Pentair Pelican PSE1800-P Water Whole House Water Filtration and NaturSoft Salt-Free Water Softener Alternative System (1-3 Bathrooms)

Since installation of this unit my water system and quality dramatically improved. We are impressed

Upfront, you should moderate your expectations when buying this product. The "softener" part is not a *true* water softener, but a water conditioner. What this means is that it can help with scale forming on surfaces where the water doesn't evaporate (e.g. the innards of a water heater). This can reduce maintenance on such appliances in your home.What it won't do is magically remove all the effects of hard water -- in particular, you will still have some problems with reduced effectiveness of soaps and detergents. For context, when the handyman installed this product in our house, our hardness went from 11 grains to 6. So it helps some, but it's still not what you'd get from a proper softener. This means this can be a good *alternative* to a water softener if for whatever reason you can't or don't want to use a proper softener (e.g. you are conscious of sodium or want something lower maintenance than an actual softener)The filtering part works as advertised -- the water is incredibly clean-tasting.So in terms of "how does it work" it's worth 5 stars, but they really need to not mislead customers by calling it a "softener."

I used this unit for a water softener. We mainly have problems with calcium build up it works great for that. People with iron or really hard water i am not sure how it would work. Water tastes great does a better job of keeping scale from building up then my old softener. I paid 473 to have it installed got a single tank whole house filter on sale for 885 so I am really happy. Really don’t miss the salt. It makes your skin dry and your hair frizzy sucks to load. Also all the maintenance of a salt tank zero with this. Really don’t understand complaints I think these units are the future. They are not perfect but no softener system is.

I've had this system about a month and am very happy. Using the installation kit, the system was very easy to install myself. Had one minor very slow drip on one of the the pre-filter pipe fittings, which was easily fixed by redoing the fitting with pipe dope instead of Teflon tape. Great tasting water from every faucet in the house, and much to my surprise, the salt free water softener is working nicely. Minimal to no spotting on dishes and silverware in the dishwasher, and the bodywash lathers up nicely in the shower, allowing me to get rid of the Hardness Master electronic softener I had been using. Overall, a great buy and highly recommended...saved a bundle by doing the install myself.

If you are doing one of the following:1) Buying a scale prevention system to protect equipment like a heater2) Trying to get rid of spots and stains3) Trying to protect piping, etc4) Want to stop using so much soap in your dishwasher, washer, etc.5) Want shiny soft hairDO NOT BUY THIS.If you have copper tubing, this system will not work unless you plumb a copper/metal filtration tank before it which means $$$$. Copper destroys the media in this TAC media that is supposed to prevent scale.If you have very hard water, this system will do literally nothing. It can really only be used effectively at low flow rates and low water hardness, below 18 gpg.This does not remove hardness. It maybe/kinda/possibly treats some calcium ions to become inactive. Pelican on the phone couldnt tell me anything. They couldnt tell me how they got this certified, what tests they used to show improvement, nothing. This company was basically created on the lie that they sold what had been for DECADES known as "anti-scale conditioners" or "scale-reduction systems" as "salt-free conditioners".A REAL salt free conditioner that works would demolish the entire industry in a few years time. Clearly, this is a fraudulently described and titled system.

We had this system installed in Dec 2008. I absolutely LOVE it! We normally go through winter having very dry skin with cracked fingers (even with a humidifier on the furnace) and we have had NONE of that this year. I am a stay-at-home mom so my hands are constantly in and out of water and this is one of the best purchases we have ever made. VERY HAPPY!!!

We have this system in our new house for over a year now. I am confident to say that it does very little in terms of soften the water. I can see water spots on our shower glass door as well as on our glasses that we wash by hands. Do not buy this system if your goal is to eliminate or reduce water spots.

Great product. Thanks