Excellent advice and post. Just a couple of additions.
Reel-tor said:
Cons: You have to add salt periodically (my salt container holds 10 40lbs bags so I don't have to fill it but once a year--actually I fill it twice a year but with only half as many bags-I don't let it get too low)
Good plan - never let it run out of salt.
Reel-tor said:
Soft water cleans up the inside of your galvanized water pipes and may reveal leaks in older pipes that were covered with accumulated mineral deposits.
Softeners work through magnetism. Resin beads are negatively charged, hardness ions are positively charged. the magnetic attraction is what strips the hardness from the water. When ths occurs, softened water becomes out of balance with it self - the softener has removed the calcium and magnesium ions, but does not remove alkalinity(which has a negative charge). Opposites attract, there is a +(calcium or magnesium) for every - (carbonate or bicarbonate alkalinity) in hard water. When you remove all the + the water will naturally seek to balance itself from the most readily available source; Old mineral deposits first, then ferrous iron. It will remove old mineral deposits, but the water doesn't know the difference between mineral deposits and ferrous metal. It can actually eat metal over time. Copper pipe is much more resistant to this which is why softeners come with copper fittings. Most homes have copper pipe as well.
Reel-tor said:
The resin tank will have to be recharged (replace the resin) because it does get used up in the process; how often will depend on the hardness of your water and how many gallons you use per week.
Resin will go bad over time (5 -7 -10 years is normal in non-industrial applications in San Antonio), but there are a few things that should be understood. Think of a resin bead as a boat marina with lots of little boat slips in it. There are millions of resin beads in a softener tank - once they are all full, they are all full and have to be cleaned through brine (salt) regeneration. This is the normal process.
The biggest enemies of softener resin are iron and chlorine.
Dissolved Iron (from the utility's distribution system, and/or naturally occuring) has a stronger magnetic bond to the resin than calcium and magnesium hardness does. The brine (salt) rinse that removes the hardness by breaking the magnetic bond during regeneration cannot break the bond of the iron.
Chlorine, used by the water utility to disinfect the water, attacts resin and turns it into mush. Install a carbon filter in front of the softener to extend the life of the resin.
Reel-tor said:
If you search Google/Yahoo for water softener there is a company (in Pennsylvania or Ohio I think) that sells their brand of softener that is built just like Culligans but at much less price. They also have a very informative website. You want to salt tank seperate to prevent the salt from corroding the rest of the unit.
I totally agree with the separate brine tank advice. The ones at Home Depot, Sears and everywhere else are almost like diposable units. Go ahead and spend a few extra bucks and get one that can be repaired easily.
For the most part Culligan uses proprietary parts and equipment. That means if it breaks , you have to go to them for replacements and service. Nothing wrong with that if you are on a service agreement with them. They are good. If you don't have a service agreement with them, it can be very expensive - like going to the Cadillac dealer for parts.
About 80% of the softener equipment in the market is made by a company called Fleck. Since they have the lion's share of the market, parts are very easy to come by. Virutally all softener companies install this brand, so if you are not happy with one company, you can easily find another.
The last thing I want to make you aware of is to specify a unit that regenerates on need rather than time. Time clock softener regeneration wastes water and salt because it regenerates solely on a time clock.
Need based regeneration is triggered by a water meter. The softener is programmed to regenerate after X number of gallons have passed through the softener. The number of gallons is determined by the amount of resin in the tank (number of boat slips in the marina). This ensures that your unit regenerates only after all the boat slips are full and it is being as efficient as possible.