Will I need a water softener in Bonita Springs? (Cape Coral: house, refrigerator)

[clc08]

We're moving to Bonita Springs next week, single family home/city water.

I know this is Naples board, but I usually get more responses here than on the Lee County Ft. Myers/Cape Coral board.

I called Bonita Springs water company and all I could find out is they have "reverse osmosis." She couldn't tell me how hard the water is.

Any experiences/recommendations appreciated. We have a water softener we could move, but won't do it if we won't need it.

Thanks.

[RMD3819]

Clarify please-city water or well water.

[Beth Mone`]

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Hope this helps you. I don't think you need a softener but look at all that other stuff. How does that get by a reverse osmosis system?

Beth

[justNancy]

I lived in Bonita Springs for over 13 years until the summer of 2009. I am very familiar with Bonita Springs Utilities. I even remember the days before the sewer, when my water bill was only $15 a month! Those days are gone.

Bonita water tastes & smells terrible IMHO, so I would suggest a water purification system, but it's not critical. I had many neighbors who just used tap water. Also, lots of residents get their drinking water from Publix for 30 cts a gallon, but if you're going to live there all the time, it might be a hassle for you. I never had trouble showering or with laundry, but I always drank filtered water.

[jswfl09]

IMHO, incorrect information.

I live on Little Hickory Island (Bonita Beach) and am on Bonita Utilities, which ranks as one of the top utilities in the state based on water quality (you can find it on Google). In addition to top-tier water, we also have capacity for 60k with 40k users. Therefore, you will be paying good money for your water (but not as bad as the Cape).

The water does not taste or smell awful and you will not need a purification system. Whatever you do - don't get brainwashed into taking a jug to the machine at Publix. Waste of your time and money - same water just run through a charcoal filter. Doesn't change anything since there is nothing to take out. You would be better off with one of the refrigerators with on-door water dispensing and a filter (at least some of them use two-stage filters). Either way, I would try it first. To say it tastes and smells horrible seems like an over-reaction, then again that opinion comes from someone from New England. I was born in FL and lived here the majority of my life - I will be glad to give you a list of 50 places with gross water - and the majority of those are in New England. Two different parts of the country.

With that said, the water is on the harder side (comes from the Tamiami aquifer). I occasionally have to CLR my shower heads and you may get water spots on your cars if your sprinklers hit them enough over time. If those things bother you, then you may want to look into a softener. Just stay away from places with wells - ick.

[SWFLWaterGuy]

You're smart to inquire before moving here. The well water around here sucks. Lots of sulfur!!! The city water is very clean here. At first glance you might like hearing that but there's just one problem. The reason it's so "clean" is because of the amount of Chlorine used in the disinfection is more than we use in our swimming pools! Think about that for a minute. Plus, Chlorine is a cumulative toxin meaning you only excrete around 50% of what you consume and absorb. That includes your showers and baths. (Just google videos on Chlorine absorption demonstrations)

The softness on the other hand is not as much of an issue. The water is moderately softened before you get it at the house. Still a little hardness, but one could deal with it if needed.

The bigger issue is the Chlorine. Get a whole house "carbon" system at a minimum. I did and I noticed a huge difference! I also installed a softener and reverse osmosis for drinking and cooking water to remove the heavy metals not taken out by the treatment facilities.

Welcome to SW Florida! It's paradise here

-Gene

P.S. A really good complete system that does everything should cost you $6000-$9000 depending on whether you're on a well or city water. Which is well water by the way! And the good companies offer payment plans.

[markjames68]

You realized you resurrected a 5 year old thread, right?

Without giving away brand names, I will say that a popular 2 tank whole house reverse osmosis system is working really well for me in North Naples. I also got one installed in the kitchen for the drinking faucet and fridge/ice maker but the improvement is negligible (reduction in particulate matter only).

It is expensive, and requires upkeep, but the water quality is amazing.

[SWFLWaterGuy]

Wow, you must have dropped some cash! Good for you, glad you're enjoying it!

[clc08]

I just got an email I had responses to this thread....that I posted in 2011. Thanks for your replies. I don't know how to turn off this thread, or I would, but maybe the answers of late will help somebody else.

[davephan]

Sometimes it takes awhile to get more responses! I found the recent responses to be very informative. I'm surprised that whole house water filtering systems cost about $6K to $9K. I have a Hydrologic Stealth 200 water filtering system for my hydroponic indoor gardening. That system removes the chlorine and other chemicals from the city tap water. We have about 320 PPM out of the tap. The refrigerator filter, probably a single stage drops it to about 160 PPM. The Hydrologic filter is a multistage filter, including reverse osmosis brings it down to about 5 to 6 PPM. For hydroponic gardening, the water should be less than 20 PPM and less than 10 PPM is considered great! However, I heard that the filtered water produced by the Hydrologic filter is too clean to drink, but I don't know if that's true. The Hydrologic water filtering system can create 5 gallons per hour, and you throw away 15 gallons of waste water to create the 5 gallons of filtered water.

I also own a Zero Water pitcher, which I used for my hydroponic gardening before I bought the Hydrologic system for about $330. The Zero Water pitcher creates 0 PPM water when the filter is new and degrades to about 8 PPM after about 25 to 30 gallons, plus takes many hours and a lot of manual effort to create 5 gallons of filtered water. Four new filter cost about $50 to $60, so it has a high ongoing cost to operate. I've created hundreds of gallons of filtered water with my Hydrologic water filtering system, and haven't had to change the filters yet. The Zero Water pitcher might be a solution for drinking and cooking water, but you'd probably need at least two of them, and it is an ongoing hassle to keep manually refilling them, and waiting for the water to be filtered.