Anonymous wrote:We are having a system installed next week by Culligan. They came out and tested the water for a bunch of things and we are having all of those things addressed. We are also putting an osmosis system under the sink for drinking water. Our hardness is 35, I think the guy said ideally it should be under 4. So 305 seems ridiculous. So you have a well?

Update on this pp?

How did it go? What is the cost for the softener and the RO system?

Anonymous wrote:Beware! A relative died of kidney failure. They drank the softened water not realizing sodium was added to it.

They may have died from kidney failure but it's not because of a water softener. That's just silly.

"The area water hardness is around 305." ?? Not around here it isn't. Not 305 grains anyway. Perhaps 305 PPM which divided by 17 PPM = 18 Grains. The water from WSSC which comes from the Potomac river is about 7-10 grains. Anyway, a water softener is awesome. Your hair and skin will thank you. Do not use Rinse Aid in your dishwasher anymore as your dishes will come out sparkling clean and use about 1/2 as much detergent in your laundry. The amount of sodium it adds to the water is no concern. I do recommend asking the water treatment company to add a tank with 1 cubic foot of activated carbon ahead of the softener to remove all the chlorine from your water. Your fridge filter has about an ounce of carbon, same as a Britta or any inline filter and no, it does not remove minerals or soften your water. It makes the water taste good by getting rid of the chlorine.

Depends why you want softer water. I put a softener on my shower head that has made a big difference in my skin/hair but I don't really care to spend the money to put a whole house softener on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are having a system installed next week by Culligan. They came out and tested the water for a bunch of things and we are having all of those things addressed. We are also putting an osmosis system under the sink for drinking water. Our hardness is 35, I think the guy said ideally it should be under 4. So 305 seems ridiculous. So you have a well?

How did the install go? We just signed a contract with Culligan as well. Just for a water softener system.

The install is tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. We bought our house a year ago and there is white crusty stuff on faucets and a ring in the toilet. Nut not for much longer.

Anonymous wrote:We paid about $5k for a softening system and are very glad we did. Over time it degrades your appliances so they don’t last as long, dishes won’t get fully clean, skin and hair get dry, laundry looks dingy. So I feel it’s worth it for a whole house system, rather than just filtering your drinking water. We have a WaterRight.

We just paid $4700 for ours with Culligan.

We paid about $5k for a softening system and are very glad we did. Over time it degrades your appliances so they don’t last as long, dishes won’t get fully clean, skin and hair get dry, laundry looks dingy. So I feel it’s worth it for a whole house system, rather than just filtering your drinking water. We have a WaterRight.

Anonymous wrote:Beware! A relative died of kidney failure. They drank the softened water not realizing sodium was added to it.

LMFAO! You can't be serious

Anonymous wrote:Beware! A relative died of kidney failure. They drank the softened water not realizing sodium was added to it.

Anonymous wrote:Beware! A relative died of kidney failure. They drank the softened water not realizing sodium was added to it.

The softener “exchanges” about an equal amount of sodium for the initial hardness. The harder the water, the more sodium you'll have added to the final product.

Although this is actually a rather complicated math problem, it can be simplified to the following:

Grains per gallon (GPG) of total hardness x 1.89 = mg. of sodium (NA) in an 8 oz glass of water.

Even simpler:

GPG hardness x 2 = mg. of sodium in an 8 oz glass of water, more or less.

In other words, if your water test tells you that you have 18 grains per gallon hardness, installing a water softener will add about 35 milligrams of sodium to each 8 oz. glass of water you drink.

To put this in perspective, a tablespoon of catsup has 204 mg. of sodium and a slice of whole wheat bread has 211.

If your water already has 30 mg/L (milligrams per liter), you'll have to add that to what the softener puts in. An 8-oz glass is about 1/4 of a liter, so your total natural sodium for the 18-grain example above would be about 8 ppm. Add to that the amount added by the softener, and you'll have a general idea of the amount of sodium you'll be consuming from your drinking water.

Beware! A relative died of kidney failure. They drank the softened water not realizing sodium was added to it.

Anonymous wrote:We are having a system installed next week by Culligan. They came out and tested the water for a bunch of things and we are having all of those things addressed. We are also putting an osmosis system under the sink for drinking water. Our hardness is 35, I think the guy said ideally it should be under 4. So 305 seems ridiculous. So you have a well?

How did the install go? We just signed a contract with Culligan as well. Just for a water softener system.

We are having a system installed next week by Culligan. They came out and tested the water for a bunch of things and we are having all of those things addressed. We are also putting an osmosis system under the sink for drinking water. Our hardness is 35, I think the guy said ideally it should be under 4. So 305 seems ridiculous. So you have a well?

305 ppm is insanely hard! Our water isn't nearly that hard but, after living here for about 5 years, we finally installed a water softener. I'm so glad I did. No longer do I have such dry skin, and it doesn't take an hour to wash the shampoo out of my hair. It's also much better for your appliances generally.

Is it worth it? We got the roughing in for our new home we're building, but wondering if we should actually purchase/install the softener. The area water hardness is around 305. Our new refrigerator will have a filter but I don't know if there's a combo softener with it as well.

Thoughts? Systems look to be around $1k-$4k.