Water softeners are an excellent addition to your home, and can remove calcium, magnesium, and other minerals from your water, resulting in water that tastes better, is more effective for home cleaning, and doesn’t form soap scum in the shower.
But you may be wondering where to buy water softeners.
And if you’re DIY’er, your thoughts have probably already turned to Lowe’s water softeners or Home Depot water softeners.
But should you buy one of these units?
Let’s find out now!
Here are a few other commonly asked questions:
Should I Purchase A Water Softener from Lowe’s?
Lowe’s has a lot of different water softeners for sale, but the principal brand they sell is A.O. Smith, which offers 35,000 to 50,000 grain water softeners.
The “grain” capacity refers to how much water the softener can treat in a day. The cost of these water softeners ranges from $357 to about $797, which is not bad!
However, it’s important to note that, when choosing a Lowe’s water softener, the employees at Lowe’s are far from specialists.
They may not be able to guide you toward the right unit for your needs – so you’ll need to do plenty of your own research and come prepared.
Should I Purchase A Water Softener from Home Depot?
Thinking about browsing Home Depot water softeners instead? Like Lowe’s, Home Depot has plenty of units available. Its most popular units are from GE, which is definitely a reputable manufacturer.
Again, like Lowe’s, the GE water softeners from Home Depot are available in a wide variety of sizes ranging from 30,000 to 40,200 grains, with prices varying from $397 to $799, so you have lots of options to choose from.
You Can Save With DIY Installation, But You Can Also Get Installation Services
The low cost of Lowe’s or Home Depot water softeners may make them seem appealing, but unless you’re an experienced DIY’er, you may not be able to handle the installation and setup on your own.
In that case, you’ll need to hire an installation company to install and set up your Home Depot or Lowe’s water softener. You can hire an installer through Lowe’s or Home Depot, but it’s important to note that these are just contractors – not employees of the company.
They are not affiliated with the business at all, and their level of experience installing water softeners can vary quite a bit.
You’ll Be Responsible for Maintenance If You Choose Lowe’s Or Home Depot
Home Depot and Lowe’s may be able to help you with water softener installation through contractors, but that’s where support ends. You’ll be responsible for maintaining your water softener on your own if you choose the DIY route and buy a Lowe’s or Home Depot water softener.
This can be time-consuming and difficult if you have no past experience with water softening units.
In almost every case, when the water softener system breaks down you need to call the 800 number on the pamphlet and troubleshoot the problems with phone support – have you ever had to do that before? Ouch - what a time waster!
If you don’t maintain your water softener properly, you could even shorten its lifespan, so make sure you read the instructions carefully and service your unit regularly.
Buying A Lowe’s Or Home Depot Water Softener Isn’t Always A Great Idea
If you’re an experienced DIY’er, have worked with water softeners before, and don’t mind a bit of troubleshooting and routine maintenance, you may want to buy a Home Depot or Lowe’s water softener to save some money.
But if you’d prefer to leave everything up to the experts, it’s best to hire a professional plumbing company like Deluxe Plumbing & Heating.
We can handle it all – from testing the hardness of your water and choosing a properly-sized unit from Puronics Water Treatment Solutions, to installing and setting up your water softener, and maintaining the water lines to and from the water softener system.
Other commonly asked questions from our customers:
Is it okay to purchase the salt for the systems at Home Depot or Lowe's?
Home Store systems may not be sized correctly. Let me explain. Like any salt system you need a certain amount of contact time for the media to work properly. The home stores will boast about the GPM that the softener will handle. When they do they are talking about the calving in the control head not the media.
On slow flows you will be fine but we see that when you get even at 1/2 the flow they advertise the media does not have the time to make the ion exchange. When we test the water at these flows the unit is not doing there job.
Is there a best preference type salt or does it vary by system?
We would suggest crystals instead of pellets. Crystals have more surface to help resolve in the solution quicker.
Where can you buy salt for water systems other than Home Depot or Lowe's?
I would suggest going through a qualified trained dealer, Plumber or water specialist that will test your water and match the system with water quality and your home volume needs.
If I purchase from Home depot, who installs the water softener?
Unless you get a handy man you would need to install the system yourself or hire subcontractor from the Home Store. Most reputable contractors will not install a system unless it is sized properly.
Education and installation you are not getting with Lowe's
So, if buying a Home Depot or Lowe’s water softener is beginning to sound like more trouble than it’s worth, don’t bother with the headache.
Deluxe will size and make sure the water chemistry matched the system we provide. Most of our city water systems will have 2 tanks with one control head. One tank is for water softening and the other is a carbon filter that will take out unwanted chemical like chlorine or chloramine that your city might be adding. Those are needed in your city system but not in your home. Chlorine is actually proven to be detrimental to your health.
Get in touch with Deluxe Plumbing & Heating Services to explore your water softening options today by contacting us online or calling us at 610-628-1724.
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