Faust Faustiano
New Member
I am currently in the market looking for a water softener, and I have been scouring the internet to find information and determine the right solution for my needs. I have never owned one before, but I do have a RO system under my sink from Perfect Water (Artesian) which has been great, but now we want to add a Softener.
Why:
1. Want to remove hard water stains. We have a few oil rubbed bronze faucets and they look horrible because of the buildup. Plus, our three bathroom showers all have glass that is spotted and difficult to manage.
2. Help prevent pin-hole leaks. We are on our third leak (Cu pipe) in 7 years.
I am located in Orange County and we have pretty hard water @ 22 gpg. Measured with Hach 5-B. Here is a copy of our city’s water report: https://www.mnwd.com/app/uploads/2020/05/MNWD-2019-Water-Quality-Report-web.pdf
Until today, I did not realize that I would require a water softener with a carbon pre filter, as I was told by a water treatment specialist that our Chlorine was high and would damage the water softener over time.
Prior to meeting with a water treatment specialist, I was searching different water softeners, and was eyeing the GE GXSHC40N Smart 40,000 Grain Water Softener. It had some great features like WiFi connect, auto shutoff, salt usage and app notifications. I realize that this is a very inexpensive solution ($649) as compared to other name-brand water softeners.
The water treatment specialist recommended several systems (as he sells many brands), and his prices were between $2600 - $7000 including installation. A few brands he shared were PWP, Evolve and Hague Hydroclean and Maximizer. The Hydroclean was their low end solution. I tried to find some information on Hague’s website but it was very limited.
The water treatment person seemed knowledgeable and informed me about the need for the carbon filter for the Chlorine.
So after the meeting I ended up with more questions which I am hoping someone here may have some information to share.
1. Is the GE Water Softener something I should stay away from? Or do I just assume that is something that I would need to replace every few years?
2. Can I add a pre-carbon filter inline? Or is it better to get a softener with the carbon as part of the unit?
3. Is anyone familiar with PWP, Evolve, Hague systems? Are they considered top end softeners?
4. The specialist said that I would need to have someone come out to service the unit to replace the carbon every 4-7 years (depending on the unit), but I asked if that is something I could do myself, and he basically said no… Is that true? Can I replace the carbon myself in these systems? They mentioned it would be around $500 plus a service fee.
5. Also, when I asked the specialist the size of the system he recommended in grains, he said the high end systems did not measure that. They only looked at cubic feet. But if he was to extrapolate the grains, he said it would be around 25,000. Based on my limited knowledge, it seems that this would be a pretty small unit and may require much more regeneration. The calculation I found online was: Number of People * gpg * 80 Gallons (rough usage per person) * 7 days (frequency of regeneration) = System Size. For me this is roughly 37,000. So would a 25,000 be too small?
My goal is to find a decent system, but I do not know enough and I don’t want to make the wrong decision, or led down a path I do not need to go. Any help would be appreciated.
Why:
1. Want to remove hard water stains. We have a few oil rubbed bronze faucets and they look horrible because of the buildup. Plus, our three bathroom showers all have glass that is spotted and difficult to manage.
2. Help prevent pin-hole leaks. We are on our third leak (Cu pipe) in 7 years.
I am located in Orange County and we have pretty hard water @ 22 gpg. Measured with Hach 5-B. Here is a copy of our city’s water report: https://www.mnwd.com/app/uploads/2020/05/MNWD-2019-Water-Quality-Report-web.pdf
Until today, I did not realize that I would require a water softener with a carbon pre filter, as I was told by a water treatment specialist that our Chlorine was high and would damage the water softener over time.
Prior to meeting with a water treatment specialist, I was searching different water softeners, and was eyeing the GE GXSHC40N Smart 40,000 Grain Water Softener. It had some great features like WiFi connect, auto shutoff, salt usage and app notifications. I realize that this is a very inexpensive solution ($649) as compared to other name-brand water softeners.
The water treatment specialist recommended several systems (as he sells many brands), and his prices were between $2600 - $7000 including installation. A few brands he shared were PWP, Evolve and Hague Hydroclean and Maximizer. The Hydroclean was their low end solution. I tried to find some information on Hague’s website but it was very limited.
The water treatment person seemed knowledgeable and informed me about the need for the carbon filter for the Chlorine.
So after the meeting I ended up with more questions which I am hoping someone here may have some information to share.
1. Is the GE Water Softener something I should stay away from? Or do I just assume that is something that I would need to replace every few years?
2. Can I add a pre-carbon filter inline? Or is it better to get a softener with the carbon as part of the unit?
3. Is anyone familiar with PWP, Evolve, Hague systems? Are they considered top end softeners?
4. The specialist said that I would need to have someone come out to service the unit to replace the carbon every 4-7 years (depending on the unit), but I asked if that is something I could do myself, and he basically said no… Is that true? Can I replace the carbon myself in these systems? They mentioned it would be around $500 plus a service fee.
5. Also, when I asked the specialist the size of the system he recommended in grains, he said the high end systems did not measure that. They only looked at cubic feet. But if he was to extrapolate the grains, he said it would be around 25,000. Based on my limited knowledge, it seems that this would be a pretty small unit and may require much more regeneration. The calculation I found online was: Number of People * gpg * 80 Gallons (rough usage per person) * 7 days (frequency of regeneration) = System Size. For me this is roughly 37,000. So would a 25,000 be too small?
My goal is to find a decent system, but I do not know enough and I don’t want to make the wrong decision, or led down a path I do not need to go. Any help would be appreciated.