Do Water Softener Reviews Give You Enough Information To Make The Right Choice?

The Internet is a great place to find reviews on just about everything. But as you move up the ladder of expense and complexity of a product it becomes more difficult to determine how accurate or complete the reviews are. In the case of water softeners you can find a lot of reviews that may be accurate, but not always complete.

Fortunately I did get a water softener that worked well and had all the features I needed. What kind of threw me, and what wasn't covered in the water softener reviews, was the importance of things like having a bypass (even if one is included in the unit) and to think seriously about drainage of the waste water.

If you're cutting into an existing system you should have some plumbing experience or at least be willing to learn. This is also a point that you won't find in most reviews. You want a bypass setup so you can do maintenance on the system without shutting water off to the house.

The unit I ended up with was a "smart" unit that had a processor built in to keep track of how much water was being used and when to regenerate. The regeneration process is noisy as the unit will flush large amounts of water through the resin bed. Also, soft water is not available to the house during the regeneration process (our unit had an internal bypass so we could still get water) so the ability to schedule what time of day the regeneration process takes place is very handy.

While you're working on your plumbing system you want to be sure to isolate the water that goes into your house from the water that feeds your sprinkler system. There's no point in wasting money spraying softened water onto your lawn or garden. This type of water is not good for growing things anyway.

In my case, it was pretty obvious our home needed a water softener since we were on a community well, all the neighbors had water softeners, and we were starting to see some mineral buildup in the pipes. It was a fairly new home when we moved in, but for some reason the original owners/builder did not add a water softener. Also, every local supermarket, grocery store and hardware store carried ample supplies of the salts used to refill water softeners, so that was a pretty good hint that they were used by many people in the community.

But if you want to be absolutely sure, you can submit your water for testing. Testing kits are usually available from your local hardware store or from online testing labs. This will give you absolute certainty with the added benefit of learning what other contaminants may be in your water.

Get water softener reviews from someone who has actually purchased and installed them. Also get some insight on the new and effective water softener filter.