Anyone have any suggestions for a water softener and reverse osmosis?

Does SoCal Waters's quote include the whole house filter i.e. Big Blue Carbon Filter (http://www.socalwater.com/whole-house-filtration/)?

I am also looking to get the water softener and RO system installed and was quoted similar price. It seems that some people also got the carbon filter installed from SoCal Water in the past.  When I asked Scott, he stated that it is not needed in Irvine

FranchisePlr said:
I heard about Nuvia $3,500, SoCal Water $2,900, anyone else have any suggestions...
 
mms2020 said:
Does SoCal Waters's quote include the whole house filter i.e. Big Blue Carbon Filter (http://www.socalwater.com/whole-house-filtration/)?

I am also looking to get the water softener and RO system installed and was quoted similar price. It seems that some people also got the carbon filter installed from SoCal Water in the past.  When I asked Scott, he stated that it is not needed in Irvine

FranchisePlr said:
I heard about Nuvia $3,500, SoCal Water $2,900, anyone else have any suggestions...

I went with whole house filter instead of softener. It has paper pre- and post-filters as well. Changed the paper filter recently (after 6 month of usage) and it was pretty clean. System works great for my needs.

 
Irvine Pacific pre-plumbed our house (standard) for a water softener (no thanks) and now we have two pipes sticking out of the wall in the garage. One sticks out ~5" at about 6' high. Annoying.
 
FranchisePlr said:
Thanks!  How much is the system?

Irvine Fanatic said:

We love our Kinetico system! I think it cost close to $5k but we also got the water filtration system for drinking water at the kitchen sink and refrigerator.
 
eyephone said:
If your on a budget use brita.  ;)

https://www.brita.com

I do think the water softner system is important and worth investing in. A good friend in Turtle Ridge (their house was built in 2002 I believe) did not get a water softner system. The hard water build up caused multiple pipe leaks and it cost them $20k to fix that problem, not including the fixing of the water damage that resulted which was additional $$$ on top of that. After they got a new piping system they joined the Kinetico club. Just something to think about if you will be staying in your home long term.
 
FranchisePlr said:
Thanks!  How much is the system?

Irvine Fanatic said:

Depends on the size of your household. There are three basic models to chose from. The difference is the size of the resin tanks. I would say most fall under the medium size, which cost about $4K (intalled with plumbing work). If you pay cash they can knock off a few hundred dollars. I think the reverse osmosis is about $1100. I would recommend looking into Kinetico. I know it's pretty expensive, but I've had friends that have them for over 10 years, not one issue. I've had mine for about 2 years and so far the only thing I have done is buy the salt pellets from Costco to replenish. Couple of things to keep in mind, Irvine water is very hard, new homes have tankless, which impacts the water heater much faster. If you have a tank water heater, the calcium and magnesium settles at the bottom of the tank. Overtime the calcification lowers the volume of hot water the tank can carry. For tankless, it starts to calcify the immediately. Eventually you'll have to replace the parts.
 
Paris said:
eyephone said:
If your on a budget use brita.  ;)

https://www.brita.com

I do think the water softner system is important and worth investing in. A good friend in Turtle Ridge (their house was built in 2002 I believe) did not get a water softner system. The hard water build up caused multiple pipe leaks and it cost them $20k to fix that problem, not including the fixing of the water damage that resulted which was additional $$$ on top of that. After they got a new piping system they joined the Kinetico club. Just something to think about if you will be staying in your home long term.

I highly doubt that this was the cause of the leak. Probably a bad plumbing job and they are just not willing to take responsibility for it. I would be more worried about the presence of chloramines rather than hardness when it comes to damaging pipes.
 
I found a viet guy to do my water system.  RO system (with Alkaline) and softener for 2500 cash.. You can probably do 2200 but I had to go and get that fancy touch screen.  lol.  Probably not worth it.
 
We got ours through a plumber. He did the installation also. The total cost was $1800. The softener system itself costs about $600, the RO about $150. Our water main connection needed to be routed underneath concrete walkway to bring it to the garage. That's what caused an increase in labor. Unfortunately the plumber no longer does work in Orange County area.

We got quotes from Culligan and Rayne. They were quoting more than $2500.
 
Paris said:
eyephone said:
If your on a budget use brita.  ;)

https://www.brita.com

I do think the water softner system is important and worth investing in. A good friend in Turtle Ridge (their house was built in 2002 I believe) did not get a water softner system. The hard water build up caused multiple pipe leaks and it cost them $20k to fix that problem, not including the fixing of the water damage that resulted which was additional $$$ on top of that. After they got a new piping system they joined the Kinetico club. Just something to think about if you will be staying in your home long term.
I don't think hard water is going to cause leaks in houses. Presume the leak was caused by other things.  If builders built homes in which the piping couldn't handle SoCal's hard water, then they should be sued for building faulty homes. I don't think that is the case. I do know there has been a number of slab leak issues on newer builds (especially in south orange county)...some people believe that it is due to certain minerals used by the water company. Not certain whether that same issue has existed in Irvine (lots of slab leaks).

New builds in coto had gotten crushed by these leaks and last I saw there was a lawsuit on the water district in the area regarding the problems. 
 
Maybe they had pinhole leaks.

I've never had a water softener and never had any problems with pipe leaks in any of my houses, the last being 17+ years old when we moved.

My mom's house is almost 53 years old, no water softener and never a pipe leak. Now her flat roof over the garage........ another story and the reason I would never ever ever ever in my life get a place with a flat roof, no matter what anyone tells me about how they have changed.
 
Bullsback said:
Paris said:
eyephone said:
If your on a budget use brita.  ;)

https://www.brita.com

I do think the water softner system is important and worth investing in. A good friend in Turtle Ridge (their house was built in 2002 I believe) did not get a water softner system. The hard water build up caused multiple pipe leaks and it cost them $20k to fix that problem, not including the fixing of the water damage that resulted which was additional $$$ on top of that. After they got a new piping system they joined the Kinetico club. Just something to think about if you will be staying in your home long term.
I don't think hard water is going to cause leaks in houses. Presume the leak was caused by other things.  If builders built homes in which the piping couldn't handle SoCal's hard water, then they should be sued for building faulty homes. I don't think that is the case. I do know there has been a number of slab leak issues on newer builds (especially in south orange county)...some people believe that it is due to certain minerals used by the water company. Not certain whether that same issue has existed in Irvine (lots of slab leaks).

New builds in coto had gotten crushed by these leaks and last I saw there was a lawsuit on the water district in the area regarding the problems.

Chloramine is the problem - not minerals. It's added to the water supply to make it potable. There's some weak science linking copper pipe failure to presence of chloramine in the water supply. Some say it is used because it is cheaper than chlorine by itself; others claim that it is required to reduce the carcinogenic byproducts of water disinfection. In any case, if this is what you are worried about you need to filter the water coming into your house (not just soften it). 


 
No. Soon as I saw the first homes with flat roofs my mom's chronic issue with her roof came to mind. Lots of the homeowners in her neighborhood had a pitched roof installed to remedy the problem. My mom kept repairing the roof which I'm sure cost her more in the long run than getting a pitched roof installed (not cheap. The framing is different for a pitched roof).

 
peppy said:
Bullsback said:
Paris said:
eyephone said:
If your on a budget use brita.  ;)

https://www.brita.com

I do think the water softner system is important and worth investing in. A good friend in Turtle Ridge (their house was built in 2002 I believe) did not get a water softner system. The hard water build up caused multiple pipe leaks and it cost them $20k to fix that problem, not including the fixing of the water damage that resulted which was additional $$$ on top of that. After they got a new piping system they joined the Kinetico club. Just something to think about if you will be staying in your home long term.
I don't think hard water is going to cause leaks in houses. Presume the leak was caused by other things.  If builders built homes in which the piping couldn't handle SoCal's hard water, then they should be sued for building faulty homes. I don't think that is the case. I do know there has been a number of slab leak issues on newer builds (especially in south orange county)...some people believe that it is due to certain minerals used by the water company. Not certain whether that same issue has existed in Irvine (lots of slab leaks).

New builds in coto had gotten crushed by these leaks and last I saw there was a lawsuit on the water district in the area regarding the problems.

Chloramine is the problem - not minerals. It's added to the water supply to make it potable. There's some weak science linking copper pipe failure to presence of chloramine in the water supply. Some say it is used because it is cheaper than chlorine by itself; others claim that it is required to reduce the carcinogenic byproducts of water disinfection. In any case, if this is what you are worried about you need to filter the water coming into your house (not just soften it).
Yep...that was the stuff. 
 
Ready2Downsize said:
No. Soon as I saw the first homes with flat roofs my mom's chronic issue with her roof came to mind. Lots of the homeowners in her neighborhood had a pitched roof installed to remedy the problem. My mom kept repairing the roof which I'm sure cost her more in the long run than getting a pitched roof installed (not cheap. The framing is different for a pitched roof).

Didn't think about that.. wonder if these roofs (at parasol park) are completely flat or what is their fix so water doesn't collect?
 
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