Anyone here replaced their water softener on their own?

[sixdogs]

Our water softener is 15 years old and winding down. The dealer that put it in wants over $1,000 to replace it and I'm thinking I should maybe do it myself. I see units for sale at Costco and Walmart so if their customers can do it I sure can. I'm handy with tools, mechanically inclined and reasonably intuitive. The unit has an inlet, an outlet and a plug so how much trouble can I get in? Trouble is, I've never done it before.

Has anyone here replaced their water softener unit that can offer any commentary or words of advice?

 

[techman]

If you can do basic plumbing, easy job.
Check sears for a softener
paul

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Easy if you can do basic plumbing.

 

[polkwrangler]

pretty simple ,you could also look youtube

 

[oldpilgrim]

You can do the whole job with no soldering if you use Shark bite connectors.

 

[s219]

Easy to do -- I installed ours (first one) and it was a piece of cake. Took some reconfiguring since we hadn't planned the plumbing to accommodate a softener, but still not a big deal. I made sure to plumb in a bypass arrangement.

Bought the softener from this place:

Ohio Pure Water - Water Treatment Equipment and Accessories

They had good prices and good selection of equipment. Went with a Fleck 5600 SXT.

 

[Gary3032]

Eazy Peazy. Hardest part is hauling the old one out!

Gary

 

[sixdogs]

Starting to feel confident about this.

 

[RNeumann]

Starting to feel confident about this.

You should!

Unplug it
You will need to shut the water off to the place
Remove the 2 water flexes
Remove the back flush/drain line
Remove the hose between the main unit and salt rank if it's 2 pieces
Slide the old one out and the new one in!
The only other thing that would be nice to do is replace the water flexes. Hopefully they aren't soldered in on one end. If they are hopefully you can cut them off and use Sharkbite fittings. They are fine for the homeowner. Not a must but a "nice to do."

I've had good luck with the GE brand from HD. Note the reviews are top notch as well. They have a few sizes and the price is right. After installing and using several over the years their is no need to,pay a salesman $1000-$2500 for one.

GE 4, Grain Water Softener-GXSH4V - The Home Depot

 

[BoylermanCT]

Can you post a pic of your setup? Will be much easier to give advice. I am re-piping my house from copper to PEX, and PEX is so easy to work with, I love it. As mentioned earlier, Sharkbite (also called push to connect) fittings make going from copper to PEX super easy.