By the way, we use potassium chloride. Started out with sodium chloride and have seen no difference in how it affected my taste.

Also, nothing else in my lifestyle has changed at all...no new medicines, etc.

Discerning pallets notice very subtle changes in the taste of things.

Softened water can taste quite different than the raw water it started as especially very hard water with high TDS. The higher the hardness and TDS the higher the amount of potassium ions from the KCl are exchanged into the water to soften it.

Our water is 26-30g hard and my wife will not drink sodium softened water. She does drink potassium softened water but prefers RO water for drinking and cooking.

If I were you, I'd ask the dealer you're doing business with for a free RO road test. Only by living with RO water for a short term will you know if it is to your liking.

Good idea. It's a Kinetico dealer and I don't know if they'll let me test drive their RO system. I might check. I was really thinking about a big box RO, which is a lot cheaper, and like others have posted about Kinetico, is the "value added" on something like an RO system worth the price difference. I think their membrane is supposed to last a lot longer, so maybe that would make up the difference in the cost over time. I do plan on staying here.

One other question about RO's. Will the water harm plastic tubing in my fridge? Seems like I saw that mentioned somewhere and I would like to use it for that as well as at the sink.

You have the story backwards... RO water is aggressive and will leach metals and minerals from metal pipe and tubing and that is why PE (polyethylene) tubing is recommended.

The Kinetico ROs have some truly unique features and a far longer warranty than the big box or anonymous Chinese RO units.

Since you seem to recognize the value add of Kinetico products and seem to like your dealer give him/her the opportunity to show you why their product is superior.

Using an RO to feed a dedicated faucet at the sink and a fridge/icemaker is common practice although some contemporary fridges need more pressure than most ROs supply to work properly. Among the Kinetico RO's unique features is that they provide RO water at higher pressures than the simpler designs so that concern should not be a problem if you go with a Kinetico RO.

I am surprised that people are still using KCl with softeners. Not becuase it doesn't work, it does. But because the price is getting so rediculous. In our area a 50# bag goes for $19.00 !!!

I recommend the Kinetico RO in part due to its unique features and ten years parts warranty including membrane. Nobody I know goes more than one year on membranes.

The membrane cleans itself, there is a membrane pressure pump built in, uses water pressure to deliver (instead of air), all lines are 3/8- which provides high flow rate, tank delivers 2.7 gallons in stead of 1.3 from air tanks, and so on and on. It is a very good unit.

It removes more chemicals and contaminants than any other tested RO (including virus and bacteria for 2000 gallons-certified NSF).

It is cutomizable to the owners; particular tastes or needs. Even has a mineral cartridge to add calcium and magnesium back into the water for taste and nutrients.

Hope that helped.
Andy Christensen, CWS-II

Justalurker, thanks for setting me straight on the tubing issue. I remember now reading about "agressive" R/O water, and I'm glad to know that it is OK for fridge lines. DUH!!!

andy c, same experience with KCL price in VA. Around $19.99 for a 40# bag around here. But since it last a while, it's kind of like gas prices...I'll keep using it until it gets to a price that is just too high. But i don't know what that is!

Re: the mineral cartridges...will they cause any deposits on the water dispenser on the fridge door or is it such a small amount it causes no problems? My dispenser on my old fridge was caked with white calcium deposits and I don't miss that at all!

Since we're talking about it, anybody else use and like/dislike the Kinetico R/O system, particularly with the mineral cartridge? I've definitely got to try something to get my taste back and I'm thinking maybe the mineral cartridge is the way to go.

Thanks for the comments.

KCl under the K-Life and Nature's Own brand, both from North American Salt, always used to be $9.95 a bag at the water softener stores and $6.99 a bag at the more mundane places.

Then the price went up to over $15 a bag and then close to $20 a bag at Home Depot.

About the same time our closest Costco started carrying the Nature's Own KCl at $9.95 a bag.

Contemporary softeners can be setup to be very salt efficient. I use about a bag a month so $120 a year is manageable for me.

If it was me, I'd try bypassing the water softener unit for a month or so to see if my sense of taste came back.

justalurker, thanks for the heads-up on Costco's price for KCL. We don't have one in our area, but I have access to Costco through a daughter & sister who live in different cities.

And jake, I tried drinking bottled water & used bag ice for several weeks when I first noticed the loss of taste and it seemed like my taste was coming back (probably 50 to 60 % better). But, it was too much trouble to continue, and I didn't want to go to the trouble to bypass my softener. I pretty much decided it had to be the softener....the question is what to do about it.

I'd love to hear from someone who has used a R/O system to correct this problem.

beenthere,

No one else has your taste buds or your water so any opinion anyone else has on taste is moot.

It's your, and your wife's, taste buds. It's your money.

Talk to your dealer and tell him exactly what you posted here. Tell him your concerns. Tell him that if you like the taste of RO water after a month then you'll buy an RO from him, but you won't know till after a month with an RO.

Since you bought a softener he knows you are a customer and he should want to make a sale.

FWIW, I've had Kinetico softeners and RO at two locations for over 15 years. Just had the softeners re-furbished for a couple hundred each. The RO membranes were fine but I replaced them prophylactically anyway. Both connected to refrig. dispensers and ice-makers. Everything works like new.

I have city water so have no opinion about well supplies.

justalurker, I understand what you're saying, but I'm not really concerned with what other people think about the TASTE of softened or R/O water.

I told my dealer I seemed to have lost my sense of taste after being on softened water for a while, but he had never heard of that. He thought an R/O system might help. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced a loss of taste.

If they have, then I was wondering if they had found a way around it (an RO system, maybe?)

I have no doubt that an RO will improve the taste of my water(which I haven't even mentioned, but NO, I don't like it). I was hoping someone may have experienced a loss of actual taste and found something that helped.

I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow and see if he'll let me try Kinetico's RO for a month or two. I'll probably wind up keeping it just for the improvement in taste of my water, but it sure would be great if nice, clean RO water allows my taste buds to start working again.

Thanks for all of your input. At least I feel good about my decision to go with Kinetico for my softener and it sounds like their RO is the way to go, too. I'm all about spending a little more up front and getting something will last for the long haul.

asolo, I hope my Kinetico system performs as well as yours. 15 years is a great return on your investment.

Taste is a very subtle sense.

The fact that both you and the boss are experiencing the same described loss of taste(?) is interesting and I've never heard that description before.

It could be that the conditions of your water are such that softening it is a dramatic change and your taste buds will acclimate after a month or so.

You never stated your well water conditions...

Hardness?
Manganese?
Iron?
TDS?
Chlorine?
Copper?
Other minerals?
Bacteria?

Is there any water treatment equipment other than the softener?

Perhaps a comprehensive water test by an independent lab would indicate why your raw well water tastes the way it does and indicate exactly what the softener is changing during treatment.

I should have posted my specs. This was done by an independent lab, before I decided to install a softener. The test performed by the Kinetico guy (using the colored water in a little bottle scale) was actually very close to the lab results. I was impressed.

Hardness - 136 mg/L or around 8 gpg - I know that isn't that high, but white scale was killing me. Gone now!

Manganese - 0.05 mg/L

Iron - 0.06 mg/L

TDS - Lab didn't do this, but Kinetico came up with 150 ppm

Chlorine - not tested, well water

Copper - not tested

Alkalinity - 94 mg/L

PH - 6.99 @ 19 degrees C

No other minerals or bacteria were tested for. I wasn't concerned with bacteria as I've lived here for 31 years (we built the house)

Kinetico installed a .05 micron whole house type filter BEFORE the 2030s WS. I had a really lame screen type WH filter before that didn't catch much.

Finally, I agree that a re-test of my softened water might be interesting to see. I would like to be sure my PH is still OK, anyway. I think I've read a WS can lower PH by maybe a point max, which would put me below the minimum this lab recommended (6-5 - 8.5). They say PH below 6.5 is acidic enough to consider treatment.

Concerning TDS, I don't know what is was, but I had TONS of black sediment stuff in my toilet tank before I put the .05 micron filter on. I think that stopped most of it, because now the filter & cartridge is LOADED with it when I change it every 2 months.

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, justalurker.