StihltheOne
ArboristSite Guru
Went thru this a 2 years ago. The magnets do not really work...sorry... If you have very soft water, you probably do not need a softener, then the magnets will seem like they do a good job. You need salt to do the ion exchange to remove hardness. I oversized mine and it is night and day! Spend some money on a good one and you will be amazed! I bought a farm and fleet store one. It has a Fleck head just like culligan and a lot of the other name brands. In fact the same exact model! I paid about 650 and installed it myself. Culligan wanted 3k! Culligan just has Fleck make the parts slightly longer so that you have to go to them to buy stuff for 3 times the money! Fleck is made in brookfield WI if I remember right and I am 4 miles from them. That is the ONLY reason I even got this info. If you have iron use the iron out salt. It makes a difference as to cleaning the resin bed and maintaining it longer...
+1
You are right on the money. I used to work for culligan. How about a R/O under the sink for drinking water? I installed bunches of these. Our water around here is brutal and hard to treat, but it is treatable.