Tired of Hard Water

We have a Hague WaterMax 60 Series for about 3 years now and have been very pleased with it for conditioning the water throughout the house.

We also have a filter on the faucet that works well and lasts longer because we have the conditioner for the whole house. It's made by BestWater - here is their website...

https://www.shaklee.net/ser/prodWat

Hope this helps...S.

Look into a Kinetico water system. www.kinetico.com My mom lives out in the country (they have well water) and this has worked very well for them, much better than a standard softner system that uses salt. I have a culligan softner, and it works fine with city treated water.

That's easy...just get a water softener put in. We live in the country also, and when we first moved in almost 10 years ago, the water was terribly hard! My husband quickly went and bought a water softner (the ones that take the 50lb bags of salt) and we have had great soft water every since! GOOD LUCK!

R.,

I do not know anything on the osmosis system, I could ask my husband tomorrow as he is a plumber. I will check into it for you. I am responding to find out what you do from home for a living? I am seriously looking for an opportunity to work from home, would you be interested in sharing?

Thanks! I will ask my husband about the osmosis treatment and get back with you tomorrow sometime.

Hi, R.! We just watched a segment of This Old House on PBS about this dilema. We live in the country and have the same situation. google this: this old house "hard water"

by putting hard water in quotes it brings up all the references to that particular episode and there are many links to the information. Too many to cut and paste here! :^)

Here is a good hard water tip also. If the hard water leaves a build up in your tea kettle or coffee maker add a 1/4 of lemon juice, bottled is fine, and some water and boil it for a few minutes and let set till cool and the lime scales wipe right out. Coffee makers just run the juice and water thru one cycle and discard. Yes, vinegar does the same trick, but the lemon juice smells nicer. :^)

Best wishes,
K. W.
www.theeducationgarden.com

Hello R.,
Living in the middle of KS, we too have hard water. We use a water softener and have reverse osmosis (ro) for our drinking water at the kitchen sink (and for the icemaker). I do not believe the RO takes the hardness out of the water, only the impurities. We have a 1 gallon tank for the RO and often wish we had more so I suggest at least a 2 gal tank. My friend who has 2 gals. gets along fine with here's. She can fill a gallon jug to take to work and still have water left to use at home. We often found when making coffee for company the water supply got very low at our house. I know fill a gallon jug or 2 in advance if I know I will be having company. We don't usually use the RO water for cooking but the softwater for that is nice.
Good luck! C.

R.,
We have a Hague water treatment system. A friend used to sell them and we really recommend them even though he doesn't sell them anymore! :-) It uses potassium pellets instead of salt and the filters are made specifically based on what is in YOUR water. We live in the country as well and noticed a HUGE difference right away. The water out of any faucet in the house (and the outside one too) is 95% pure and the little tap they installed at the kitchen sink is 99% pure drinking water. They're pricey, but well worth the money. You might try a search for them online. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

S.

R.,
We have a system from Fresh KC Water. We loved it so much that we brought it with us when we moved. If you decide to check them out, you might ask about refurbished models. Occasionally they have them available at a very discounted rate.

Good luck!
Jen

I'm on well water that's extremely hard. My plastics would get a white film on them, my clothes weren't getting clean, and my hair was heavy from mineral buildup.

So, we got a water softener for the whole house. Don't be fooled by the national water treatment companies, they'll offer to install a whole house system and then charge you monthly maintenance fees as part of a contract. For a few hundred bucks, you can install a softener, and then every couple of months you'll need to buy salt at the hardware store and dump it in. The water softener uses an ion exchange to replace some of the heavy minerals with salt. Don't worry, it's such a small amount, you'll never notice an increased sodium amount in your water.

I'm still really picky about my drinking water, so I had a reverse osmosis installed under the kitchen sink. It's also hooked up to the ice/water on the fridge, so I don't have to buy filters for the fridge any more either. I love my drinking water so much. I use the RO water in my coffeepot too, so it goes a long time without needing to be cleaned.

It was $600 to have a local water treatment company (Holmes in Wentzville MO) come out & install it. These are the same guys who work on our well, water softener, etc. I looked into Culligan and Rainsoft type places, but they were more expensive and/or it was a monthly service rather than an ownership thing.

It costs us $100 to have them come out once a year and replace the membrane (the one that filters out particles that are however many microns in size). I'm sure that if we took the time to figure out how to do it ourselves, our annual cost would be significantly less than that. In all actuality, we probably could have installed an RO unit ourselves for a few hundred bucks, but you know, sometimes you just want to pay for convenience.

Hi R.
We moved into a house that has an Eco Water System. Didn't think it was that big of a deal at first...couldn't be without it now! Wow, what a difference it makes. I have no idea what the initial cost is as it was here already. Yearly upkeep is minimal considering how wonderful it is! Good Luck!

Hi, my husband & I have a Rainsoft system and we love it. It purifies and softens the water. It tastes wonderful and is easy to maintain. Good luck!

Hi R.,
My friend's mom uses reverse osmosis-they like it-but expensive. Also, I heard that it creates just as much polluted water as it does cleaning it. Not sure on the validity of that though. I would suggest researching the options. Local home stores may have suggestions. My husband and I also have very hard water. Our well is much deeper than most and we live in Jeff. Co. We have looked at water softeners and filters. I think the ones that use potassium are better-less taste. The hard water is rough on our dishwasher, etc. Until we get something, we use a brita water dispenser in the fridge for drinking and a faucet filter on the kitchen sink. I am interested in reading your replies-great question! Good Luck!-E. F.

Hi R.!
We have a Hague water softener system and its wonderful. I think it was around $3,000. My daughter loves to come over and take a bath, the water is extremely soft, its great for the hair. We have reverse osmosis on the kitchen sink, it only filters the water. We are from TN and also lived in a rural area with a well and great water so we were spoiled, we really appreciated the softener especially after experiencing a few months of the hard water and bad hair days. Lowes sells some type of softener system, my husband considered installing it himself but we went with the Hague because my husband says he got a good deal and we knew so little about them

Hi R.,
I too also lived in a city with hard hard water, made your skin break out, but we got a water softner put in. It makes you feel like when you take a shower that all the soap isnt off you, but you get used to it and it even makes your dishes look cleaner, not have those white spots all over them. The salt for the water softners you can get at home depot, Lowes , very inexpensive (the salt).
Hope this helps. Oh just want you to know the soft water IS NOT GOOD for plants. Use your outside water to water them.
rox

The first thing you need to do is to call one of your local bottled water suppliers, and tell them that you need them to come to your house and do a water test. They'll test your water and tell you everything that's in it. They'll then tell you what kind of system you'll need to handle the problem. Usually it's just a basic water softner unit that's needed. From there you could do your research to find the unit you want to go with, or you could just have whoever does the test install one of their units into your home. They usually have alot of different models so that you can get one that fits into your home and lifestyle nicely, and most times they have several payment plans so you can find one that works for you. Try to go for one that uses as little salt as possible.

I live on well water also and had the same issue....You will need to put in a whole house filter as well as a water softener. I found that if you want GOOD info on these things, go to Home Depot, but go to Lowes to buy it for better prices. I had to get a system that supports 6+ people (the REALLY big one), and you may need to depending on the size of your house and number of bathrooms you have. But you DEFINATELY want to get the whole house filter AND the water softener. The filter will block impurities from killing the softener. I also have a reverse osmosis system, but that is attached to my kitchen sink and just used for drinking water. And yes....It get pricey.....but it is well worth it.....In the mean time, for taking baths, put a 1/4 c baking soda in the bath water and it will soften your current bath water. Hope that helps......

~A.~

hard water you know what every time i try to send the message the computer just delete it so if you can call me and leave a number to contact you about hard water i will tell you EXACTLY what you need to do and how ###-###-#### thanks from ____@____.com. please let me knw your name you are from mamasource. thanks.

We have a water softner from Culligan. We however did not have to pay for it. We did a trial for them and survey at the time of instalation and several weeks later. IF you are looking at trying this method, call the office and ask them if there is a trial or test run that you can do for them. A sales rep is in if for profit, he will not be able to help you. I don't know if there is one going on right now, but it is definitely worth the effort. The guy that installed ours was a friend, so I think he may have have comped us the the labor. but if you can get it cheaper than $1000, then it has saved you money. the salt we buy about 3 times a year from Hy-Vee and it is inexpensive. The amount of salt you go through depends on how hard your water is.
I saw a difference in taste, rust marks on my sinks and tubs were gone, the dishwasher is not all cacked up with lime and stuff. I promise that it is worth it, whatever you decide to do. Be sure that you give it some time. The taste will change right away, and you will feel a difference in the shower, but as time goes on you will see a bigger difference. Good luck!!!
tp

Hey R.! My name's C. & work @ McElroy's Inc. in Topeka, KS. We sell reverse osmosis systems & if you want to know more, you can call & speak to Paul Baumgartner. Go to our ____@____.com should find more info there! Paul is really great & explains everything really well!

Check out Lowe's and Home Depot for do it yourself water treatment. They used to have them and may still.

We purchased an AmeriPure system. We decided to go with the potassium pellets as well, though you can do either. Everything is easier to clean and the water from the kitchen sink tap tastes like bottled (that'll somewhat depend on your pipes and personal taste though).

We bought up to the system that self-cycles based on water used, not just on a specific time-frame. If you have a home humidifyer make sure it's hooked up to soft water too... it'll increase it's life!

You'll love it! I know I do!

T.

We had a RainSoft water purifier and softener installed about a year ago right before we had our son. We also got the reverse osmosis system for our sink. I was weary about doing it at first, but I am really glad we did. Although, we now have to have someone come out and service it because it is beeping at us and telling us to get it serviced. I don't have to buy bottled water for my son who is almost a year old and our dishes come out of the dishwasher very clean. The RainSoft system is pretty pricey, but they will let you finance it if you want and they give you 4 years worth of supplies including laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, hand soap, 3 different kinds of cleaners, body wash, and shampoo and I have not had to buy hardly any cleaning supplies since. I would highly recommend it if you have hard water cause hard water can actually damage your appliances and fixtures. Good luck.

Hi, R.!

We have hard water here in Missouri too...but the solution is EASY!

Depending upon your finances: Buy a water softener outright from Lowe's, Home Depot...whereever...

Or, call Culligan or another water supplier and rent (sometimes they even to rent-to-own) a water softener.

You will buy special bags of salt to put into it and have to learn how to set it to your liking...but once you have it figured out, it's pretty easy.

:o)

R.,

There are several companies out there...Culligan sells 2 different types of units. They also will deliver the salt needed for the water softener. There is also a company called Hague water that I have worked with. Expect it to cost about $1000 for the new system, but it will be worth it!!

L.

I work for a plumbing company--we do RO systems but they don't treat all of the water in your house. Water softeners are h*** o* your pipes and fixtures. We recommend Nature's Miracle to people with hard water. They have a pretty good website: www.betterwaternow.com
We also install something called a Zeta rod. I'm not sure exactly what all it does. I believe the website is zetarod.com or zeta.com