Shelley, I have used both. My cold water inside and out is not softened, but my hot water is. When I mix up SprayNGrow I need warm water, so I use then softened hot water. But when I mix my soil fertilizers, I use cold water from the outside tap. So far, the plants seem to not mind either one. Mike

There are more choices... 1. Buy a pre-built box store softener from Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, or the like. You'll get no substantive assistance from the sales person in correctly selecting the proper size and setting it up to operate efficiently. They have shorter lives, parts can be expensive and somewhat exclusive, and they are hard to work on. Warranty service is iffy and never timely. They can work OK on city water that is low in hardness but they have problems on high hardness water and water with iron. The most complained about softeners on the internet and they are not really much less expensive than an industry standard softener. 2. Buy from Culligan or Kinetico or another of the brand name companies. Cost more. Better quality parts. Well trained service people. Warranties that are worth having. Parts are proprietary and more costly but these companies support their products for a long time. It is common to see posts from the owners of these brands that have softeners that are running for 15 to 20 years and then they have them rebuilt. Kinetico owners are particularly loyal and there is a reason. 3. Local Independent Water Treatment Professionals offer an anonymous industry standard softener assembled from quantity components like Fleck control valves and Structural resin tanks. They have no allegiance to any brand and offer a lot of softener for the money. They service what they sell. They are found in the Yellow Pages under water treatment and are worth looking into. 4. Buy online... for the competent DIYer. Best price on an industry standard softener. No service by definition. Known to recommend the wrong size softener so you think your getting an even better deal. Replacement part under warranty is always UPS or FedEx away. A good online softener seller can work out fine IF the buyer knows what they are doing. Avoid buying a softener from a plumber. Plumbers are great at plumbing but rarely really know, or care to know, anything about water treatment including how to correctly size and set up a softener. Plumbers often just sell whatever the plumbing supply sells and you don't want whatever softener. Since you presently have a soften installed I would hit the Yellow Pages and call an Independent Water Treatment Pro and have them come out and give you a quote to replace your ancient and inefficient timer based softener with a contemporary demand initiated model. It will save you a lot of money in wasted water and should be sized to regenerate once a week.

I love my RO filter. Most of my out of town relatives who've come to visit have commented on how they like my water, not knowing it was filtered. One small additional benefit with a softener + RO combination is that the RO membrane will last a bit longer than if you feed it "regular" water. My RO is plumbed to the fridge so it can feed the icemaker + water dispenser, and I have a separate spigot at my prep sink. It sounds like you're already doing it, but you'll want to be sure that you run RO water through plastic tubing, not directly in copper pipes. The plastic tubing is normally run inside the copper pipe. Be aware that the RO filter removes fluoride, so if you have kids you might want to talk to your dentist about it. A fluoride toothpaste and fresh fruit should be plenty of fluoride, but talk to your dentist.

Thank you for responding, Alice. Yes, I believe it was polybutylene (I think that ks what he said it was). However, now that you ask not 100% sure. It was black, thick, and flexible. The installation was 2 months ago. He said that he uses it in all his installations. He was very annoyed with the inspector making him change it.