Does anyone have a water softener system installed?

Thinking about putting a water softener system on my new house, and am wondering about the upfront costs involved.

Some initial research shows anywhere from $500-$10,000 depending on age of home, complexity of install, ease of access, etc.

What did you all pay for yours? If it's affordable enough, I might have it installed before I move.

Also, do you notice a difference? Clothes cleaner? Dishes more sparkly? Showers better?

I rented a unit for years and its not expensive and very convenient. No up front cost or repair costs, you just have to buy salt. If you have hard water (10 grains or more mine is 35+) a softener something you want to have. After 5 years of renting they offered a purchase option at $635, mind you it was not a new unit at the beginning I took a pass and spent $400 on a GE unit from Home Depot, that was 10 years ago. I installed it myself so it the $400 was just the cost of the unit. My rental was $14 an month so I have saved a ton over renting.

Nice. Yeah, I'm here in Phoenix where the water is pretty hard (not sure the grain count, but you can tell when you empty the dishwasher). I think I'll go for it. I've been researching the different options and there are a lot of ways to go. But its looking like a whole house system is what will really make the most financial sense.

Thanks for the reply!

We have one but it was here when we moved in.

Not all softeners are the same so make sure you're comparing the same type when price shopping. We have hard water where we live so we have used water softeners for decades. Some of the cheapest ones have a clock mechanism where you can set it to recycle every x number of days .. which can be wasteful of softener salt because it recycles whether you're home or not. Slightly upscale from there are the ones that recycle based on water consumption. Upscale from there are the ones that sense the softness of the water that's being delivered and recycles only when necessary. We had one of the cheaper ones and were going through many bags of salt per year .. then switched to a more expensive sensing unit ($1000-1500) and it dropped to a couple of bags per year. People tend to forget about the ongoing cost of the softener salt; hassle of buying/getting it home; hauling it to the softener. All this assumes that you know that the salt isn't what does the softening .. it's just used to make the brine solution that flushes/cleanses the softening particles when they lose their ability to soften.

Yes. I want to avoid cheapness in all my purchases. Especially for my home. I like to buy stuff once and be done. Cost to maintain/operate is definitely a factor, too. I don't mind forking out extra up front if it saves in the long run.

Now for those who may know: do the so-called high efficiency washers need soft water to fuction as intended? I've seen tons of negative reviews on the HE washers claiming that they make the clothes stink or don't get them properly cleaned. I'm wondering if this is a result of hard water (which negates/impedes the effects of detergent, etc) compromising the machine's effectiveness. As for now, I'm probably going to buy a top loader that uses up a whole bunch of water so that I don't show up to work in stinky clothes! If it's a matter of softening, then I may spring for the HE washer in conjunction with with softener. (I know, it's not a manly question, but we all need clean clothes! Don't be shy! )

I have a cullingan one. It was like $2500. Our water was awful, now its great. Our house was already made for a softener so we just hooked one up. I don't know how the previous people lived without one. All we do is add salt every few months.

We installed a North Star system about 6 months ago. Prior to that we had white deposits around fixtures and my skin was dry to the point that it looked like lizard skin. After the water softening system was installed fixtures no longer have the deposit issue and my skin is no longer as dry. We also added a reverse osmosis system directly to the water intake line on the refrigerator which makes ice and has a water dispenser so we are not buying as much bottled water as we used to since this water now tastes much better than purchased water. I was skeptical at first and only did it because my girlfriend bugged me about it. Now I will admit it's one of the best purchases i have ever made for the house. Clothes also seem to be cleaner/fresher and towels are softer/fluffier than before. I bought the parts online and paid a plumber to do the work Total was less than $2,000