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Tue 20 Mar, 2007 12:05 pm
When wife and I designed and built our dream/retirement home 11+ years ago, we rushed into a water softener, choosing from those quickly/locally available--NO internet then. {Started design in 1990 moved in 1995-we were getting anxious} We got Kinectico, over $4000-- 4 full baths, 2 half, Jacuzzi, shop. Systen worked OK for about 9 years using about 40 # salt every 4-6 weeks About 18 month ago our 15 year old granddaughter came screaming out of shower running down hall {with towel} covered on hair,head and shoulders with rust brown little resin beads--she had watched some horror movie the night before, so you know teens--we laughed but it wasn't funny to her . I cleaned out all faucet screens, toilet valves/tanks and did manual re-gen. System is gradually using more salt and requires manual re-gen from time to time. Also occasionally have to clean a faucet or two. Six weeks ago I used by-pass to cut Kinectico out of house water system. Our City water { Tennessee River} tests only about 6 grains hardness but our skin is dry, we itch more, no suds from shower soap and washer takes more Tide. We have decided we must have softer water. Kinectico says chlorine has broken down resin and internal valves may be damaged; recharge of beads would be very expensive and valve operation could not be guaranteed-Kinectico new replacement is $3400 with my "special discount". Rainsoft EC-4 installation complete price $2350 with my "special discount". But I have found on-line at Aquasana older 300,000 gal Rhino EQ-300 system 3yr life $675 plus $100-150 labor or Vitasalus newer 400,000 gal Premium Rhino EQ-300 system 5 yr life $ 575 plus $ 100-150 labor. Only wife and I are left at home now. Seems like a no-brainer--Install the Premium Rhino for $750. In 5 yrs we will both probably be in Funny Farm anyway.
OK--what am I missing H2O_Man and others?
My suggestion is for you to contact your local ECOWATER dealer and request a "trade-in" price for the new
ERR 3500.
This system is designed specifically for city water applications and you will not find a better, more reliable system.
HTH ~
What happened to your Kinetico is something I have never heard happening. I doubt that the chlorine could cause that to happen as you explained. The valves should still be OK but even if they need to be repaired the quoted price seems too high. There may be another issue to cause that, but, still, I have never heard of that happening.
Please contact me directly and I may be able to suggest a remedy at a small fraction of that cost estimate.
[email protected]
Can you tell me what model you have? If you don't know the model number please describe the unit's size/shape.
The Rhino EQ models will do nothing to eliminate the dry, itchiness and lack of suds as it is a filter good at removing chlorine problems, taste and odor problems.
Andy Christensen, CWS
Re: Replacing My Water Softener/Filter-What To Do??
It sounds as if the top or bottom basket on the distributor tube, or the distributor tube itself broke allowing resin to get out of a resin tank into the plumbing. That happens rarely and could be caused by hot water getting into the softener during regeneration or due to stress or water hammer. But not chlorine.
The equipment you mention is a very expensive filter, not a softener, so you'll still have hard water problems.
As to what to buy, I suggest a correctly sized softener using a Clack WS-1 control valve. It is the easiest and fastest to repair of all control valves with very low parts prices and ideal for a DIYer that would replace a part when needed. If you're handsome rather than handy, you can hire the installation done and still save hundreds to a grand compared to the prices a local dealer will demand; that's minus say $250-400 in their price for them to install it.
Hellenbrand
Please check out Hellenbrand for a local dealer of water treatment products. The Clack ws1 valve is great but the next generation of valves is the Clack/Hellenbrand collaboration Promate 5.0. It is incredible. In six years no legitimate service calls (we average 30-40 units per month in sales) It is THE valve!!!
Re: Hellenbrand
Softy wrote:Please check out Hellenbrand for a local dealer of water treatment products. The Clack ws1 valve is great but the next generation of valves is the Clack/Hellenbrand collaboration Promate 5.0. It is incredible. In six years no legitimate service calls (we average 30-40 units per month in sales) It is THE valve!!!
Interesting, but you only service Waunakee & Lacrosse WI.
Softy, what makes it different than the regular Clack WS-1?
I've sold just less than 800 and had roughly 16 problems.
Doesn't Hellenbrand have dealers across the US; maybe not on the west coast?
Hey gator, what did you end up doing?
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