Was hardness the only thing be tested? Personally, that would not be enough for me. You want to know about iron, pH, TDS, chlorine, chloramine at minimum. You can probably get that information from the city water plant. Ask for their annual or quarterly water quality report.

Your description of water usage has hit upon my major gripe with Kinetico. Don't get me wrong - they sell a well-made, reliable system. However, they are sized on the small side, making it more likely that you will be regenerating with weak brine which, in turn, makes the effective capacity of the unit even lower. If you have large numbers of guests frequently, or that stay for extended periods of time, this will be a problem and you would be better served with a higher capacity unit. It takes time to make a strong brine solution for proper regeneration. A properly sized system should allow 24 hours, minimum, between regenerations, particularly if you live in a location where water temperatures are cold.

Since I an not a Kinetico rep, I do not know the specs of a system from the name. It's possible that the system will meet your needs - it just doesn't sound like it based on what you said. Did you discuss water usage with the salesman?

Thanks for the help!

Calling the city for water information is a good suggestion. I will do that ASAP.

As for the usage concerns - I have the same ones. The salesman & I didn't discuss water usage much - he asked how many people lived in the house, and I told him that for now it's just my husband & I, but we expect to add kids to the mix in the next few years. And, I mentioned that we do have guests occassionally. I specifically asked him how often the system could regenerate without any decrease in performance, and he said that the salt should dissolve in 4 hours. I have no idea if that is reasonable or not - but we're in Illinois, so we definitely have cold water, especially in the winter. He said the system would regenerate every 300 gallons - which to me is saying the system has only a 9600 grain capacity (300 gallons * 32 grains/gallon). This seems very small! For just my husband and I that is certainly less than once/day regeneration... but if we have 10+ people in the house then it could easily be more often than that. Of course - we only have that many people maybe 1 or 2 times a year for 3-4 days... so does it really make sense to size a system based on that demand?

You know - I think this goes down as one of the times my engineering mind is a negative rather than a positive. I may just drive myself crazy trying to understand water softeners in 3 days so I can make a decision. ;0)

For once I am going to have to agree with Aliceinwonderland. That unit is not what I recommend!

Even though you are on city water, there is no guarantee that it is iron free, but chances are that it is very light. The 2040 will work but I would only recommend it if spacing were extremely limited, like in a hall closet on a shelf, or something. Some RVs and mobile homes fall into this dilemma.

The estimate given was not your optimum choice. The stats given you for the 2040sOD were inaccurate. That particular unit, although falling within performance limits, would in my opinion not be the best for that much hardness. And given that there is no iron or extremely little iron, it would still work, but...I have my reservations and would choose a valve that would have to regen so often.

I would suggest a 2060s, instead. This will give you much better performance and regenerate 1/3 as often as the 2040 on your water. The 2060sOD would also be a good choice if total gallons per minute were the real issue.

The RO is an excellent model with many unique features leading to benefits other systems cannot provide.

I put in a used 2060 (actually a K-60, earlier model) and it works great at 28gpg and 2ppm iron.

The estimated daily average water consumption per person changes according to various sources but ranges from 50 to 75 gallons/person/day.

As far as salt solution time is concerned, there is ample brine solution in excess of what is require per each regeneration, so even if you regenerate numerous times each day there should be no problem with adequate supply. These are factory tested running all day long at different flow rates.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

Thank you again for the valuable insight! I am wondering if this is simply their defacto standard here, and so little concern was taken in our special case. Honestly, it makes me a little wary of the Kinetico dealer. So - what other options might be worth exploring?

I am sorry if you had some issues with the local dealer. Each dealership, regardless of make or brand, has its own ways of doing things and if successful, will stay in business, if not....

You might want to call back and give them an update of what you've learned and they may consider an alternative offer.

Does that orginal price actually incluse the RO, too. If that is the case then that is a good deal! But I would still go with a larger unit.

I would put a reconditioned Kinetico up against most other units brand new.

Andy Christensen, CWS-II

Talk to other dealers prior to making any decisions. If you have to tell your sales person how to size the softener, they probably aren't worth dealing with. The guy you're dealing with now is either lazy or not very bright (or both). Personally, I won't purchase from someone I don't feel comfortable with, regardless of how great their product may be.