When dealing with hard water it’s definitely important to find a water softener system that will work best for your needs. Water softeners are used for residential and industrial needs and this post on water softener reviews will focus mostly on water softener systems for residential needs.
As you can see in my water softener comparison page, some of the important things you have to consider are do you want a salt free water softener or any of the other popular water softeners which use salt?
So, before looking at these water softener reviews you will have to weight some of the benefits and disadvantages of both models. Here’s a brief overview, a water softener using salt will probably be one of the least expensive models to buy and maintain however you should have a separate drinking water line because you do not want to ingest such high amounts of salt over time. Also, it’s not very good for the environment and these salt using water softeners are banned in some states due to being environmental hazards.
Salt free water softeners on the other hand are usually more expansive to buy. Some salt water softener systems can use both normal salt and potassium so in this case it will simply be more expensive to maintain by using potassium than salt but it will be healthy for drinking and it will not be a hazard to the environment. Overall, a potassium chloride water softener is probably the best option however some other salt free water softeners alternatives that you might want to try or read up on are a magnetic water softener or an electric water softener which are basically two different names for the same system which mostly entails using magnets to separate the hard water elements (such as calcium and magnesium) from the water and only leaving the now “soft” water to pass in the water pipes in your house. However, most water softener reviews on these systems reveal that they will only work for those with “low” hard water problems since the magnets are less efficient at dealing with hard water than other methods.
Water softener reviews – Review by Brands
First off, we have the Kinetico water softener which is very popular but quite expensive. Some of its advantages that are pointed out on our Kinetico water softener reviews page is that it has a dual resin tank which means that when one is regenerating the other one can still work which ensures 24 hour water softening. Also, they power themselves with the kinetic energy of the water so they will not add to your electricity bill and might in fact pay themselves over time or at least reduce the gap with the other cheaper alternatives since its main disadvantage is it’s price which is usually above at least $1000
Another popular brand is the Kenmore water softener systems which as you can see from my Kenmore water softener review page they are quite an established and well liked brand. As you can see on their official comparison page they can use sodium and potassium chloride so that’s a great feature meaning you can use it with salt or not. It’s hard to get an accurate price range for their models as of the writing of these water softener review but I do remember seeing some models go for the $500-700 range so they are have some models in the low price point category.
Another popular water softener that is similar to Kenmore in terms of price ranges are Fleck which as you can see from my fleck water softener review is very similar in terms of feature as well. If you are deciding between both of these brands I would suggest you see which one has a seller near you. Also, as of this writing I am not sure if fleck water softeners can use potassium chloride, but probably (you might want to ask them if this is something you are interested in).
-Water softener salt.net-
