I own the ERR 3502 R30 and have for 9 years. it works fine as a water softener. It is supposed to have a carbon filter in it but I think that is ridiculous. The filer needs to be renewable and it is not. Buy a GE at Home Depot for several hundred and a replaceable cartidge filter to remove sediment and a carbon filter for taste. Several thousand for a water softner is a joke. I paid $3500 for the plumber to install it. Now the unit is sold via Costco only in SoCal and the price doubled. Don't be a dope. It is a water softener and filters need changing. Change the filter when the taste says to do it and save a fortune.

Lol. I hear ya. Thanks for pointing that one out to me - I haven't done as much research into RO units as I did the softeners. I guess I'll get an education on how to do some actual plumbing in the next couple weeks... I'm bet the guy used a saddle valve in my basement when he installed my humidifier a year or so ago...I'll check that out. This post was edited by Jlmurph2 on Fri, Apr 26, 13 at 11:03

I don't know whether the resin needs to be replaced (we had to replace our 10-year old softener because the resin was just shot, and it was cheaper simply to get a new one), but I believe that an R-O will definitely get rid of the salt (it does for us at least). Due to the excessive amount of salt in the water, you may find that you have to replace the R-O membranes more often than usual. Another idea is to replace the sodium salt with potassium salt. I think that potassium is less detectable to taste than sodium is. And, it's healthy for you, too. The potassium bag says that 8 glasses of potassium water is equal to eating a banana. In any case, I do think that you're softener needs to get looked at. If the water is going hard in-between softening cycles, it could be the resin, or it could be that it's not being regenerated enough. If your water varies in hardness throughout the year, you may have to modify your regeneration cycles correspondingly, or set your regeneration cycles for the maximum hardness you're likely to encounter.

Says FREE SHIPPING on the Water Factory web site. ROs are an EZ install especially if there already was one. You might check at Sam's Club and Costco. They both sell Watts Premier ROs under $200 AGAIN, if you are happy with the Kinetico softener and the service from the dealer your choice is whether to buy new or buy the rental you already have. My opinion is that @ 45% cost of new buying your rental only makes sense IF the dealer refurbishes and warranties it. Ask the dealer how much they would charge you to re-bed and refurbish the softener. Then you'll know how much of a risk you'd be taking at 45% of the new cost. A new softener should have a 10 year warranty and a service call on your USED softener could start @ $200 just to get them to show up.