Run a new 3/4" line. 1/2" just won't be enough. While I absolutely concur with lurker's sentiment, I realize sometimes current finances dictate we do things we know aren't ideal. In your case, purchasing the softener you can afford now will mean compromising softener life and operating cost. Due to the iron in your water, you will have to set up your softener to use more salt (not as salt-efficient, but your softener will be undersized) and you should use iron-out salt - this won't prevent your softener from dying early, but will prolong its life. If you provide your hardness analysis, we can tell you how to set up the softener you can afford. Even an undersized, poor quality softener will be better than no softener if you absolutely cannot afford better. You may, however, want to look into a Culligan (or other major brand) lease agreement first - these can be quite reasonable if you can't afford a large cash purchase, but can afford a monthly fee. It sounds like you are planning to install yourself. If that is the case, there are many options available online that can be much more affordable than what you will find locally. However, the trade-off is that you get no service. Frankly, however, I've found local softener service to be highly over-rated as most softener salespeople have little to no actual technical knowledge (just my opinion). That said, the first step is still water analysis, actual numbers from a lab. If you've had a water treatment pro test your water already, share those numbers. We can make some recommendations, but they will only be as good as the information you provide. Lastly, if you do end up installing the cheap Morton softener, immediately start a savings account and make a commitment to adding a set amount to it from every paycheck so you can purchase a quality softener later. You'll be glad you did.

A clean BBB slate is not an indication that a business does it's job right only that it's customers think it does. Based on your experience with your current water people are they resolving your water treatment problems? Would you recommend them? Get a water test from an independent lab. An independent lab has no agenda and won't be trying to sell you water treatment equipment. This is a MUST DO because without it everything is a guess. A quickie water test from Sears or a water softener company won't be as accurate (and possibly not as competent) as from a certified independent lab. Hit the Yellow Pages and call at least three local water treatment pros. Make sure you call at least one of the big dogs like Kinetico for comparison and at least a couple independent pros. DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAD YOUR WATER TESTED. Give each an opportunity to offer suggestions and provide you with a quote to meet your water treatment needs. IGNORE ANY THAT DON'T TEST YOUR WATER THEMSELVES as they can't speak intelligently to water treatment without knowing what needs to be treated. Don't offer your lab test results and don't suggest anything to them. Ask lots of questions. Warranty, parts & labor or just parts, how long and on exactly what? Install, permits required, licensed plumber? Routine maintenance and costs? Do they stock parts? Response time for emergency (water leak) calls? If they don't explain things to your satisfaction that is a good indicator of how you'll be treated after the sale. Make them be specific regarding hardware. size, components, maintenance? After they've gone use your water test to compare with theirs. Are all your treatment needs being addressed? Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid. Come back here and post the specific recommendations and hardware components with the costs and we'll give you our opinions.

I don't sell water softeners so I have nothing to gain or lose in this conversation. That said ... the negatives regarding the pre-built softeners are ... Lower quality materials, mostly ABS which ages and becomes brittle. ABS does not do well with really hard water. On 3 gr hardness city water most any softener will give a decent service life BUT harder water than that seperates the pre-built box store softeners from the quality ones. While all ion exchange water softeners use resin and "tanks" there's a big difference in the resin and resin "tanks". Again, the pre-built softeners do not use the top quality resin from companies like Purolite or Ionac and the materials their resin "tanks" are made of are not the same quality as the Structural brand (10 year warranty) resin tanks the top quality softeners come with. Most of the parts are proprietary and available from limited sources and they tend to be expensive. The pre-built softeners are "cabinet" (all-in-one) designs and are much harder to work on. The cabinet design puts the resin tank inside the brine tank. The routine cleaning of the brine tank is more difficult and takes a lot more time than a conventional design softener but the Sears type does take less floor space (the ONLY advantage in it's design). The greatest falsehhood is that pre-built BOX store softeners are less expensive than the industry standard softeners. The Sears softeners around 40000 hardness capacity generally run a little under $500. For $466 you can have a Fleck 5600SE electronic on demand metered softener delivered to your home including shipping. You'll need to assemble it (takes less than 30 minutes) and install it. You can have a plumber assemble it and install it (you'd need a plumber to install the Sears softener also or DIY). You'll get a control valve that has proved it's reliability over 20+ years, is made of state of the art materials (Noryl) which does not turn brittle and is totally inert. You'll get a 5 year warranty on the control valve and ten year warranty on the resin tank. You can buy parts for the Fleck control valve locally (usually) or all over the internet. Complete parts and service/repair manuals are available for download and there is always someone everywhere who can service Fleck control valves as they are the long established industry standard AND they are as easy OR easier to program than the pre-built softeners. They tolerate the hardest water with no problem. Real softeners generally last 20+ years EVEN on ludicrously hard water while the service life on a pre-built softener seems to be under 5 years (if you're lucky) on really hard water and lasting longer than that is a rare exception. Sears, GE, Waterboss, North Star and the like are the most commonly complained about water softeners on this forum and all over the internet. The Fleck, Autotrol, and Clack water softeners just work and work and work and work and work. IMO it's a simple choice. Spend uncounted hours cruising the internet reading up on how to fix your box store softener and having to do it often OR just walk over to the sink and have soft water. If you want to take the time to learn how to overcome the many design problems of the "cheap(?)" softeners and spend much more time on them when they need maintainence and repair that's your choice OR you can just have soft water and EZ minimal maintainence with a quality softener.

A couple of questions: Was the odor coming from the hot or cold side? It is very common that after a softener is put in, the hot water side soon begins to have a sulfur-like odor. This is easily fixed and an on-going chemical treatment is not necessary. In what sequence is your equipment? If the chem-feeder is first, then the chlorine will also oxidize iron and other elements, which may not be removed by the softener. This may be the reason for a filter--which will need to be replaced often. If you are adding chlorine to the water, what is used to remove it? A chlorination/dechlorination can be very effective at eliminating sulfur odors. But is should include some method of removing the chlorine, as well. Eventually, the constant contact of bleach with softener resions will destroy them and an expensive service call will be needed. Are you monitoring the amount of chlorine added to the water? I have seen so many cases where excessive amounts of bleach (or other chemicals) are misappropiated and can cause failure to the system or even harm to the owner. What is meant by "purifier" under the sink? The term "pure" is often misused and is normally considered misnomer by water industry professionals and is used as a catch-phrase in marketing. If you have an RO, then it will handle the chlorine for drinking water purposes, BUT your initial filter should be carbon and not sediment. Otherwise, the membrane will suffer and another additional, unneeded, service call is in the making. What is the cause for a need in prefiltration? Are you experiencing sediment or other particulates in the water? A pre-filter is cheap insurance if flow rate can be achieved and maintained. If the builder wants to install it for free, then go ahead. you can get replacement filters by the case more cheaply. I would be more concerned in the way your chem-feeder is operating. Andy