Hey Culligan Man!

[spurschick]

I'm thinking of having a water softener installed. Does anyone have any advice? Is Culligan the way to go or did you get a better price/service elsewhere? Any price traps I should avoid?

[Extra Stout]

You can get a water softener at Sears for a tiny fraction of the price, and probably get it installed too. With Culligan, you're paying a lot of money for somebody to put in your rock salt.

[mrsmaalox]

It all depends on how soft you want your water to be. Since San Antonio water is basically liquid rock, it'll be hard to get it totally conditioned. The water softeners that are sold at Sears, Home Depot, etc. are inexpensive and will get you to a comfy level of softness. The "problem" with those (according to plumbers) is that the intake tubes are of too small diameter to get enough circulation to get real soft water; of, course the plumbers want to sell you the one only they can get that costs $3000 and lasts 30 yrs. The diy ones cost around $300-500 last about 10 yrs (basically disposable). I'm happy with cheapie we have, I can tell the difference in my laundry and shower doors and that's all I care about. Depends on what you want...some of my neighbors up here in Stone Oak don't have them and are literally getting stuff out of their faucets that looks like clay kitty litter! And it's true that you only pay Culligan for salt addition.

[spurschick]

Cool - that's what I needed to know. I'll check out Sear's, Lowes, etc.

[Shelly]

:lol at our water being 'liquid rock'

I've heard that you shouldn't cook with soft water. I don't know if that's an old wive's tale or not, though