Water Softener

Plumber said I need a new water softener..low water pressure in my house..Culligan wants $1600 after all said and done.Is there a cheaper alternative its clean city water.

Do you really need a softener ? You shouldn't if clean city water.

A softener has nothing to do with clean water. A softener corrects hard water,I.e. water with high iron content.

Interestingly enough our water softener was serviced today. I asked the tech some of the questions from the earlier post about softeners. His answers not mine:

Media in the softener will go bad, but not very often. It depends mostly on how the system is set up and the type of water it has to soften.

Chlorine from city water systems is very hard on the media and will destroy it. If you have chlorinated water you should have a de-chlorination system ahead of the softener.

Iron in your water is also hard on media because it tends to be sticky and hard to get out of the media with the saltwater backflush.

Two tank media systems are far superior to single tank systems. The system works on the ion exchange system. The media is full of ions from the sodium. As the hard (mostly from dissolved limestone) water passes through the media the calcium ions in the water are captured by the media and replaced by the ions from the sodium. The size of the media tank and the hardness level of the water determines how much water it takes to fully exchange the ions in the media.

Once the sodium ions are gone and the media is full of calcium ions the media has to be back-flushed with salt water in order to rinse out the calcium ions and replace them with sodium ions again. If this is done with already softened water (from a two tank system) the process is much more efficient and complete. If the backflush is done with hard water that is not already softened (as in a single tank system) it can't fully rinse out he calcium ions and replenish the media with sodium ions.

Our system is a Kinetico softener with a K5 drinking station. It uses no electricity and is a two tank system. There is a water valve that measures water use and once enough water has passed through the media tank (based on our level of hardness) to use up the media it switches to the other tank then backflushes the dirty tank with already softened salt water. I like our system because there are no electrical parts to go bad. It's been installed for several years now and they come and service the K5 drinking station filters every year. The water softener has worked perfectly since install.

Link to Martin Water below. They are our local Kinetico dealer.
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Hard water may have high iron content as well, but typically hard water is high in dissolved limestone.

Do you have a whole house filter and does it need changed?

I have two nearly identical water softeners with quick disconnects. Both Kenmore once sold by Sears.

When I decide it's time to service water softener, I simply slide one out and replace it with it's twin.

Then buy kit and new media for one taken out of service so as to rebuild in spare time. Parts and media less than $100 and takes about 2 hours to rebuild (more the very first time).

A new box store water softener should cost $500 or less.

Dean, how often do you decide to service your softeners?

It varies. Usually every 4 or 5 years.

I try to avoid lime in my water heater so swap them out when I become disatisfied with the amount of suds that I see in the shower drain. The days of taking a water sample to the local Sears store are long gone.

Usually do not find anything obviously wrong but replace media anyway.

If its city water the softener is a choice. Dont really need it. Bypass it for a while and see how you like the harder water. Thats as cheap as you can get.

1600 bucks installed doesn't sound too bad for a Culligan softener. I'm assuming this is a demand softener; I would NEVER install a non-demand softener. Nor would I install a cheapie from one of the big box stores.

I bought a softener system from Ohio Pure Water and installed it myself. It has a Kleck demand valve and I think the system was around $900 14 years ago. It has worked very well. One word of caution about these DIY system: The media and tank are shipped separately due to weight so you have to fill the tank with media yourself. The media beads are very small and will go flying everywhere if you're not careful. Other than that, the installation was straightforward.
Ohio Pure Water

My Dad worked at Culligan for about 15 years in the 60's and 70's. His thoughts were they had quality merchandise, but it was over priced.

He bought softeners for his home from a lumber / hardware store. He would not buy a softener that did not have a Fleck brand valve on it.

Clean city water might be hard, that's probably why a softener was installed! If it was mine I would disconnect it and roll it around flat on the floor, to agitate the media. Next I would take the cover off the venturi area, there is a screen in there somewhere, depending on your model, and clean it out. I think all softeners have a small screen somewhere. Then I would reconnect it and rotate the dial a few revolutions to make sure the spool valve is moving. Then I would put some iron-out in the brine tank and regenerate it a couple of times. If that doesn't fix it I would buy a new one at a big box store, for a lot less than $1600! Also, I think you should have a filter ahead of the softener, to catch anything that might cause a problem.

(quoted from post at 11:28:28 12/29/22) Plumber said I need a new water softener..low water pressure in my house..Culligan wants $1600 after all said and done.Is there a cheaper alternative its clean city water.

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Yes, there are cheaper alternatives. Just about any other water softener on the market. Culligan is about the most expensive one on the market. You're paying for all that advertising they do. "HEY CULLIGAN MAN!"

I bought one at Lowes over 10 years ago and it has performed well. I believe it is a Whirlpool brand. We have hard water, we are in limestone country. I have an in line filter ahead of the water softener. Salt recharge.

A.O.Smith from Lowes. Installed easily with flex hoses. No problems.

I used to sell and rent water softeners to my customers, and also serviced them. I agree that Culligan is the most expensive way to get a softener. Before you get one put in, buy two test kits and test your water yourself for hardness and for iron. City water is usually soft but it can also be very hard. Just because your city water is clean and there are no solids that can be filtered out doesn't mean that there are no dissolved solids. Iron in the water will plug up the media, and cause low pressure in your house. Chlorine itself doesn't bother a softener, but chlorine will cause dissolved iron to drop out and plug the media. If you get one be sure that the controller is a Fleck. I tried a Kinetico water wheel control system softener once. The control kept plugging up. I had to take it out and put in a conventional timer based control. If your media tank is indeed plugged, it is most likely iron which can be cleaned out with "iron out" as Russ posted. A two tank system is not worth the extra money. Once the CA-MG ions are broken loose from the resin by the salt water, hard water will flush them away just as well as soft water.

I the media is plugged and it is a quality unit, why not replace the media?

(quoted from post at 08:19:29 12/30/22) I the media is plugged and it is a quality unit, why not replace the media?

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Easier said than done. I have never had one plug out of the 40 or so that I had. The only thing that I can imagine that would cause a "plug" would be iron. If it is plugged, it is all stuck together so getting it out would be a big job.

Buy a Addie, have your plumber install it, buy the salt