We have had them install an Ecowater IDP40CC in our last two houses and couldn't be more pleased…read more For various reasons, we've moved 5 times in 5 years around the central/western Virginia area, and in each place we've had a water softener, because this is super-limestoney geology. Each time we moved, we had to go through a process of installing a water softener and then repairing or replacing everything that had been damaged by the hard water, including multiple thousands of dollars worth of appliances that were destroyed but also plumbing, especially bathroom faucets. The first three places we lived had softeners installed from the Big-Name Softener Company You All Know, and we had those serviced or replaced, because we'd had a relationship with a specific tech who sold those products for many years at the place we lived prior to these 5 homes. But that person wasn't available in our new territory, so we had to discover how bad that company was when you didn't have that amazing person (who's stopped selling that company's products now). We were never very happy with those products anyway, and with the absolutely horrific service we got from the new territory (I could regale you for an entire evening at a bar telling horror stories) it tipped us over the breaking point into switching brands. A bunch of research and reference-checking later, we selected Ken Landes of Clean Water Virginia and the Ecowater products. Where do I begin? The products and service have been night-and-day, making me wish we hadn't waited so long to switch. Ken and his team have been ultra-professional, responsive, expert, and reasonably priced, all in direct contrast to the previous company who were horrible to work with on every level, and installed things dead-wrong (think "sewage can flow backwards into your water supply" level of wrong). And Ken and team have gone above and beyond to do extra things for us. The products are way superior, and I mean WAY superior. They're not constantly guzzling salt and doing deafeningly loud, hours-long regeneration cycles in the middle of the night (which I learned actually uses a ton of water, too, which isn't cheap). In fact, a year after our last Ecowater install, we still haven't had to add salt, and the salt tank is mostly full still; we never had to add salt at the first house we had Ecowater installed in. I have never heard a regeneration cycle, period; Ecowater's regeneration uses a small amount of water and doesn't fire-hose for an hour. And we haven't needed service; as Ken explained, and it's proven true, these products are designed to last and not need constant servicing unlike the previous company's products that are totally inferior and need maintenance and replacing which shouldn't be necessary (they're all using essentially the same very basic chemistry that's been unchanged for about a century, and should Just Perform, which Ecowater's products actually do). I can't believe the difference; I didn't like the previous company's products and would have rated them three of five stars, but now that I've experienced Ecowater's products, I rate Ecowater 5/5 and rate the previous company ONE star. If you're grouchy about the products, service, or performance you're getting from the Big-Name Softener company (and you should be), SWITCH! Your future self will thank you more than you can imagine.
