Local Water Softener companies of San Antonio Texas - A comparison thread (Alamo: to buy, prices)

[txbullsfan]

Anyone have the:

Fleck 5600SXT control, 48,000 grain capacity with by-pass valve water softener?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1

It has a 5 star rating and $600 seems like a fairly good deal for this Amazon Prime (Amazon guaranteed and supported) item

[TexasRedneck]

PLEASE stay away from that SXT valve!! I LOVE the 5600 Econominder - but refuse to touch that SXT (as do many others). Also - note it's using 8% resin and has "imported parts".......

[txbullsfan]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

PLEASE stay away from that SXT valve!! I LOVE the 5600 Econominder - but refuse to touch that SXT (as do many others). Also - note it's using 8% resin and has "imported parts".......

This one?
https://www.amazon.com/Fleck-Economi...00+Econominder

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by txbullsfan

This one?
https://www.amazon.com/Fleck-Economi...00+Econominder

Yup - 8% resin......

[txbullsfan]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

Yup - 8% resin......

So that is a good water softener and head just only has 8% resin?

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by txbullsfan

So that is a good water softener and head just only has 8% resin?

Knowing what they cost, they've had to have cut other corners to get it to that price point. Thing is, you won't know until it's installed and you're trying to get it repaired. It's kind of like going to Walmart and buying an appliance - you'll know where they cut the corners when that part fails.

[txbullsfan]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

Knowing what they cost, they've had to have cut other corners to get it to that price point. Thing is, you won't know until it's installed and you're trying to get it repaired. It's kind of like going to Walmart and buying an appliance - you'll know where they cut the corners when that part fails.

What water softener and valve do you generally install?

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by txbullsfan

What water softener and valve do you generally install?

99% of the time, a Fleck Econominder w/10% resin. Like I said - as with anything else, you can build anything cheaper. Cheaper internals, cheaper resin, cheaper tanks - and if something goes wrong with what I sell, myself or my son will be the ones coming to fix it - and in the first year at no charge, even for labor, "service fee" or anything else. And frankly, there's times when it's been over a year that I've "no charged" a repair, simply because I felt the part didn't give the service life that it should have.

I'm not the only one like that - many of the independent guys do the same. Not as many today as there once were, unfortunately - between the cost of business and the larger companies buying up the "indies", we're a rarer breed than we once were. When I started in this industry in 1976, there were literally 100+ legit, honest indies in South Texas alone. Today, I doubt that there's 20-25 of us left. I can't blame them - too many found their kids didn't want to continue in the business (yeah, we work 8-5 M-F, but it's not unusual for me to get home at 7-8 pm, or get an emergency call-out at midnight). Flip side is, I love what I do, and helping my customers is something I enjoy - many have gone on to become good friends. Every one of my customers have my personal cell number, and that phone is never turned off. Now, if you call me at 0-dark-thirty with an inane question that could have been answering during "normal" hours, you're liable to get a pretty terse response, but I've never had that happen. As I've taught my son - "Put yourself in the shoes of your customer - treat THEIR problem like you'd want someone else to treat YOU."

Sorry to be so long winded, but you've hit on one of my biggest hot buttons - what happens AFTER a sale. Cheapest is easy - service in today's world is rare.

[txbullsfan]

Got my water tested and my first quote today. Moving in house in Helotes about 1.5 weeks. Not sure if the price is high or low for the first quote.

Here is my water levels:
Hardness: 17.8
Iron: None

Two people will be living in home (as of currently)




I learned a formula that water softener installers use:
75 (Estimated gallons per day per person) x2 (number of people in home) = 150 (Gal per day) x 7 (days per week) = 1050 (average gal per week) x 18 (water hardness level) = 18,900

The Alamo water softener guy said I could get by on a 30k system. I said I'm considering going to a 48k sized system in case my family gets bigger. He said, its only a few hundred dollars more to do so.

Here is the quote on the first unit:
$1,971 - (total price with install) -after discounts for 48k system (circled number)





This was a bit higher then some of the other places I got quoted on over the phone but it is very close to the phone quote I originally got as demonstrated in the original post in this thread. The company is also highly rated and been in business for a while as evidenced by the Spreadsheet in the OP.

For those of you who have had water softeners put in recently, is this a good price and system?

[Randyk47]

I can’t speak to the system components one way or the other, not my area. Price is maybe a little high but within $150 - $200 of what I paid in March for a 45K system with the Fleck Econominder head recommended above by TexasRedneck. Have to say 75 gallons per person per day seems a bit high. Our old system, and actually the one before for that matter, consistently said the two of us consumed about 75 gallons a day total. Our regeneration meter is set for 1,400 gallons and we go about 2 1/2 weeks so the 75 gallons per day is about right. Our useage is pretty typical in terms of showers, washing, cooking, etc.