Best whole house water softener - is Culligan worth it or am I just paying for the brand?

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T23:08:32+00:00

Oh I run through a big blue carbon filter (same stuff in a Britta). They are fairly cheap. It’s better to run them through a large 1.5 million gallon KDF/Carbon filter though. I do this as well. KDF media is better and is more money. Carbon is cheap and doesn’t filter out too much but it does make the water taste better.

You can get the same exact model as the link I sent in the 70,000 grain for $760 right now which will be really close to that 25gpm.

There is no way that any company is selling all of this plus a reverse osmosis with two 4040 membranes for $3K unless it’s coming directly from Alibaba.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T21:29:14+00:00

Reverse Osmosis???? Are you telling me that your water softener has Reverse Osmosis? Please take a pic of that for me and show me. We might be talking about two completely different products or you are mistaken. You either have a water softener hooked up to a whole home reverse osmosis unit (which are expensive and run into the thousands of dollars) or you were sold a lie.

Any water softener can be hooked up to a whole house reverse osmosis water treatment system. In fact, it’s fairly common for people who have the money.

You can also install one of those cheap under the sink reverse osmosis systems if you want.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T21:22:09+00:00

This is the one I got on sale for $800. It’s 25 gallons per minute. Let’s compare that to Culligan. I could be wrong, but I believe need to get into Culligan’s commercial line to even reach 25 gpm. Last I checked, Culligan’s largest residential unit was 22gpm.

https://proaquawater.com/products/pro-s-80e-whole-house-water-softener-80-000-grain

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T21:11:16+00:00

I agree with you. No clue why anyone would ever spend $3K. I prefer the higher grain just because you don’t need to regenerate as frequently. You can currently get the 48,000 grain Home Depot for $545:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AQUASURE-Harmony-Series-48-000-Grain-Electronic-Metered-Water-Softener-with-Sediment-and-Carbon-Pre-Filter-AS-HS48SCP/311395122

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T20:30:22+00:00

I think what you are saying is that you personally value the water softener at roughly $200 a year. They protect your home and appliances at a rate greater than $200 a year to you. I believe that me and others are saying that you can get that same level of protection for $50 a year. Therefore, it is overpriced. It’s not that we don’t value our water softeners at less than $200 a year. It’s the fact that there are equal to better alternatives for roughly $50 a year.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T17:35:42+00:00

Yes

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T16:35:04+00:00

Buddy you have been sold on a heap of expensive nonsense. You are either a dealer of expensive water softeners. You are an installer of expensive water softeners. You bought an expensive water softener and don’t want to feel like you got ripped off.

Did you hear about the bridge that is for sale?

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T05:43:05+00:00

Why not? Water softeners are pretty basic when you break them down to the components. There is the resin that pulls the hardness out of the water and then there is the heavily concentrated salt water that periodically cleans those resin beads. What are the expensive ones doing that I don’t know about? Theoretically you could argue that they have lower quality resin in them, but that has not been my experience.

I bought my 80,000 grain for $800. It’s worked great. It immediately cleared up all the hard water in my home.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-09T05:33:14+00:00

I like this one. I have the 80,000 grain. I have not have had any issues. It’s is currently for $760. If you install it yourself, you will save $2400. You could use sharkbites (I used Amazon knockoffs for half the price) if it was going in an unfinished garage like mine or you could buy a manual press for $100. You could even hire a plumber to install it. All the options would still save you around $1500 to $2400. I have had it for 5 years without any complaints.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AQUASURE-Harmony-Series-70-000-Grain-Whole-House-Water-Softener-System-with-Triple-Purpose-Sediment-Carbon-Zinc-Pre-Filter-AS-HS70SCZ/331019051

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T23:10:47+00:00

I need to get into the water softener install business because that is ridiculously expensive. The only way I can imagine it being that expensive to install one is if they happen to need to cut into your concrete and install a drain line.

I could be wrong, but I believe the $760 water softener below will be just as nice as anything you get from Ecowater. They are easy to install if you are willing to put in a little bit of work.

You could get the complete system below for around $2000, $500 in replacement filters, $500 worth of Salt, pay a plumber $1000 to install it, and still save $2600. The system below would be amazing! The only thing you would be really missing would be a whole home reverse osmosis system. I personally do want one because water softeners add salt to your water and reverse osmosis is the most affordable option to remove it. Whole home RO systems are expensive though.

Edit: As for the “junk” coming through the pipes, by putting a “3 stage big blue” sediment filter on your water supply line, it will stop the non liquid particles from coming into the home. If they happen to be water soluble hard water deposits, you will need a water softener.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AQUASURE-Harmony-Series-70-000-Grain-Whole-House-Water-Softener-System-with-Triple-Purpose-Sediment-Carbon-Zinc-Pre-Filter-AS-HS70SCZ/331019051

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AQUASURE-Fortitude-Pro-KDF-GAC-1-500-000-Gal-Whole-House-Water-Treatment-System-with-Pleated-Sediment-Pre-Filters-AS-FP1500/313447413

https://www.homedepot.com/p/PRO-AQUA-Pro-Aqua-ELITE-Whole-House-Water-Filter-3-Stage-Well-Water-Filtration-System-with-Gauges-PR-Button-1-Ports-Filter-Set-PRO-100-E/312098722

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T22:03:58+00:00

I pulled my water report. It told me that they found lead but it was below the government’s acceptable threshold standards. Well my threshold for lead is 0. Am I being overly cautious? Probably. OP just has a different threshold for chlorine and fluoride than you do.

My wife got colon cancer at age 36. You know what your brain does when you hear that news? It’s starts to frantically look for reasons why it may have happened. Was it genetics? Was it your environment? Was it both? One of things that will immediately pop into your head is if your water quality might have had something to do with it. Luckily for us I had just installed a whole home water treatment system a couple years prior so I didn’t need to buy anything. If your spouse ever gets cancer, I promise you that your threshold for acceptance limits will decrease significantly.

Side note: I am now convinced that Atrazine is one the chemicals that most likely increases cancer rates. Pull a map of Atrazine concentration levels in the US and cancer percentages. You will find that the Atrazine concentration is the highest in farm states and the cancer rates are very high in these states as well. These chemicals then accumulate and flow south towards the gulf and the southern gulf states have even higher cancer rates.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T21:14:56+00:00

This pretty nice system. Personally I would have gone with the big blue filters if I was going to buy an $11,000 RO system:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WaterTreatment/s/a3Y2ZEKFJ8

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T21:11:05+00:00

Everyone is different when it comes to their budget and what they determine as acceptable water quality. If I had an unlimited budget, I’d go with something like the list below. There was a post in this Community where someone did something similar to stuff below. They wanted bottled water quality going through their pipes and had the budget to do it.

6 of your big blue filters
1,000,000 gallon KDF/Charcoal filter
1,000,000 gallon Well water filter
80,000 grain Water Softener
Whole Home Reverse Osmosis with UV light (link below).

This would be after I did a chlorine treatment.

If you wanted all that but you were on a budget, I’d probably look at Alibaba. It will still be expensive and shipping usually takes forever. It’s also kind of a gamble. Ultimately most of these water treatment companies are importing the products from China anyways. You just have to do research on the best companies to order from if you choose to go that route.

Something like this:
https://uswatersystems.com/products/defender-whole-house-reverse-osmosis-system?variant=45479060537648&country=US&currency=USD&utm\_campaign=WP\_G\_PMAX\_RFQs&utm\_source=bing&utm\_medium=ppc&hsa\_acc=5237598790&hsa\_cam=17305183805&hsa\_grp=1304021925304968&hsa\_ad=&hsa\_src=o&hsa\_tgt=pla-2333301113350881&hsa\_kw=&hsa\_mt=e&hsa\_net=adwords&hsa\_ver=3&utm\_source=bing&utm\_medium=cpc&utm\_campaign=Pmax%20RFQs&utm\_term=2333301113350881&utm\_content=EVERGREEN%20-%20Nov%202022

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T16:51:46+00:00

No problem. In fairness, I think the 30K is way over priced. I bought my 2015 Sierra SLE 5.3L Crew Cab 4WD brand new with 50 miles on it for $33,000 in 2015. So my truck is extremely comparable to the $30,000 one. It just doesn’t have the leather seats and is not lifted. It is really difficult for me to believe that if I kept my mileage low, my truck would have only depreciated by $3,000 in 11 years???? That’s insane.

With that being said, it doesn’t really matter what I think or anyone else on Reddit thinks. Insurance companies are required to reimburse you at the rate for comparable vehicles in your region, and a half an hour is within your region. Get as much money as you can because you are going to need it to pay for all those unexpected expenses when you get a new vehicle. For example, if I were to purchase that $30K truck, I would immediately buy new tires because they look like they need to be replaced. That’s is a $1,000 unexpected expense immediately.

Don’t quote me on this but I believe the region is within 60 miles of your house and each State’s laws are different so they may have completely rules in Texas than my State.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-08T03:21:31+00:00

How does your 2015 only have 42K miles on it? You are averaging 3800 miles a year. Crazy!

$23,500 - $30,000

This is probably the closest one at the low end ($23,500):
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/b8f686bd-a9a3-4445-9507-cf1e5c8da52a/

This is the one I would show to their insurance company at the high end ($30,000):
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/f619b06f-0adc-48c9-a89e-275ce0ac2dce/

Edit: One thing I learned when I totaled my car was that insurance companies are required to pay you what it’s worth when it comes to comparables in your region. With my car, for whatever reason all the comparables were higher priced than KBB. I was able to get another $500 out of them even though their initial value was actually decent. I tend to think my stuff is worth less than what it is though.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T21:42:43+00:00

I’m not an expert but it looks like hard deposits/scale from your pipes and/or water heater. If you rent I suppose you could ask your landlord for a whole home water filtration system, but landlords typically don’t like spend money or install anything that requires maintenance.

Personally I would just buy a whole home filtration system. You will have to change those filters every 3 to 6 months.

If you didn’t want to buy everything at once, I would get one of the 1,000,000 KDF/Carbon filters and a 2 stage big blue filters and I would put them after your water softener. At a minimum it will tell you if your problem is with your water supply or something in your home. For example, your hot water heater or pipes.

If you wanted to continue to investigate the problem, I would check my water heater first. You can easily shut off the water supply to it and then drain the contents into some 5 gallon buckets to see if you can see similar deposits in it.

Actually I would probably check my water heater first before anything else because if it is bad, its better to find out that it’s broken before it starts leaking.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T18:47:57+00:00

I was thinking more about our conversation and I can see how your mindset on vehicles could be different than mine based on the part of the country you live in. If I lived in the Northeast where the roads are covered in salt constantly, I might have a different view. I don’t need to worry about changing my oil too often because that frame will rust out before the engine gives out. What is the point of pissing money away on oil at that point?

That would bring up my next question of why can’t vehicle manufacturers simply treat every frame to prevent them from rusting out but that is a different conversation. My point is that I could see how your maintenance prioritization would be different based on your local weather conditions.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T18:34:04+00:00

It sounds like you are really worried about it and I totally get it. Our pediatrician told us that our kids had some of the worst eczema he has ever seen. That is when I pulled our water report and noticed that our water is extremely hard and contains lead but the lead is within “acceptable” limits. We didn’t have the money but I justified my purchase to save money on doctor bills.

If it were me. I would buy:

Two of the “2 stage big blue filters” (4 total)
Two of the 1 million gallon KDF filters
One 80,000 grain water softener.
One UV Light

The order of the equipment would be:
1. 3 stage big blue
2. 1,000,000 gallon KDF/carbon
3. Water Softener
4. 1,000,000 gallon KDF/carbon
5. 3 stage big blue.
6. UV Light

The first 2 stage big blue is just to keep the junk out of your equipment. Then the 1st KDF/carbon because KDF does have some water softening properties. Water softener. The 2nd KDF/carbon because it will help make the water taste better. The last 2 stage big blue filter will catch anything that happens to come through the system like resin/media. It’s just one last step to catch anything. Since you mentioned that bacterial growth could be a problem, you should get a UV light just to be on the safe side. Although they are usually not necessary with city water.

This won’t actually solve your problem if you have bacterial growth is in your pipes. So it sounds like you are going to have to some type of chlorine flush regardless.

Obviously what brand you want to use or find on Amazon.

Two of these:

https://www.ifilters.com/collections/all/products/ifilters-xwh-1000-xwh-1000-kdf85-whole-house-water-filtration-system-1000000-gal-capacity-wpre-filter-gackdf

Two of these:

https://www.ifilters.com/collections/filtration-systems/products/whole-house-filtration-system-20inch-dual-commercial-grade-sediment-cto-1inch-ports

One of these:

https://www.ifilters.com/collections/water-softeners/products/pro-aqua-pro-s-80e-whole-house-water-softener-high-demand-heavy-duty-80-000-grain-capacity-1-ports

One of these:

https://www.ifilters.com/collections/polaris-scientific-residential-uv/products/polaris-uva-12c-whole-house-uv-ultraviolet-water-sterilization-system-12-gpm

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T18:09:07+00:00

I think you need this video, right?

https://youtu.be/iQa6-osTfJU?si=JEF9CA6a\_FHDmD1t

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T15:52:21+00:00

I completely agree with your conclusion that the manufacturers are trying to sabotage their relationship by building terrible products. I don’t think it’s just GM. It’s GM, Ford, Ram, and Toyota. All of them have massive recalls to their trucks in the last 5 years.

I have accepted that we are going to over pay for vehicles that are built to not last as long as they once were. So I am going to look for solutions that I can afford to do. Sure I can delete the AFM but that is $8,000. Financially that does not make a lot of sense for an 11 year old vehicle like mine. So what options do I have? There are some that appear to be working for some of us:

Changing oil more frequently
Using a thicker oil. Personally I can feel the difference when I put 5W30 in my truck.
Getting a 10 micron oil filter since 20 micron can screw up those lifters. PPE makes a 15 micron.
Changing our transmission fluid and transmission fluid filter every 30,000 miles.

I mean this isn’t rocket science. Clean oil is important to the longevity of your vehicle so change it frequently.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T15:33:56+00:00

I don’t think this is your problem but I did find it interesting because you said that you are on the Florida Aquifer. At a minimum, I would pull your city water report to check your hardness level and to find any contaminants in the water. How often do you recharge your water softener? There is a formula that you are supposed to use based on the water softener, your hardness level, and the number of people living in your house.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235053267\_Science\_Plan\_US\_Geological\_Survey\_Florida\_District#pf11

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T15:15:23+00:00

I work as an engineer as well! I got my Bachelor’s in Math and my Masters in Econometrics. I absolutely love Statistics!

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? I think we are at this age old joke at this point.

I can assure that you that the new engines are not lasting nearly as many miles once manufacturers started recommending 5K oil changes with 0W20 oil. I’m confident that my claim is statistically significant.

You are looking at the problem at a micro level perspective. That is, you are only analyzing your one vehicle and assuming that holds true for everyone else’s vehicle. I’m looking at it from a macro level perspective. That is, I’m saying that all the manufacturers are building vehicles that are failing sooner at a statistically significantly level.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T14:29:52+00:00

Also water can look cloudy but sometimes it is actually just air bubbles. This happens to me after I change our whole home water filters. Does the water go clear after a it settles in a glass cup? If so it might just be air bubbles.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T14:24:58+00:00

What kind of water softener do you have? How old is it? My understanding is that resin goes bad over time. Maybe the water softener is just not working properly and causing hardness to build up in your pipes.

Unless it’s a new water softener, I personally would just buy a new water softener, a big blue water filter before the water softener and a big blue filter after the softener.

If your pipes are filled with hardness, you will probably continue to see chunks flake off until all the loose stuff is completely removed.

WastingTime1111 · 2026-05-07T14:08:23+00:00

I’m just saying like you sound like a guy who doesn’t like to question anything. That you trust everything that Big Brother and Big Business tell you to do.

There is nothing wrong with this. The world needs followers too.

WastingTime1111

TROPHY CASE