Water Softeners
Well, I can help. I could have written your post. I had the whirlpool for 11 years. When mine died I opened the top and found that the circuit board had corroded. I installed an aquasana system. It works well, but it is definitely different. The water feels hard, but it isn't. I get more build up on shower doors, but it cleans off easily. I am also a nerd about things, so I installed water pressure gauges before and after my filter and softener setup and the aquasana has absolutely no pressure loss.
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I put in a Kenmore water softener some 14 years ago in our South Orange home when calcium deposits were clogging the pipes and we were seeing the other usual symptoms of hard water such as spots on glassware and shower doors.
No problems until it stopped working with an Err01 which is apparently a generic error which can mean anything. I followed the troubleshooting steps in the manual and couldn't figure out what was wrong.
Apparently the expected lifetime of these is 10-15 years so it may not be worth investing in repairing it. It's a Kenmore and they no longer sell water softeners but an almost identical model is available from Whirlpool. I could replace it but I've never really liked putting salt into our drinking water.
There are various no-salt water conditioners on the market that use magnets or magic to stop the calcium build up that have decidedly mixed reviews.One system that has been recommended to me is Rhino Water Softener from Aquasana. Does anyone have any experience with this brand? It's supposed to be good if the water is not too hard. I understand that compared to EOWC the water we now get from American Water is at least somewhat softer.