You might be better of withe filter. It should keep sediment in the water from reaching your chemical feeder and softener and causing problems. Cheap insurance

Thanks for the response.

The first thing you do is to take a raw water sample from BEFORE any treatment and a water sample from AFTER the water treatment to an indpendant lab for a complete water test. A quickie water test from Sears or the like won't twll you what you need to know.

That will tell you what problems need to be addressed in the raw water and if those problems are being addressed by your treatment. If the water is safe them you're OK. If not, then additional or different treatment is required.

Adding a big blue sediment pre-filter may not be a bad idea IF it has sufficent flow not to cause a pressure loss and it doesn't clog up too quickly. An intelligent installation would include a pressure gauge BEFORE and AFTER the filter housing so the pressure could be easily monitored. When there's a pressure drop across the filter, time for an element change.

Living on a well is more complicated and requires maintenance that living on a water system does not. On a well YOU are responsible for making you water nice and SAFE.

It wouldn't hurt to get a consultation from a local water treatment company. Builders tend to know nothing about water treatment and most plumbers know only slightly more.

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

I think a filter's always a good idea; and you can set some of them to bypass if you want, the one I'm waiting to instal in my house (it's only small so we'll see how water flow works out, but I'm into water conservation, so I can put up with a slower flow) - has a bypass setting in the built-in valve, so if you're watering the garden for instanceyou can set it to run unfiltered.