Living with well water is more comlpicated than living on a water system and requires some routine maintenance. I would accept the highest tested levels as average and use them. In general an ion exchange water softener will successfully treat about 3ppm of iron, no more. Kinetico does offer models that are designed to treat higher iron levels and, of course, they cost more. Kinetico has been around a long time and has an extensive dealer/service network and a large and loyal customer base. One rarely sees anyone posting about problems with their Kinetico softeners. Culligan has been around a long time also but are complained about more often on these forums. ECO has also been around a long time. ECO, Culligan, and Kinetico are all proprietary desihns and parts and service are only available from their respective dealers. If you have a good dealer that doesn't matter but if you have a bad dealer... with real estateit's location, location, location, and with water treatment its' DEALER, DEALER, DEALER. 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. Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid.

@john how Define "good". Do they provide soft water? Yes, like any other ion exchange water softer that is properly sized and set up, it will provide soft water. The aren't doing anything that makes the water "more soft". Is it more reliable than other softeners? They are probably more reliable than very low-end water softeners, but very reliable softeners are readily available built with industry standard parts for (Fleck control valves, for example) for not much money. Does it provide better value? Value driven customers can probably do better by ordering a Fleck based softer online from Amazon. Do they provide better service? There's a large network of Culligan dealers who can install and service a water softener. If you need that level of service and want a national brand name, they probably aren't a bad choice. Local water treatment companies can also do a very good job, without the cost of a national brand. So, what sets them apart? Water softening is a commodity business - there's no secret sauce. There's no water softer that's going to make your water "more soft". There are some gimmicks out there - such as twin tanks and units that don't require electricity - that don't provide any real tangible benefits. Some of the hardware is better than others. But there is industry standard, highly reliable and highly serviceable hardware available for moderate cost. They have a memorable brand and a dealer network.

In a word, no. A Fleck 2510 based softener is electrically driven and has only one resin tank. Kinetico softeners are non-electric and have twin resin tanks. The cost difference between the two gets you Kinetico technology with a second resin tank and resin. Watered down, the Fleck will regenerate based on arithmetic @ 2AM in the morning. That technology is not as efficient as the Kinetico which will regenerate exactly when necessary and switch over to the other resin tank to provide uninterrupted soft water 24/7. The pluses and minuses of electric versus non-electric should also be considered.

Hi, So I'm not going to fault the rep for not being able to tell you how long a service person would be there and I understand not wanting to write a blank check - esp when you just bought a house and probably have a million other things to spend money on. Congrats on your house BTW. One way to deal with that is to just put a cap on the amount of time. An hour total should give a pretty good indication of how old, what condition, etc. Presumably one of the local reps has the service records on it as well. Here's something to know though... all water filters/softeners require some maintenance and the more elaborate, the more maintenance they require. A simple softener with a high quality valve will give you years of dependable service with just salt needed. Carbon filters and RO filters will require much more. Something else to know is that Kinetico is known to be expensive to buy and maintain. They use proprietary parts and dealer network. Some people believe that they provide superior hardware... but from what I have read on here it can vary. My opinion is that that they don't provide a good value for the money. If you are hesitant to pay for a service call and "don't want to spend a ton of money on this" then you probably want to consider bypassing the unit at least until the dust settles from moving and you have a chance to figure out what you want to do.