First off its only going to till 20" wide. Today they sell for way less than 3 grand. I've seen them on ebay from about that year sell between $300 to $800 depending upon condition and engine. A person with some mechanical aptitude could purchase a basket case and revive it. Parts are still available from many sources. Check ebay type in "troy bilt", of the 300 or so items a dozen or two will be tillers. Various spellings, troy built, troybuilt, produces less results but you'll get something. REJ2.

I need to read the $64 tomato. I swear setting up my garden (and fence) I have felt like I was just bleeding money left and right. It will be nice to have it start to pay me back. With any luck, in a couple of years the initial outlay of beds/soil/trellises/fence will be paid for and then my only recurring expenses will be seeds, amendments, and water. At that point my garden should turn a corner and actually become profitable instead of a money sink. I am already thinking ahead to all the bleberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and tomatoes we will have this year, and all of the peaches, plums, pears, and apples we will have in future years. That's big bucks grown on my little .2 acre garden plot folks! Here are my numbers so far from the site Leslie linked. Organic Lettuces $4-$6 per gallon bag. This is not very big and is about 1/2 pound Strawberries $5 per quart Spinach $5-$5.50 per half pound = $10-$11 per lb (that is INSANE)! Choi Choi the closest thing I could find to Pac Choi is $4.50 per lb Herbs vary and I am still going with $10 per month. It's probably more, possibly much more. After digging further into OK co-op prices and firming up my spreadsheet, my one month total (from Early april to present/early may) is more like $142! I am over the moon! Jo

I will assume this is a 3 ton Heritage 15 HP. If correct, dealer should have given you the 42 GAM5 air handler rather than the 36. The 42 has the superior performance and efficiency numbers according to the AHRI HP Directory which is the authority on such matters. The 42 is slightly larger but does give you 15 SEER and 9 HSPF while the 36 gives 14.5 SEER and 8.5 HSPF. More BTUs on the cooling side as well. While you don't mention your location, if it has high humidity in the summer, then the HW mdl 8321 thermostat with humidity sensor would be preferred. And I always recommend a whole house media filter cabinet over cheap 1" filters located in a return. The price sounds reasonable but without a good reason, your dealer shortchanged you on the air handler because it will be higher operating costs especially on the heating side. AmStd make great heat pumps. IMO

Thanks for your reply. Your TDS indicates you have other contaminates besides Calcium (hardness) but that may not be an issue for treatment. What is your chlorine/chloramine count? One would feel more confident knowing what those are. I would not have recommended the 2030 model for a couple of reasons. It is designed for water containing iron. It has a freeboard (body of water above the resin bed) for 'flushing out' iron ions removed during service. Since you don't have that as an issue, you chould go with another, more effecient option. Secondly, the in/outs on the 2030 are only 1" and you have 1.25" so ideally you would want to go with a system designed ofr your maximum water flow and least pressure loss, right? Pressure loss is 15psi at 11 gallons per minute. That means two showers, laundry, dishwasher and a toilet all going at once before a a slight pressure loss is noticed. Thirdly, the salt effeciency that you quoted earlier (5222 @ 1lb of salt) WAS referring to another model--the MACH 2040sOD, which has 1.25" in/outs and would well suit your exact needs in water flow, pressure loss and continuous treated water supply. I can't speak for the pricing of an independent dealer but generally the 2040 run in the area of a 2030 but may be a couple hundred less, too. Those prices are higher than what I am used. I wonder what part of the country you are in? There is a brand new 2040 on eBay right now!!!! The EcoWater unit is fine piece of machinery. My only issue with the ERR3500 is that the carbon is sealed in with the resins. Carbon has a shelf-life and WILL need to be replaced. That involves a major service call and usually happens AFTER the warranty. Figure that into your operating costs. Also, the carbon and resins seemed to mixed and when it backwashes they blend as they have roughly the specific gravity. This results in that when the carbon needs to be replaced, the resin will probably need to be replaced as well--how do you seperate the two? Or, as happens over periods of time, the hard resins break the brittle carbon granuals into minute pieces (fines) and are backwashed out during reneration. This,of course, makes it easier to simply replace, rather than seperate, the two media, but nonetheless, it will have to be preformed somewhere done the line. Ask you EcoMan about this futurte service call. I may be mistaken and apologize if that is so. There are other benefits to a twin tank, non-electric design but that has been mentioned and realized in your reseach, I am sure. Hope this helped a little, Andy Christensen, CWS-II