If you own your home/condo, do you have a water softener? Did you purchase it or are you renting it?
Long story short: Our house used to have one, but the previous owners took it. We didn't really miss it, but now our super old dishwasher has taken a crap and we have to buy a new one. We don't want nasty water running through our brand new dishwasher. We're trying to decide which option is the best way to get a water softener.
I called and got pricing. It would take about 18 months of renting to equal the same price as purchasing. However, the place we rent from would service it and we wouldn't have to worry about maintaining it.
Re: Water softener question
How long do you plan on being in the home?
Are they expensive to service?
How long do you plan on being in the home? We weren't planning on being here this long, but thank you MI housing market! We're stuck! I don't know how long we'll be here.
Are they expensive to service? This is what we don't really know. I'm trying to gauge what other people do, but apparently no one has a water softener on this board haha.
I don't. Sorry. :-(
I would just do what you are trying to do - figure out how much they cost to service.
Actually I would just buy one and worry about the servicing later...but I think you are doing it the right way.
As far as I know, our water softener has never needed to be serviced. We own it. I guess what is the definition of "service"? If you lease, do they drop off salt to your house every so often? DH has to do that on his own and keep constant watch over it so that might be helpful to have one less thing to worry about?
We have reverse osmosis at work, and that requires servicing. If you do it yourself, it's almost as much to purchase the filters as it costs to have them come service/replace the filter.
The reverse osmosis water at work tastes much better than my water softner water at home. However, the price difference is huge.