That's so cool, ml. I'm sure you have a long list of fantastic stories and memories from the race. What fun ... combined with a lot of work I would think. My husband just earned ASA 101-104 certification in the BVI a couple weeks ago, so we're looking forward to a little sailing this summer and in the BVI next winter with friends who also took the course. We're only experienced in power boating, so this will be a new adventure for us. He's interested in a Hobie Wave or a similar small cat so we can practice right from the beach.

First we need to know the water conditions... Well or water system? Hardness, iron, manganese, ph, tds, if well water then bacteria and nitrates also? Then the # of people (3) and the # of bathrooms? Then we need to identify the softener you have and the hardness removal capacity. Is there a model # on the unit like 948 or 8x33 or something like that? If not then measure the height of the resin tank (the one with the control valve on top) from the floor to the top of the neck but don't include the control valve and the diameter (width of the tank. We need to know if you have a timer based Fleck 5600 or an on demand model Econominder? Does the control valve look like this... Or like this... If it is an old technology timer based 5600 and it needs resin it would be more cost effective to buy a newer technology on demand based softener because it can be sized correctly and will be more water and salt efficient. Since you don't know what the water conditions that old softener was subjected to it might be a better investment to start from scratch with a correctly sized and efficiently set up softener that addresses your water conditions and usage. If you have hard water and feed it to an RO it will cause the (expensive) membrane to require replacement much more often than feeding the RO soft water. You should be feeding RO water to the fridge and eliminate the filter in the fridge.

At my old house, the MW was located at about eye level for me. It was crazy--I had to use a stepstool to see if things were turning or overcooking. I am 5'2". At my next house I purchased the undercounter Sharp drawer MW which I loved and all the tall people in my family thought was crazy too low. See picture. Our current rental has the MW about neck level and I admit it works great. I use it every day to re-heat my tea/coffee. I actually use it to heat the water too since I can't find my kettle. I used to have a instant hot and got spoiled by that. Here in the rental we use a tempered glass measuring cup and heat 2c of water then use that as a "pot". It kind of takes away from the whole "ceremony" of making tea and enjoying it but we now have simple uses created from necessity. And of course....the old makin' bacon that everyone has mentioned. My son is always making bacon in the MW. I also am a good leftover eater. I love to reheat a serving of spaghetti squash or something from last night's dinner. I don't like cold food, so almost all of my food is heated. I considered putting the MW in the walk-in pantry at the house we are building, but ended up finding a place for it in the island (drawer MW again).

Alice, thank you for all of the detailed information. I currently have a dual tank Kinetico Model 60 that is 17 years old and needs new resin but since it is a proprietary system the local dealer wants $600 to replace the resin. Would you recommend replacing the resin or purchasing a new Fleck 5600sxt which would not be much more expensive? FYI for those who made be reading this, I have come to the following conclusions based upon my research: 1. Fleck appears to be the most recommended and companies like 602ABCWater provides a 5600sxt with the 10% cross-linked resin. There are more Fleck water softener systems on the internet because the distributors/re-sellers are not limited to a territory and can sell from anywhere to anywhere in the US. 2. Clack distributors/re-sellers cannot sell outside of their territory so there are fewer internet/web offerings. Reduced competition appears to cause the Clack systems to have a higher price than the Fleck systems. 3. Hydrotech / Canature appears to be the primary provider for many of the private brand valves/controllers including the Discount Water Softeners-Genesis, the US Water Systems- Fusion NLT and the Quality Water Treatment-SoftPro. All three of these companies quote the same statistics that promote the "efficiencies" and "cost savings" of an Upflow system vs a Downflow system. These companies also offer a 10 year warranty on the controller compared to 5 years for the Fleck but reading other blogs, it would appear that a Fleck controller can last 15 or more years which would probably outlast your resin.