What does a water softener cost in Albuquerque?

Water softener pricing can be oddly hard to pin down. Some companies won't quote until a salesperson has spent two hours in your kitchen. Big-box stores sell the equipment cheap but leave the plumbing to you. So it helps to know what you're actually paying for.

Our prices, up front

Here's what we charge, installed, so you have a concrete reference point. Your exact price is confirmed after a free water test, mostly to make sure the system is sized right and there's nothing unusual about your plumbing.

Standard installation and a lifetime warranty are included in all three. Financing starts at $59/mo with approved credit. More detail is on the packages page.

What drives the price

Whoever you buy from, these are the things that move the number:

• Capacity. Bigger households and harder water need more resin. Oversizing wastes money up front; undersizing wastes salt and water for years.
• Valve type. A metered (demand-initiated) valve regenerates based on how much water you've actually used. Older timer valves regenerate on a schedule whether you needed it or not. Metered valves cost a little more and usually save salt.
• Where it connects. Many newer homes have a "softener loop": plumbing stubbed out in the garage just for this. Without one, the installer has to cut into the main line, which is more labor.
• A drain. Softeners flush brine when they regenerate, so they need a code-compliant drain nearby.
• Well water. On a well, the system goes after the pressure tank, and iron or sulfur can call for different media. Testing first avoids buying the wrong thing.
• Add-ons. Carbon filtration for chlorine taste, or a reverse osmosis faucet for drinking water, are the common upgrades.

How sizing works (and why it matters for cost)

Sizing is simple math, and you can check any quote yourself:

1. Multiply the people in your home by about 75 gallons per day. That's a common planning figure; actual use varies.
2. Multiply by your hardness in grains per gallon. That's the hardness the softener has to remove each day.
3. Multiply by the number of days you'd like between regenerations, often about a week.

For a family of four with 12-grain water: 4 × 75 = 300 gallons a day; 300 × 12 = 3,600 grains a day; over 7 days that's about 25,200 grains.

That's why a "32,000-grain" softener isn't always the right answer for a 25,000-grain need. A tank's grain rating is its maximum, reached with a heavy dose of salt. Set up to use salt efficiently, it delivers noticeably less. Sizing up a step lets the valve run at an efficient salt setting and still go a week between cycles. If your hardness isn't known yet, see how to find your number.

What it costs to run

The purchase price is the big number, but the running costs decide whether a system was a good buy.

• Salt. Most households add a bag or two a month. Harder water and more people mean more. Potassium chloride works instead of sodium chloride if you prefer it, but it costs more per bag.
• Water. Each regeneration sends some water down the drain. Metered valves keep this to what's needed.
• Electricity. The control valve uses about as much as a clock radio.
• Media. Softening resin typically lasts many years. Carbon used for chlorine removal wears out sooner and eventually needs replacing. Ask any installer how long they expect it to last on your water.
• Reverse osmosis filters, if you have RO, need changing on a schedule. Budget for them before you buy.

On the other side of the ledger: less cleaning product, water heaters that aren't fighting scale, and fixtures that don't need replacing as often. Those savings are real, but they depend on how hard your water was to begin with, so be skeptical of anyone who promises a specific dollar figure.

How to compare quotes

Ask every company the same questions so the quotes are comparable:

• What did my water test at, and can I have the results in writing?
• What size system are you quoting, and how did you size it?
• Is it a metered valve? What brand of valve?
• Is installation included, and what would make it cost more?
• What exactly does the warranty cover, for how long, and who honors it?
• Who does the installation: your employees or a subcontractor?

A few things should make you pause: pricing that's only good "if you sign today", a refusal to leave a written quote, or claims that a softener will remove arsenic, nitrate or lead. A softener removes hardness. For contaminants, the right tool is usually reverse osmosis at the kitchen sink, chosen after a lab test.

Sources

• U.S. Geological Survey, Hardness of Water (hardness units and conversion)
• Prices shown are Soft Water Albuquerque's own installed pricing, confirmed after an on-site water test.