WS-165-164

We have well water that is of excellent quality across the board for iron, sulfur, mercury, bacteria, etc., EXCEPT for hardness where it literally measures off the chart (the test strip color was darker than the top of the scale at 425ppm). This hard water has made our laundry come out feeling "crunchy", caused our soap dispenser door in our dishwasher to repeatedly stick shut (thus not releasing dishwasher detergent), leaves white spots whenever I wash our cars, clogged up our coffee maker, yields pore tasting water for drinking and, of course, clogs up our shower heads and faucets. Now we have good tasting, soft water (somewhere between 0 and 25ppm, if not completely eliminated -- hard to tell with test strips) and we no longer need to regularly spend the extra money on all the water softening laundry and dishwasher products and bottled waters. Some reviewers state the instructions are hard to follow, or that they did not receive instructions on how to use the automated pump. The instructions I received were clearly laid out, with accompanying pictures, that walked me through the process to piece the system together; I had no issues at all. The instructions also included directions for programming the automated pump -- the only issue I had was regarding the initial start up of the system upon plugging it in the first time. The instructions stated I should see a specific code when first plugging it in, but there was no code displayed at all; I figured out I had to go to the menu and scroll down three times to show the code. Other than that, the entire setup process was very easy. The instructions also provided a schematic of how to plumb the softener into your home water supply. My setup was slightly different due to the orientation of the way I had to install the filter, so while the schematic is absolutely accurate you may need to tweak the layout a little bit based on your own system install orientation. I plumbed the system into existing household PVC pipes; PVC is very easy to work with and much simpler and quicker than plumbing into copper pipes. If you are not handy, I do not recommend you plumb the system yourself, but if you are handy, doing the plumbing yourself will save you several hundreds of dollars in labor costs.

This is my second purchase of this product. First one went in easily and worked great right off. On the second one I had a problem that turned out to be incorrect installation by my plumber, nothing wrong with the Tier1. However, before we found out that it was plumbed wrong, Tier1 support shipped me a replacement part, and literally spent hours on the phone troubleshooting the problem, which turned out to be mine and my plumbers problem. Dana and Emily went above and beyond to help me get the unit working properly. Would definitely order again from Tier1. The unit does a great job on softening the water. Great product, great value, great customer service

For the first 2500 to 3000 gallons this worked well, it is set to recharge every 1500. Now that it’s been about three months and it does not soften at all, totally from cheap resin beads. No wonder why these things are so inexpensive save your money. This one’s going in the dump.

Easy enough to set up and install if you have the right tools for the type of pipe you plan to use. I used 3/4" PEX and only needed to buy some threaded adapters to connect the filter and softener to the PEX. Keeps the water nice and soft once adjusted properly. The water softener has not had any problems in the year since purchase. However, the filter is a different story. The filter developed a leak in the top black portion that contains the in/out water connections and the four mounting screws for the wall mount. For some strange reason, water started leaking out one of the screw holes to the wall mount. There is no water passage there so there has to be an internal crack I cannot see. I put in a bypass for now and will get a different filter that does not use the same mounting design.

This system has easy to follow instructions and everything seems high quality. This is totally diy friendly but the instruction book doesn't dive in to explain everything in the control valve and I feel like if I encounter a weird behavior I'll have to contact the manufacturer or try to research what some code means because it's not in the instructions. I wish the brine tank had a bit sturdier plastic. The size is pretty average. It's my first time with a softener and I was surprised by the noise of the system but it may be just air trapped inside because the water was turned off. If not, since it's in my basement I'll have to consider extra sound proofing. It will have to regenerate every infrequently; so most of the time it will be quiet though. The screws for the prefilter are very easy to strip and I had to replace one. They all were slipping as they got tight and I had to be very careful not to strip them too much.

This is a very nicely made unit excellent price

I bought this to replace an AO Smith that started bleeding resin. I need a softener that had a high flow raye and would fit inside a suncast shed, since I dont like leaving electronics to the elements. The flow rate really helps if you have a two story house or just dont like losing water pressure. This one is 18gpm compared to 5-8 in the big box stores. I had one question about install and lubing o ring on control valve. I called and someone living in the US picked up right away. She was friendly and helpful. I'll only recommend tier1 from now on for softeners.

I works okay with a few tweaks. Never could eliminate the saltwater entering my house after the regen cycle. I have to let the sink run for a few minutes to purge the lines. Super annoying.