I'm new to the midwest and the need for water softeners or water refining systems. We just bought a new house in Cottage Grove and I'm pretty sure we need to install one. The water feels hard to bathe in (and I bathe our 6 month old son as part of our nightly routine) and leaves spots on our dishes. I've looked into Commers ($2000 for a whole house water refining system that needs very little salt), Kinetico and Culligan. I'm meeting with representatives from Kinetico and Culligan this week. What system do you use and recommend? What systems should I stay away from?
We met with representatives from Culligan and Kinetico and talked with the owner of Commers. We decided to go with Kinetico for the cost, the quality, and the service. Thank you to all of the responses!
We have a Kinetico and love it. We did look at Culligan but went with Kinetico. We have had it for 3 years now and we have not had any problems. Culligan has lost of parts that can go bad but Kinetico is a simple system.
My family, my father especially, has been selling water softners for years. The truth is that culligan's and keinetico's systems are VERY similar. Both companies will also cut the prices you are quoted if you tell them you are leaning torward the other one. Culligan would be my first choice because they have some really nice, polite, prompt service men and installers and their company is larger and has an easier time obtaining bank financing for their customers. If you can't afford a whole system now you can ask them if they currently have any rentals available. I would stay away from Rainsoft which is a smaller company, has less repair men, and more complaints by far. Ask a lot of questions, tell them you want to think about it, call them back with more questions and tell them you are leaning torward their competitor, then watch the original quote drop in price!
we have a culligan that is just hooked up to the bathroom water supply. my husband likes soft water and i don't. I guess i'm just used to it. anyway, I think that because it's an extra expense we haven't refilled the softener in at least a year. i'm not familiar with the other brands.
I used to work for Culligan scheduling the service calls. I would get people calling for us to come fix their softeners that weren't Culligan. I would have to tell them that we can come out to fix it, but if it needed a new part, we wouldn't be able to get the parts for it. So...check out the service providers. Make sure you'd be able to have someone come out that could actually fix it. Another thing, use extra course solar salt not the pellets. The pellets have a tendency to turn into a big chunk of salt that's useless and a pain to get out, but the extra course isn't supposed to have that problem. It's been 3 years since I worked there, but that's who I'd go with if I was getting a softener (which we will when we build our new house). I'd stay away from Kinetico. They also have drinking water filter systems and the 5 gallon water coolers. Hope this helps!
