deedee, The size, type, and complexity of the equipment required will be dependent on... 1. What is in the water that needs to be treated. 2. Number of people in your home. 3. SFR and plumbing requirements. Without knowing all three variables there is no way to even ball park what you'll need. Could be as little as $500 or a few thousand. How about this... 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. Go to http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html to locate a certified lab near you. 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 or Culligan 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. Ask lots of questions. Softening the entire house or just the water heater (bad idea)? 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. 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.

Culligan sent out two technicians today (the second guy was experienced in the field, but new to Culligan, so he was on ride-along). They were both friendly. The main guy tasted the water, noted that it had a taste, and said that that was how soft water tasted. The other guy tasted it and he did not care for the flavor. On the one hand, they wondered whether the carbon in the tank needed to "settle in". But on the other hand, they said that the softener was removing magnesium/calcium and replacing it with sodium--and that carbon would not change that if this is simply the taste of the soft water. They asked me to keep the system in place for another week or two to see if the taste goes away. Culligan has a 30 day guarantee, so they will take the system out if it does not resolve. They also said that they would offer to swap the tank with a new one, before yanking it, if I remain dissatisfied. I still find it hard to believe that soft water is supposed to taste like this. I have to believe that I would have read or heard about it in my research and in my discussions with people who have softeners. So I guess I am in a holding pattern for the next week or two to see what happens.

As a first run, your numbers can get us close. I strongly urge you to obtain your own water test from a sample of the water at your house. Although it should be similar to the city's analysis, it won't necessarily be. Particularly, water can pick up iron along its run through the various pipes on its way to your house and iron makes a huge difference in required softener size. For example, if you actually have no iron, a 0.75 cubic ft softener will do nicely. However, if you have just 1 ppm of iron, you would need a 1.25 cuft softner - that's a pretty big difference. In order to properly size your softener, we need to know: pH TDS hardness alkalinity iron manganese sulfates As to your questions: 1) Absolutely you want a gravel base in your softener. This will ensure you get proper flow without channeling and improve backwash. Many softener providers will tell you this is not necessary, but they are incorrect. The issue is that gravel is heavy and expensive to ship. Too bad - you need it. The only time you shouldn't have gravel is if you have a turbulator. I don't generally recommend one though as they have a tendency to be a maintenance issue. 2) Any made-in-the-USA resin will be of high quality. You don't need fine-mesh resin (that simply means that the resin beads are smaller diameter) in your case, but since you are on city water with some chlorine, you do need resin that is 10% crosslinked, rather than a more standard 8% crosslinked resin. The 10% crosslink will withstand the chlorine and provide longer resin life. It's generally a good idea to get a local water treatment company out and see what they recommend. You may get lucky and have a good one. See what they can offer your - you may be pleasantly surprised.

Subjecting an RO to water of moderate or higher hardness will dramatically shorten the life of the RO membrane so be prepared for that. In order to help you correctly size a softener and recommend treatment of other aspects of your water we need more detailed info... 1. Well or water system? 2. Results from tests of your raw water by a certified independent lab... hardness, iron, manganese, TDS, pH, arsenic, copper, sodium, potassium at minimum and if on a well also test for nitrates and bacteria. 3. # of people in the home and number of Bathrooms. SFR of the plumbing. 4. Diameter of the plumbing at the softener installation point and you'll need AC power and a drain.