Water softener recommendations - pls help

[ani2kids]

I'm looking to buy a water softener for my home as soon as possible and would appreciate any brand recommendations. Cost is a big consideration for me and I found a GE 39,300 grains one that seemed to fit my needs. Any idea how good this is....? It think it was retailing for about $475. I saw a few others but they seemed to go over 1000 bucks and I was'nt sure how it justified the cost.

Please, any suggestions would be welcome.

[victor1442]

did you get any good info? I just started the same process. The Culligan guy came by today, I did not expect these systems to be so expensive ($2,800 for a reverse osmosis system and for a water softening system). What systems did you look at and what were their costs?

[reubanks]

I went to Sam's Club and bought a 5 stage RO unit and installed it myself....and LOVE it. $180....

Then went to Sears and spent another $360...got a good deal, on sale from $500, had a 10% coupon ($40 off)plus they had a mail in rebate for another 10% (got a $40 check in the mail) plus got a years supply of salt or 12 bags for free....plus got 3 bags at the time of purchase....I purchased a 5 year extended warranty which was like an extra 200 bucks. But figured it was worth it.

I installed it myself which cost me about $40 in materials. My mom has a better Sears unit than I do and it's been working for about 3 years without any issues.

That GE unit should be fine. I almost spent 2000 on an entire house purifier/softener and they were going to throw in a 5 stage RO unit for free but wanted to save a little money. I might be sorry in the long run but figured I have at least 5 years of worry free softening. :)