water softner choices

[morefishplease]

Two choices that I have in my town are Culligan and a local plumbing company that sells Hellenbrand? The Hellenbrand dealer came in $200 less than Culligan. Anyone have any knowledge or experience with Hellenbrand water softners? Thanks!!

[Get'n Jiggy]

Fleet Farm has a basic model, one I have is blue, that's inexpensive and

does a great job. Culligan is bad news in my experience, better leave it

at that. IMHO I'd stay clear of the digital clock models, had one fail in

less than 2 years, digital clock cost more to replace than a new softener.

[K_Josh87]

we have an iron curtain system, works AWESOME.

[morefishplease]

Thanks for the replies so far guys. The Hellenbrand seems like a good softner. It's always nice hearing from people that have bought certain products. And as always it comes down to money and at $200 less than the competitor seems like a good choice. Hopefully some more posts come in from others.

[WallEYES]

Make sure you test your water 1st so you can match up the hardness to the grains of the softner...price is also an issue...a 32,000 grain unit is more than a 24,000 grain unit.... match water hardness to grain....also get a metered unit ...regenerates to water usage

[krinkle]

Yep. Makes sure and get your water tested and then a water softener that meets those needs. Looking for more info on water softening check out northstar water softeners web page.

Just changed out a softener for a guy today. He had bought some off name softener somewhere and it didnt make it a year for him. Turns out the softener was not designed to handle the iron in his water. Costly mistake for him but he is up and going with a new softener now.

[Whoaru99]

The grain capacity (for example 32,000 vs. 24,000) more or less tells you how many gallons of water can be softened before needing to regenerate. It's not directly related to being able to soften a certain hardness of water.

Just to make the math easy say your water was 100 grains hardness (that would be awesomely hard, by the way). A 32,000 grain unit would theoretically be able to soften 320 gallons before regenerating, a 24,000 grain unit 240 gallons before regenerating. Either unit will soften the water just the same, other than the smaller one regenerating more often.

FWIW, the Sears softener I purchased several years back has been working well. Its a demand-based softener so only regenerates as needed, not on a set time schedule. Our water is 25 grains hardness, just for reference.

[PurpleFloyd]

Look into the water boss softeners

[Archerysniper]

I would stray away from the electronic style. If I was to go with the electronic style the water boss would be my first choice.

[Darrell Larson]

I put in a Water Boss 5 years ago and have never had a problem with it.