 |
 |
 |
 |
Water Softener Reviews
You can find a lot of useful information in water softener reviews but you should keep in mind that most of these reviews were probably not written by people who have actually installed or used by the people reviewing them. These reviews can still be helpful, but you will want to keep a few things in mind while making your decision on which water softener to get. I relied on water softener reviews before I purchased one online and did a self-install. The review was not inaccurate, but there were a couple of things that I would have liked to know ahead of time.
Installation, Operation and Maintenance
Fortunately I did get a water softener that worked well and had all the features I needed. What kind of threw me, and what wasn’t covered in the water softener reviews, was the importance of things like having a bypass (even if one is included in the unit) and to think seriously about drainage of the waste water.
Since I did the installation myself I had to cut into my existing plumbing system. It was all copper so I become somewhat adept at sweating copper. Well, good enough to not cause any leaks anyway. I installed new shutoff valves to turn off water to the softener if I ever need to remove or repair it (which I never did, thankfully) but I did not put in a bypass. I realized later that a bypass is useful if want to completely isolate the water softener, and even remove it, while still maintaining water flow to the rest of the house. I never needed to do that, but it bugged me all the time because I knew I didn’t have it if I ever did need it. Ah, and about those valves, it’s best to use ball valves over gate valves. Yes, they’re more expensive, but they are very reliable and have a short throw (90 degrees) which makes them easy to use.
The unit I ended up with was a “smart” unit that had a processor built in to keep track of how much water was being used and when to regenerate. The regeneration process is noisy as the unit will flush large amounts of water through the resin bed. Also, soft water is not available to the house during the regeneration process (our unit had an internal bypass so we could still get water) so the ability to schedule what time of day the regeneration process takes place is very handy.
One more thing that water softener reviews may mention but that I want to also point out here is that you want to isolate your lawn sprinkler system (if you have one) from the rest of your house water. There is no need to spray softened water out onto your landscaping. It will just use up the salts in your softener system and is probably not good for your plants anyway.
Do You Actually Need One?
In my case, it was pretty obvious our home needed a water softener since we were on a community well, all the neighbors had water softeners, and we were starting to see some mineral buildup in the pipes. It was a fairly new home when we moved in, but for some reason the original owners/builder did not add a water softener.
Also, every local supermarket, grocery store and hardware store carried ample supplies of the salts used to refill water softeners, so that was a pretty good hint that they were used by many people in the community.
If it’s not so obvious in your case you can have your water tested to determine the mineral content – most of the water softener reviews will mention this and even recommend testing facilities near your area. You may even be able to just bring it to your local hardware or home store to have them test it for you.