Best Water Softener Systems & Brands: Plumber Picks

Many homeowners know their home has hard water. But when they start researching water softeners, they get assaulted with hundreds of online brands and options. 

Which water softener brands are trustworthy? What’s a reasonable price point? Do salt-free softeners work? Do you need to discharge? 

Our team of expert plumbers chose WaterTech as the best water softener brand for most homeowners and HALO Water Systems as a good budget option. 

At Mother, we install 2-3 whole home water softening systems every month, along with descaling products for tankless water heaters. Our team has also written extensively on city water quality. As well as deep dives into how much homeowners save with a water softener. In addition, we went through a rigorous 10 week selection process to find the best water softening manufacturer in the US to provide for our customers. 

If you’re looking for a water softener - we sell and install both of our top recommended brands. Reach out to us today to get recommendations.

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How We Chose the Best Water Softener Brands

Water softeners are a challenging product for plumbers to offer. Every week we have 3-4 DFW homeowners requesting quotes to install water softeners that they’ve bought online. Our plumbers normally don’t mind installing a part a customer has bought, we do it all the time. 

But we kept getting callbacks on customer-supplied water softeners. Usually for numerous warranty issues. We looked into these cases and found a common thread: cheap chinese knockoff softeners from Amazon. 

So we started looking for reputable brands to recommend to our customers. Our top-tier plumbers were all recruited from other plumbing companies that installed a variety of brands. Our plumbers gave us a short list of manufacturers with great warranties.

We were off to a great start. 

Next, we spent an additional 45 hours researching water softening equipment manufacturers, and interviewing suppliers. 

Finally, we looked at EPA water quality guidelines and lab certification requirements to understand what the standards are for water softeners.

We landed on 2 fantastic brands that we now recommend to our customers and install. 

Water softening systems were ranked on these 6 criteria:

1. How well does it actually soften water?
2. Warranty and Customer support
3. Ease of use and smart features
4. Cost of ownership
5. Cost of installation
6. Environmental impact

If your water softener isn’t certified, it probably doesn’t work

The biggest problem we run into with customer-supplied water softeners is that they buy knockoff brands from Amazon that don’t soften water at all. 

Verifying that water softeners work is expensive. Manufacturers pay a lot of money to submit their softeners to independent labs for testing. These labs verify that lots of different products perform to the specs manufacturers put in their marketing materials. For a water softener that means reducing the hardness of the water. 

This certification process is expensive, and knock-off brands don’t bother with it. 

Consumers should look for brands that have the UPC shield logo. This means that a national laboratory like IAPMO or ANSI have verified the claims that the product makes. 

Our top brand: Watertech certifies their water softeners with 4 independent testing labs and agencies. A key requirement in us recommending them 

Ease of use was another top consideration. We prefer products that offer remote monitoring and system controls, automatic leak detection and other smart tech features.

Our plumbers value water softening products that offer user-friendly controls backed by excellent customer support. A system that uses less salt in its filtration tank reduces overall ownership costs and lessens your impact on the environment.

WaterTech: The Best Whole House Water Softener Brand

WaterTech is our highest rated “pure water softener” product — brands that feature water softening as their primary benefit, backed up by other features that support water quality. 

After an intensive search process informed by our plumbers and extreme vetting of the manufacturers, we selected Watertech as the best water softening manufacturer. We also had our entire team certified to install their products and perform water quality tests to ensure a homeowner’s water even needs softening before we recommend an install.

Their products received excellent marks for sediment and volatile organic compound (VOC) removal. We liked their “above-and-beyond” ability to reduce chloramines and pharmaceuticals from tap water — select products also reduce lead, cysts and PFAS (forever chemicals).

Why we chose WaterTech over competing water softeners

Here are 3 reasons why we like WaterTech water softener products:

1. The best warranty. WaterTech softeners come with a limited lifetime warranty. This applies to homes with city water, which covers most homeowners. We’ve also seen that the company covers that warranty when it’s a gray area. 
2. Enhanced contaminant removal. WaterTech products are certified to reduce lead, cysts (giardia & crypto) and forever chemicals. This is on top of standard hard mineral ion removal using resin beads.‍
3. Third Party Testing. Watertech products are tested and certified by IAPMO, the SCC and ANAB for efficiency, sediment and contaminant removal.

Recommended WaterTech products

For whole house softening and filtration: The Reionator Pro Ultra is perfect for homeowners that rely on the city water supply. Most importantly, they are UPF certified to reduce water hardness, and the Pro Ultra filters your water as well.

The WaterTech Infinity Series is perfect for homeowners that rely on the city water supply. The higher-end Infinity models (Guardian and Protector) don’t just remove hard mineral content from your water — they’re designed to eliminate other harmful water contaminants.

The WaterTech Infinity Protector is certified by IAPMO and meets NSF/ANSI standards to reduce lead, PFAS (forever chemicals) and cysts in your tap water. 

Both the Protector and Guardian lines reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs), trihalomethane, chloramines and pharmaceuticals in your water.

HALO Water Softening Systems: A Great Budget Option

HALO Water Systems scored highest among water treatment products for overall water conditioning, and tied for the best water filtration score.

Their whole house water filtration and conditioning system (HALO 5) delivers soft water while removing volatile compounds and other harmful contaminants. Its 5-stage filtration tank offers clean water in 5 steps:

1. Granular activated carbon
2. High activity carbon
3. AG Plus micro-porous filter
4. High density filter
5. Proprietary ION scale inhibitor

Why we like HALO water softeners as a budget pick

Here are 3 reasons why HALO Water Systems products are our budget pick:

1. Exceptional filters. HALO’s high density garnet filter offers granular filtration down to the 10-20 micron range. Its Filter-AG Plus® removes suspended matter in the water supply down to 5 microns or less. 
2. Variable tank sizes. HALO 5 products are sized to fit a wide range of household and commercial water usage. Its tanks range from 1 million to 3 million gallons of overall system capacity, yet take up reasonable space.
3. Outstanding warranty. HALO offers a 10 year limited product warranty with product activation.

Recommended Halo products

The HALO 5 offers whole house water filtration and water conditioning, plus the benefits of softened water. 

This zero maintenance product uses granular activated carbon (GAC) to remove VOCs, heavy metals, chloramines, pesticides, disinfectants and sodium hypochlorite from your water.

HALO 5 uses the proprietary HALO ION inline water conditioner to remove dissolved calcium and magnesium ions from the water, keeping them away from your appliances and pipes.

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​Avoid Amazon: Home of the Uncertified Water Softener

Amazon is the most common place homeowners turn to when they research water softeners. It makes sense - thousands of reviews and vast selection give the illusion of quality. 

Amazon’s most popular brands like Aquasure, and Tier1 are well reviewed, but crucially lack one important thing: proof that they actually work. None of the top Amazon brands show off certification from national labs for product verification.

Additionally, many of the most popular products on Amazon are bundled packages, offering a water softener, salt tank, and an undersink reverse osmosis system. While the convenience of a bundled solution is appealing, we've observed that these products are often priced significantly lower than what industry insiders would consider "market rate." This, combined with the above lack of certification, have caused us not to recommend Amazon softeners to our customers.

How to Choose a Water Softener: Top Considerations

Each of our top water softener brands offers multiple product lines. Each product offers unique advantages, features and benefits for water softening, filtration and conditioning. 

So how do you decide which water softening product is right for you? 

Homeowners should make water softener purchasing decisions based on these 4 considerations:

1. Water hardness level in your home
2. Household size and water use
3. Water source
4. Installation cost

Water hardness level

Hard water is rich in minerals like calcium, calcium carbonate (limestone) and magnesium. These hard minerals aren’t harmful to drink — but they wreak havoc on your pipes, plumbing fixtures and water using appliances.

Our team offers complimentary water testing so you can see whether your home has hard water. Call now to book 

Texas’ Brazos River Authority estimates 85% of Americans live with hard water. A map released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows extreme water hardness in the Midwest and southwestern states 

If your region has over 100 mg per liter of hard minerals, you have hard water — investing in a whole home water softener can save you over $1,500 per year.

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Household size

Choose a water softening system based on your household size — not the size of your home. “Water filters and softeners are sized based on how much water you use, not how big your plumbing system is,” our plumbers explain.

Here’s a handy formula to determine the right size for your home’s water softening tank:

# of household members x water consumption per person per day (in gallons) x water hardness level (in grains per gallon)

Example: A family of 4, where each member uses 80 gallons of water day, in a region with 12 grains per gallon of water hardness:

4 x 80 x 12 = 3,840 grains per day for removal

City Water or Well Water

Is your water coming from a public water supply (city, etc.), private water supply or well water? 

Water softening products are designed for specific water supply needs. For example, WaterTech’s Infinity series is designed for city water, while it offers other products for homeowners who rely on well water.

If your home is on well water, we recommend lab testing for a precise breakdown of minerals, water hardness and potential contaminants. Many water softener manufacturers require a lab report before warranting systems on well water

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Installation costs for a whole home water softener

Most homeowners can expect to pay $5,500-$6,500 to purchase and install a whole home water softener. However, this number fluctuates depending on your precise location and demand in your local area.

Materials

The softening system itself is usually the least expensive part of the installation and can cost anywhere from $2000-$4000

Labor

Labor is the reason that water softeners can vary in price sometimes by thousands of dollars between homes. The most important things to consider with labor are where your water line comes into your house. If it’s a straight run and hits an accessible part of your garage or utility room then your labor costs will be lower. 

If the water line needs to be rerouted, it will be very expensive. Extensive rerouting, trenching, or running new lines through the attic is time consuming and will require much more labor and therefore, increased costs. 

Interested in a quote? We’re licensed and certified to install water softening units for the most accurate quotes. Call us today.

How to Install the Best Water Softener System for Your Home

Mother Modern Plumbing experts certified in whole home water softener installatin.

Trust an expert plumbing company with years of experience installing whole home water softener systems. A reputable plumber offers advanced water testing and water hardness testing in your home, then assesses the size and scope of your home’s plumbing needs.

Expect your plumbers to provide an in-depth demonstration of how to use your water softening product. This demo should include basic system operation, how to use any remote smart features, and how to change filters and salt in your filtration tank.

Mother Modern Plumbing offers expert water softener installation to Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners. We provide a comprehensive demonstration of your new system, and back up our work with a bumper-to-bumper 6 year warranty on installation.

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