So I know I have hard water and it was confirmed yesterday when I have a Culligan representative come test my water.  It’s a 9 on the hardness scale, Ph is good, and it was confirmed that I have sediment in my water (hence the gravel in my toilet tanks).  

So I know next to nothing about softener systems and he gives me his sales pitch.  He recommends a whole house softener system, sediment filter, and reverse osmosis system for the drinking water.  The total is $5,500 installed and warrantied for life minus filters, valves, and electronics.  

This is the first quote I’ve gotten and I hear Culligan is on the pricier side.  Are there comparable systems or should I go Culligan and buy once, cry once?  I’ve started looking at systems in the big box stores like Home Depot.  They’re much cheaper but how well do they last?

Fleck 5600 of your choice.  Setup w/ prefilter to softener.  Unless you are a water snob, RO is not necessary.

Can DIY, or hire out install labor for a couple hundred.

Kinetico.

Thats really all you need to know.

I’ve had a kinetico system for 14 years now, with zero problems.

The problems with Culligan:

1) they suck - many technicians don't know crap
2) some of their stuff is proprietary, so they are the only ones that can repair
3) they are expensive

Personally, I'd find a local guy that gets good reviews and use them.  They'll sell Fleck or Clack and anyone can get parts for those.  

@steelworker likes Kinetico, and that's fine, but man are they proud of their stuff.  I think they are way overpriced, yet produce the same water quality and last as long as a Clack branded softener.  I don't get it.  I think they sell you on the idea that you get better water.  You don't.

Everything he said^^^

If you think Culligan is spendy sit down when getting the Kinetico quote.

RO filtration depends on what contaminants are in your water and your taste preferences, it isn't just for water snobs. Culligan didn't test for contamination, just hardness, TDS, ph, iron etc.

Don’t go with Culligan. Grossly overpriced. You can get a wide variety of softeners and if you don’t have high consumption, you can get by on a single unit system. Well or city water? If on a well then a sediment filter is a must in my opinion. Unless you have any other issues with your water, there should be no need for other treatment.

We have well water.

Any other water issues besides hard water?

Sediment build up - rocks in the toilet tanks and built up in the shower heads.  Water at the faucets often has that fishy odor to it.

We installed a Waterboss. Works fine, and was ~$500. We also have a whole house filter (maybe ~$50 at most) and an RO system (~$150).

You're getting fucked with sand for lube. Mind you, this is all home gamer stuff, not super skookum industrial grade nytrillium coated equipment. But it's served us well for ~10 years and counting. We have a well.

DEFINITELY need a filter. There are many out there. I’d go with one that uses a commonly available paper element. You could also go with a two filter set up. First filter is a sediment paper filter and then the second filter is a charcoal filter.

If you don’t have more than 3-4 people in the home, I’d go with a simple cabinet/one piece softener. We have a Morton and it has been just fine. It has demand regeneration so only regenerates once a certain amount of water goes through it. Probably use about 6 bags of salt per year I’d guess. It runs to a septic tank and causes no issues.

Fleck is probably the gold standard but unless you use a lot of water you can probably save a bit of money and have a system that does what you need it to for less money and simpler install than a Fleck.

You do need a way to get the flush water to a drain.

Have you tried shocking your well? We have iron bacteria issues and regular shocking of the well (every 3-6mo) with unscented bleach has eliminated the odor caused by the iron bacteria.

We’ve been in the house for 3 years.  We haven’t shocked the well.  When you say we need to get a way to get the flush water to a drain, you mean the salt water from the tank to the waste pipe correct?  We’re on septic so the salt shouldn’t affect it right?  

Also how do you use the softened water when gardening?  Won’t the levels of salt kill the vegetation or is it too minimal to notice?  

Thanks everyone for the advice so far.  

I piped my outside faucets so they pull from the line before my whole house system, no sense wasting my “good” water on the garden/yard.

We have a whole house softener and a greensand filter to remove low levels of arsenic.

Softened water doesn’t have salt it in. Minuscule amounts. The softener resin is what actually removes the minerals but then the minerals build up on the resin. Salt is used to flush the resin. The minerals bind to the salt and then everything is flushed out. The resin bed then goes back to doing its thing until it needs to be cleaned with salt water again. After all the salt is out of the resin tank, it uses plenty of water to clean the resin so there isn’t salt water coming out of your faucets. When the softener is regenerating, it bypasses the water to your faucets and actually delivers hard water to them if they run. That’s why ours regenerates at 0200 in the morning.

Yes your softener needs access to a drain. Mine drains to our septic. It causes no problems. It’s been pretty dry lately but the area where septic leach lines are is still nice and green!

You can use softened water on plants with no problems. That said, when I plumbed my house all the exterior faucets are not softened water but that’s just so we don’t use softened water on things that don’t need it. If you water your yard don’t use softened water! You’ll go through tons of salt!

That's not correct. Softners work by a process known as ion exchange. Sodium ions readily take the place of calcium & magnesium ions in water (and in the media bed). So when a softener bed is recharged, sodium ions displace calcium & magnesium, basically pushing them out, and they are flushed out. When the domestic water passes through the sodium is hanging out on the resin but it would rather be in the water so it switches places with the calcium or magnesium, leaving those hanging out on the resin instead. This exchange must happen.

This leaves sodium ions in the softened water. The harder your water the more sodium will be in your soft water. That is why you can buy special potassium chloride softener salt for people on sodium restrictions. If the sodium wasn't entering the water there would be no concern for people with sodium restrictions.

That being said, the amount of salt being added to the water is very small. Like PPM small. It is of no concern for human consumption, you won't taste it. There is some validity in having concerns when using it for irrigation bc over a very long time you can get salt buildup in the soil. But that is easily resolved by tapping off outdoor water sources before the softner. Don't sweat it if you can't change all of them to non-softened water, sometimes you may want soft water outside such as when you're washing a car, mixing chemicals to spray, etc. Just don't use that one to water plants.

Softened water will not harm plants. Period. The only reason not to use softened water is to not use excess salt due to more frequent regenerations.  The amount of salt in the water you would drink is negligible. The only people who might want to limit softened water consumption is people on a extra low sodium diet...and those people can use the more expensive potassium chloride.  Normal people don’t need to worry about it. Your plants won’t care. My lawn, which has had thousands of gallons of salty water washed into the septic system certainly doesn’t care. If you live where the road crews salt the roads.....does the grass die alongside the roadways after a winter of heavy salt use? Of course not and if the roadways get salted a lot throughout the winter, that’s a TON of salt on the sides of the road. The tiny bit of salt in your tap water won’t hurt your plants in the least.

Softened water today will not harm plants. But salt WILL buildup in the soil. The reason you don't see problems with a septic system is twofold. #1 the salt is not in the root zone of your lawn and #2 the other non-saline contents of your septic system dilute, dissolve, and wash away most of the salt.

The reason you don't see problems with roadside salt runoff is bc grasses are less affected by soil salinity the salt concentration is relatively low when all precipitation is factored in, and winter soil & weather conditions tend to dictate that most of the salt runs off the top as surface runoff eventually ending up in the ocean.

The problem with irrigation is that water is continually dumped on top of the ground where some is evaporated, some is taken up by plants (and evaporated through photosynthesis) and very little drains down to the water table. Soil salinity is a very real concern in this situation. Below is a quote from the wiki on soil salinity, you can do your own research to learn more. BLUF, the plants don't care until 30 years of salt builds up then they do care.

5K is nuts.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/A-O-Smith-40000-Grain-Water-Softener/1000572969  - $447

https://www.lowes.com/pd/A-O-Smith-AO-WH-PREL-Single-Stage-4-GPM-Mechanical-Filtration-Whole-House-Water-Filtration-System/1000576415    - $69

Been using both for the last 6month on a new build with well.
Had the plumber install for ~$200.

Working great so far.

This.  Our system has two resin tanks.  One is being flushed while the other is being used.  It is never offline while the resin is being flushed.

It is also powered by water pressure rather than electricity.

Buy once, cry once.

My outside spigot is plumbed in before the softener. Meaning only hard water is used outside.

Don't use the salt that is pressed together to look like brickets. Use normal rock salt, it won't gum up the system.

Thanks for all of the advice guys.