Rain-Soft Watertreatment System-Good/Bad

[Shrimpy]

Hey guys, I had the dreaded in-home watertreatment demonstration last night. The wife set it up and surprised me when I got in from work. Several of our neighbors have one and rave about them. I understand basically how they work but wonder if anyone has had dealings with Rain-Soft.



They have been in business since 1950, and are world wide. The Salesman was probably one of the nicest in-home demonstrators I have ever encountered. Was NOT pushy at all. Said he believed the product would sell itself. My main area of intrest is in the savings of cleaners we now buy. The wife answered the questionaire (sp) conservatively and found that we buy 25-30 differant cleaners in our home!!!!! I was floored because I can never find a bar of soap when I run out in the shower!!!! Seroiusly, just the savings in Kitchen and Clothes washing cleaners would be substantial for us.



What I am looking for is if anyone has one of these, how long have you had it and would you recomend it. Give me the Good, Bad, and Ugly!!!!



P. S. The part where they test your water for suspended particles sold my wife on it. I had a hard time convincing her that the junk in the bottom of the flask was mainly calcium that had seperated out.

 

[C Schomer]

Shrimpy, I've heard they're very expensive! There is a lot of suspended junk in water. I got a 2 element Cuno filter from Graingers, about $50. I buy 1 mic. filters for about $6. 50@ from a treatment co. That takes out the suspended junk. I put in a light commercial softener. I regenerate it only when the water starts to show hardness instead of a timed cycle. One bag of salt lasts a year. I use potassium chloride to regenerate instead of sodium chloride. It actually makes the water healthier with K instead of Na. A softener only exchanges favorable ions for unfavorable ions and doesn't add extra 'salt' like some people think. If there is any iron in the water, you'll also need an iron filter ahead of the softener. Iron will foul the resin bed. Make sure your outside faucets don't run thru the softener. If you want activated carbon(takes out the chemicals) for the water you drink, only use them at the tap. DON'T use them for the whole house - they remove the chlorine the city puts in and bugs will start growing in your system. You can do it for a fraction of a Rainsoft system. You'll use a lot less soap for everything. There's lots of minerals in raw water, put into terms of calcium chloride. Calcium chloride binds up the soap so it can't clean. A softener takes out the calcium chloride so all the soap is allowed to clean. The soap will clean much deeper too - that's why your skin feels slick with soft water. It takes more rinsing to get the soap off - it's not the salt. Laundry softener is to get the soap out of the clothes so you'll use less of that too. I don't know what all gadgets Rainsoft uses. If you can find out, I'll try to help you decide if they're necessary. I'm not a salesman but I do a lot of water treatment at work for the boilers, towers and closed loops. Fire away if I can help more! Craig