Kenmore  Ultra High-Efficiency Water Softener

This softener makes soft water just like the 15 year old unit it replaces. I got my old one installed for $150 including soldered copper plumbing right up to the softener with a shut off valve. Installation for the new one was $229 to sears that I thought would give me the same results. Wrong! The new installer does not do soldered copper plumbing, but instead provided two flexible adapter hoses at $159 a pair plus he had to remove my old shut off valve in the process and charged another $60 to put in a replacement shutoff valve. My installation costs were nearly double what they should have been. Best you buy your softener where free installation is included.

Had to regenerate weekly with my old 275 model softener until it quit working entirely. I installed the new one in less than 45 minutes with the existing lines and had soft water the next day. No long term comments to make yet, but once you have had soft water in FL and lost it you HAVE to get it back ASAP. This one works great so far. Cannot give 5 stars yet because I have not owed long enough.

The master service agreement(warranty) does not cover resin. The resin is the major component of the system. Don't waste your money on the warranty. My system lasted 3 years. OK for the period it worked.

This model replaced my 13 year old Kenmore softener that just quit working. I really could not determine if this model was like my old one because the specs were listed differently so I selected the model with the same size (9" dia.) resin tank. It looked like the installation would be the same as the old one but the plastic single bypass valve was changed so the plumbing had to be changed too. Lucky for me I used plastic pipe. I inverted the single bypass valve , replaced the female plumbing connection with a male and added bendable water connectors from *****. In my research the name Culligan came up as being the best but that comes at a great cost so if I can get 13 years out of this one then it will likely be far more inexpensive for me. It has been about a month now and we have soft water again plus salt usage is way less than before. The electronics have been upgraded and the plastic that the unit is made from seems lighter.

Purchased summer of 2012. Their are 3 things I don't like about this softener. 1) Birds and insects can get in the back where pipe hook ups are. 2) I had to use duct tape around all the top of lid and back to keep clean on inside of tank and keep insects out. 3) When you need to clean the entire inside out every few years, there is no way to drain tank. There should have been a drain port made into this unit for easier and more effective cleaning. For these reasons I gave it an "average" rating. Softener does perform well however.

Installed exactly one month, ago. Our city water is hard (hardness number 22). After installation & flushing the system, we noticed a significant improvement in both water softness and appearance. House pre-plumbed so unit installed by plumber in less than one hour. Easy to fill with salt. Directions for use & care are relatively straight-forward. Display is easy to read and clearly shows current status. Ability to review/monitor water use is a plus.

This softener was easy to install, runs quietly, and softens the water perfectly!

Wow, it worked so fast. No more white film on my dishes. Our clothes feel better and we didn't have to spend thousands to get it. Easy install. Did it ourselves.

Really like the digital controls and flow meter, which only run as often as needed (not every night, like the old-style softeners).

I was able to uninstall the old water softener and install the new one in less than two hours, I did the unthinkable (read the instructions first) I am happy with this softener, and didnt realize how bad my old one had been performing. I replaced an older Kenmore softener with this one because the electonics on the old one had become unrealable but had performed well for over 10 years. I really like the saver feature and average gallons per day usage reading.