I have an older culligan twin minder water softener system and I have no idea what the dials are to be set at. If anyone could at least tell me what dial indicates what, that would be extremely helpful. The outer black gear can be moved along with clear center gear. The clear center containing the numbers 0-21 x1000. Also the bottom black handle can be spun, putting it through some sort of cycle. Those are the only movable objects. Also you can push the red button in which seems to do nothing. [IMG]http://www.jeradranly.com/wp-content/gallery/my-pics/img_1000.jpg[/IMG]

Hi -- I've browsed the forum a bit and found some helpful advice, bu wanted to see if folks could help me ask the right questions and select the right system. At this stage, I've had a visit today from Kinetico and have one tomorrow from Culligan. I'm curious to see if they get similar readings and then hear how they'd address our needs so we can compare their suggestions and estimates. Here are our details: 3000+ sq ft house that is 2 yrs old. 6 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, 4 regular residents (2 adult, 2 kids) maybe we have one more in the future. We regularly have multiple houseguests (at least one weekend a month) and a few times a year have 4-8 people staying with us. We have a few other worksinks, one full size and two smaller dishwashers, two icemakers, and a washer and dryer. Our master shower has a rainhead and body sprays that draws a lot of water (it required 2 drains) that if I recall would go through 25 or so GPM if everything in there was on at once full tilt (rarely is, but is occasionally). Because of the flow volume between that master shower and the potential for washer, dishwasher and other people using water simultaneously, we have a largely tankless system. We have 4 Rinnai tankless water heaters and a relatively small traditional hot water heater that I assume serves as a reservior in addition to being tied into a heat exchanger plate used to heat a water-based radiant floor system in a tiled basement. We are on DC city water where we live in Arlington VA. I'll post the details after the tests but it's heavily chlorinated, somewhat hard, and has some iron that leaves slight stains where a sink drips, in toilet tanks, or on my sidewalk. Every now and again (every few months), I'll get a slight burst of orangish/brownish water usually out of the hot faucets/tub that runs clear in a few minutes. I'm looking into a whole house system, primarily for two reasons: 1. We put a steam shower in that we have only used a few times. My wife used it once and said she had to get out because the chlorine was burning her eyes and nose. I have survived the experience but it is noticably bad. Even a shower with alot of water shooting around causes me a noticable bit of chlorine burning sensation in the back of my throat. 2. There are mineral buildups on all shower heads and other hard water indicia. The iron thing doesn't seem to me like a big deal, but if we're tackling the problem, seems like we might as well try to solve that too. Currently we have a filtered water feed on our kitchen sink that we use for drinking water - [url=http://www.insinkerator.com/product/product.php?id=17&template=hwd]InSinkErator | F-201 Filtration System[/url] But otherwise the water we use throughout the house and in the icemakers etc is unfiltered. OPTIONS: I've asked Kinetico and Culligan to come by as they are two folks in the area and I wanted to get two different suggestions. If there are other companies I would be remiss in not considering, please let me know. I do a fair number of things DIY but generally leave plumbing alone to the experts and would probably rather do the same here. When the Kinetico rep was at my house today, I asked a few questions about water flow -- I obviously do not want our water pressure to go down and want to make sure the system is properly sized, but she seemed to dismiss them as nothing to worry about. While she asked about the number of people in the house, she didn't ask about number of bathrooms, water-using devices, other questions relating to GPM demands on the system etc. Are those things relevant or will any whole house system satisfy our needs? While there doesn't seem to be a conclusive answer in what I've seen on the boards, I'm interested in people's views on what seem to be the biggest differences between Kinetico and Culligan type systems -- electric vs water powered valve, two tanks vs one, pre-filter needs, etc. I know enough terms to be dangerous and value your experience on this in helping my selection. I'm not going to be DIY even though I recognize I could save money that way -- the time and serenity of knowing it is more likely done right is worth the cost difference at this stage for me. Thanks and appreciate you taking the time to read this and offer any help you can.