warranty went out. They wanted nearly as much for a new circuit board as an entire unit would have cost. I ended up fixing the board myself. A resistor on the board fried. It was a 1/4 watt and should have been 1/2 watt or more. Planned obsolesence?
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KW; Failure soon after the warranty expires has kind of been my experience with Sears too. I've always been kind of a hard sell on extended warrantys, but maybe a softener should be an exception. I saw an article in the paper once about Sears income sources. First was credit card intrest, second was extended warrrantys, and third was retail sales. I just talked to a brother inlaw who too has had a Kinnetico for 10 yrs. without a hitch. I am going to check with Culligan, if they deliver and put the salt in the unit, that may be the way for us, I'm sure that five years down the road we won't be any more able to lug salt bags than we are today. Anybody use Culligan, roughly what do they charge? Thanks. Frank.
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Hardwood,
AC5ZO gave me some excellent advice in the past on water softening. Per his advice, I installed my own GE high efficiency water softener, and the last time I checked my hardness, I believe it was about "19" (not sure what the scale means). I add a couple hundred pounds of salt maybe every 6 months or so, and I have 4 children...so you can imagine how much water we go through. I've been very happy with this softener so far. I'm not sure how much water it uses for regeneration, and with the well problems I've had lately, I guess I need to look into this as well.
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Frank, I too took Mikes advice back then and got rid of my failing antique in favour of a better model.
The old "you get what you pay" adage is correct.
As for the salt, I have the same problem, but it is because of a bad back. The solution wasn't too difficult. I built a hopper next to the softener, and made up a couple of lengths of 4" plastic drain pipe that when snapped together (and held in place by a short screw in the top of each joint) reach from the nearest basement window to a flange in the side the hopper. I just slide the bags of salt off the truck and into the FEL, then drive to the basement window. A metal HVAC duct reducer on top of an elbow forms a funnel into which I pour the salt using a hand grain scoop. The salt runs down the drain pipe and into the hopper next to the softener.
I takes me about a 1/2 hour to load a few months worth of salt into the basement. This certainly beats two days with a sore back!!
Best of luck.
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That Murf, the smartest guy I know. Well not counting Art, Oneance, SG, Hardwood, KW, Michiganfun, but I am just saying. 
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Kenneth, there's a world of difference between smart and lazy.
I fall somewhere about the middle I think. 
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I go the Sears route and replace them when they die. They have had reasonable longevity and the last one I bought uses very little salt. I think I am on my 3rd in about 20 years.
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ncrunch, do you have well water?
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Yes, I have always had well water which was pretty hard. I might have had 4 of these units - can't remember exactly. But I don't have to replace them that often or right after warranty. I have been satisfied that the total price to me is less than I would pay if I went with a high quality brand.
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