Here is the site of the system that you presently have. http://www.lifesourcewater.com/about-lifesource/ For a point of reference, you used the words 'purifier' and 'purfied'. Let's take a look at that: "PURE" used in water treatment is a marketing tool not a technical description. It is used to catch the eyes and ears of the consumer to incite purchase and a false sense of accomplishment. Pure H20 is practically impossible, even in laboratory conditions, to exist on this planet. If it is ever acheived, it will last that way but for the briefest moment only. Don't be misled by marketing tools. Secondly you made the statement:...it is not an RO but rather a water purifier." Well, an RO can far better 'purify' the water than the Lifesource ever can. Hands down, no comparison. The membrane technology removes dissolved solids to slightly larger than the molecule of H20. This is an incredible, albeit, common water treatment. Your statement that you are seeing stains, calcium build up and other evendence of water damage, is testimony that the Lifesource, is no way making your water 'pure'. Would adding a softener to the already installed Lifesource work? Well, that depends. Are you on city or well water? The Lifesource will act as a prefilter to the softener and can be recommended for city water applications but on most well water sources, it may be unnecessary. I would seriously considering learning more about ROs and other factors in water treatment. Just go ahead and ask and someone will get bak with you. Please excuse my wanting to make purifyingly clear a few terms as this is cause for many disappointed consumers. Andy Christensen, CWS-II

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.

Milo, It's good to start your own thread instead of hijacking someone else's. I disagree quite a bit with Delray, I can't tell exactly what's going on with that particular unit but you don't want to mix media in your unit - in other words, you don't want carbon media in the same tank as the resin for the softener. You want those to be two different units. Different media have different backwashing requirements and lifespans. If you want a water softener, buy a decent water softener with an industry standard control valve (Clack or Fleck). If you want a carbon filter, decide if you need a simple cartridge type filter for drinking water (what I recommend) or a backwashing whole house filter. If you have a specific contaminate that can only be removed with reverse osmosis then get a separate unit to do that - usually only for drinking water. Whole house R/O is crazy expensive to buy, operate and maintain and is over-kill for virtually everything unless you need to remove a specific contaminate for drinking water. Most people don't need an R/O filter - even for drinking water. Keep in mind that R/O water is aggressive to metal plumbing unless minerals are added back in. I also disagree with: "whole house water filtering has to be fairly robust to last - that is why they are expensive. Kinteco (and others) make water filtering for restaurants, mfg plants etc and that is expensive since those businesses can't afford any breakdowns..." This is pretty bogus. We are talking about residential water treatment - not commercial treatment. A good quality residential water softener is about $600 online with an industry standard Fleck valve and no smoke and mirrors. That's the cost of the unit. Doesn't include installation and maintenance. A backwashing carbon unit with 1.5 cf of GAC is $500-600, again with a Fleck valve. A cartridge unit for drinking water will cost about $100 + $30 a year for the cartridge.

How about a follow up -- a way late follow up ... So the filter is supposed to be a whole home filter, because the city has super old pipes with a lot of sediment. However, the filter needs to be changes monthly, and my sister had no idea. She (unknowingly) let it go for years. It was so backed up that her house barely had water pressure. It should have been an easy fix when I went to help her, but the 100+ year old house had a faulty main shut off valve -- as well as the pre-filter valve being faulty. So she had to call a plumber to contact the city to shut off the water at the street/sidewalk. There was nothing I could have done from there, the city won't turn it off for a homeowner (unless they don't pay the bill, lol). She now gets 'subscribe and save' monthly filter deliveries from Amazon to remind her to change the filter. Luckily, the plumber was able to blow the back up sediment out of her pipes, and she didn't need any pipe replacement. Her water pressure is now back to the usual crummy-100-year-old-house water pressure, instead of the even worse pee dribble pressure that she had with the backed up filter and pipes. Thanks!