Water Softener vs. Water Conditioner (What's Best in San Diego?) 

Great general information video. You cover the overview, cost, benefits, and what the average person wants to know to go in the direction they need. Helpful. Thanks

Wow....the most comprehensive, and simplest explanation I've seen yet....thanks!!

Thank you for explaining this in an impartial and HONEST way. ALL the other plumbers and those with financial interests in installing a softener system call the conditioners absolute crap and I knew it was not complete crap. Your video is AWESOME! Easy to understand and HONEST. Your explanation is perfect and explains the pros and cons of BOTH which is the only TRUTH.

This video is a perfect example of a sales person versus someone who actually does work with the products. This guy barely knows what he is talking about, he was just given some product to sell. He literally sounds like me giving a presentation in college on my freshman year. Just kind of reading off key points, not really spending a ton of time researching everything in and out.

Very informative specifically about the Ca Mg replacement with the Na.

Ecowater sells a refiner that takes out chemicals like chlorine and chloramines and then has softened water enter into the home. An RO system for drinking and washing vegetables is not a big deal ($600-$1600) to have in addition to the refiner. The conditioner is still causing you to consume excess minerals from garbage sources and I don't think a water conditioner removes iron from the water unless you have that magnet thing as you mentioned. The Softener, with an activated carbon filter, seems to be the best option.

Thank you for this review! It was very helpful and informative!

In spite of some of the comments (which are helpful) this is a good basic video that explains to us novices what the different systems do. The commenters do make some good additional points to ponder. I have a new Halo-5 system on well water. This replaced my sodium salt based softener. The installer put in an external ion magnet tube as well. Only later did I learn that the magnet tube effect works for only 36 hours and the ions then revert back to the clumping stage. I like what the Halo does, but I do not like having the water so hard and still potentially damaging to pipes. I am looking into possibility of adding a softener to the Halo if that can be done. In the video he said that this would be ideal but does not exist, or the two systems offset each other. We shall see.

It sounds like you would like the Hague Watermax 3BEQ. It removes chlorine and softens the water.

Nice honest talk !

What water filter system to choose for the wells ground water source? Thanks 🙏

FYI. Softeners use salt to remove the magnesium and calcium from the zeolite beads that attract the minerals. The system then flushes these minerals down the drain before it sends water through the zeolite beads to start the process over again. A softener does not run water through the salt and give you salty water.

very helpful info. thanks!

If I have a 1000 TDS, then which system would you recommend that won't destroy my pipes / prevent salt deposits in my pipes.

Can I put a Softener and after that a vessel with carbon inside for the removalof chlorine? The answer is definitely yes.

When you say ' This' at 2:49 What are you referring to? Are you comparing two systems? System A and a System B? It looks like there are three. Is the Halo product a 'Conditioner, or a Softener'?

Thank You for this unbiased info. Would a water softener be okay to use with a hot water storage cylinder?

We just do not want to work with a salt water softeners. So we turned to siliphos balls, which I think is also called phos-something. And we may try the magnets that somehow charge the stuff that forms scale to just keep flushing away.

Could you not condition and then soften the conditioned water?

Use a salt system to replace minerals and then use a Berkey filter to remove the salt.

Just add a up flow carbon tower filter???

I think my water is causing itchy skin , what would get rid of that??

The water from my well is very hard. I installed a salt based softener AND a conditioner after the softener. I believe the softener removes calcium, magnesium etc then the conditioner helps with chlorine and the like. I plan to install a valve for irrigation before the water treatments so the plants don't get softened water. The difference in the water before and after the softener/conditioner system is dramatic. I really recommend both but if you can only do one, I say go with the softener. Just my two cents, I don't sell anything nor am I a professional plumber. By the way, I have a close friend who is the general manager of a large plumbing company and he has a softener followed by conditioner in his house too.

Why can't you use a salt water softener, with a whole house water filter after? And of course make sure the GPM match.

You don’t drink salty water with a water softener! After the regeneration with the brine solution there is a rinse cycle which removes any remaining sodium!

how much ?

You provide equipment?

Wow here I am thinking water softener was the way to go but now thinking otherwise.

You forgot to mention that when using a ionizer, the process quickly wears off, especially in the Halo 5. Halo will disclose it, if you take the time to read the fine print. You have roughly 24 hours to turn over the hot water in your home and roughly 72 hours for the cold water. The ions are totally back to their original state by then. The Halo 5 will have no effect on softening water whatsoever and will not lot lower your Ph. It also will not lower the TDS in the water. It does a fairly good job with chlorine but it does not remove or filter sediment either. Someone needs to do some homework.

You said there wasn't a system that can do both - can we talk and discuss this? Do you have an email that I can send some information to? Or how can we get in touch?

I live in Riverside California. Got a Halo 5 wholes house system professionally installed not more than a year ago. I am getting a lot of white powdery residues sticking to my faucets and shower walls. Also when we boil the water there are very large chunks of white residues... I am not happy with the system. The installer is helping me to contact the manufacturer but for some reason no response in a while from them.

Softeners DO NOT add sodium to your water. Should not be posting false statements. The Halo is a filtration system, with a conditioning rod in it. Big difference. And the softener uses the salt for the brine. It doesnt remove the minerals then replace it with salt

This was Made 2016 but now I got companies that are saying that there is A system that bo things is it true

What is the name of the water conditioner? Does it need to back wash?

Why did you pro and con 1 but not the other, obviously your selling one and not giving all the info needed

lol.. that.. "ick" slippery feeling? is your skin withOUT all the minerals from the water stuck to your skin.. its You. not a bad thing.

I have a Softner.. UK.

Sorry I fell asleep, what did you say?

Your wrong. Puronics sells the Terminator iGen which does both.

Nice break down.. I been debating between the softener vs conditioner I’m leaning towards H2o concepts.. although it is a lot more More for that over a water softener. Hopefully I made the right call 😄

There is a system that does both, distillation.

Clear n neat video. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Finally a real life explanation and thought process from an expert.

I hate it when the background noise is LOUDER than the person speaking. It is also distracting.

easy answer a conditioner is anything that treats the water a softener is a conditioner

i dont like my hair feeling like straw

You say that the salt remains in the water, supposedly making a difference in the take and becoming as you say "salt man"? But you do not mention that there is more salt in a couple slices of white bread, why not educate them completely? You also didn't happen to mention that a water conditioner (magnetic) works well while the water is moving through the pipes, but fail to tell them that it returns back its scale forming properties down the line or in pipes between uses?? If you are going to promote technologies and try to educate people, do it responsibly. PROS and CONS of both, not just what seems easier to explain for your sale.

I hate that slimy feeling when water soften water does not rinse off

Unfortunately this is not like it sounds, a water softener does not take out one thing and replace it with another in the way it sounded. It works by using an Ion exchange process, in which the positive charged ions in the calcium, magnesium, iron etc stick to the resin beads then at the regeneration cycle a flood of salt water or potassium comes through and washes the attached minerals off the resin beads and to the drain. It does replace it with salt or the regenerant but not at the levels it sounds like and what one may think. It's like a hundred children knocking a football player off of a table. There will be some salt residual in the water but if you have a 1 cuft water softener the residual is about 17mg/l which is like eating a piece of white bread. A water conditioner does exactly that, you can find them called salt free water softeners, saltless water softeners, the pelican brand is a conditioner. What they do is make the calcium ions stick to themselves so they do not stick to pipes and appliances. Here is a good website to go to in order to see how it works; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dSGdWfeYDfo.html I've had both in my home and they both work but there are some things that must be accounted for. You can find that info here; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vf6rQAuC3nA.html A water filter does exactly that, it removes solids that are in the water just like how a coffee filter keeps the grounds from passing through and into your coffee. A water filter does just that, it stops debris like sand, chemicals, odor, iron etc however you cannot get one type of filter that does it all because each constituent must be filtered out differently. Here is a video that may help with various links; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uq847l8Nho4.html

You lost me at "you can't drink soft water." One slice of white bread has the same amount of sodium as a glass of soft water. Also, the "slippery/slimy feeling" is your natural body oils doing what they were meant to do. With hard water, your pores become clogged and they can't produce the natural body oils. In terms of treating the chlorine, you can add carbon to the water softener or install a 20" carbon filter in front of the softener that gets changed (approximately) every 6 months.

This presentation is misleading. Many companies that refer to their water treatment systems as water conditioners do so because their equipment not only softens the water it also deals with other water problems. The presenter is correct that a magnetic device only aligns the molecules. Those systems work great for industrial applications such as cooling systems but does nothing for softening.

This guy sucks as a salesman, he didn’t sell me on anything, and yes you can have both have the water softener and a whole house filter after the softener and it will do wonders!

This guy knows jack shit!

Complete nonsense. It's a scam. Just use a regular ion-exchange water softener.

your voice is so mellow that this video made me sad.... not the best sales pitch lol.

1:33 "they're salt so you can't drink any of the water."🙄🙄🙄🙄 That's a goddamn lie! My grandparents only ever had a water softener with well water, and we drank that water our whole lives. WTF do you mean you can't drink that water. RO water systems and all that bullshit didn't exist back then. Studies show modern sodium based water softener produce an average of 25 milligrams of salt in an 8oz glad of water. A glass of milk has 25, a can of diet Coke has 140, a glad of orange juice has 30. I would have to drink 16 gallons of water a day to breach the recommended daily allowance of 2400 miligrams of salt.

Is this guy a soft talker or what?. Can't hear your pitch man

This guy does not know what he is talking about.

Your lying or don’t know what your talking about !

What a joke. Drinking either water isn't good. What about "Forever Chemicals"? Neither system can deal with that. Not very informative and very little sodium in newer technology water softeners but the only thing to drink if purified water and neither will give you that. Reverse osmosis and he doesn't even talk about that. Laughable.

It really isn't necessary to use fowl language to "comment" or "explain" A real turn off. Sad.

This is a bunch of crap.