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I went to Home Depot and Sears and there was no one that could help me (answer my questions).I'm looking at something like this.http://www.geappliances.com/sm...SF27EIf I go to a specialist, they tell me even less and try to sell me their products - Culligan, Ecowater, etc.Questions:- Can any plumber install it?- Are the ones from Sears or Home Depot (Kenmore or GE) really bad products as these "specialist" made them sound?- A side from the water softener, what else do I need? Some of the systems they sell have two tanks.- Please gave me a ball park range in total $$$$ installed.Please educate me.Thanks

We just moved into this house last fall, and it has an old water softener which looks pretty old, and the mechanical timer mechanism looks to be on it's last legs, and operates similar to the old lamp timers. The power went out a few months ago for about 4 hours. I forgot I needed to advance the time on the water softener timer. It was timed to regenerate at about 2am before the power outage, so the next time it regenerated, I took a shower in the morning while it was regenerating and got the brine in the system. I understand the newer water softeners won't allow the brine to enter the system while regenerating. If you have done some plumbing, you could probably handle hooking it up yourself. I've found alot of information on water softeners searching with google.

Do you know that you NEED a water softener? If so, then both Kenmore and GE are fine brands, and will do the job for you nicely.Note that a water softener is NOT the same as a filtration system. Filtration systems remove sediment, microorganisms, cloudiness, etc. A water softener removes dissolved minerals (hardness) through the use of a resin material that the water flows through. The resin can only hold so much hardness, which must be periodically removed by backwashing with a salt water solution. That is why you have two tanks, a resin tank and a salt (brine) tank. Sometimes, the resin tank is INSIDE the brine tank (my softener is this way) so you only see the brine tank unless you take off the lid and then you can see the resin tank inside.You need to choose a unit that is sized correctly for your water needs. How many people are in your household (showering, bathing, etc.)? Do you do a lot of laundry? All these factors affect how large a unit you need. Too small, and you'll be recharging every night, which can take a lot of salt. Too large, and you're just wasting your money.Yes, ANY plumber can install one for you.And beware of "specialists" who only want to sell you their own brands and talk down about all competitors. I found this article on about.com that might be helpful: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/...eners

I found and have been reading information on the water softener, and talked to many "specialist." I actually tested my water once from one of the free kits, that were given to me. I recall my water is in the "hard" range, then again, I don't really know what is normal.I just assumed I needed one cause the area is know for hard water. And other people got one too. Again, the sales people tend to think so.I think I should buy a water test kit myself instead of using theirs.

I live in the boonies, we have a water softener. Was just replaced about 5-6 years ago for the first time in 20-something years. We replaced it with a dual tank culligan system. Has worked flawlessly...dual tanks because as one backwashers and rinses, the other one keeps clean water flowing. We used to have to stop using our water during the backwash process, which would happen overnight. Int he morning, we'd get crummy water for a minute or two before it would clear up.We're very happy with our culligan!