We rank whole house water softeners on numbers you can check
A whole house water softener treats every tap in the house. This page ranks the ones we track, and sizes the pick to the water you actually have.
A whole house softener sits on your main line and treats every tap in the house. We score each unit on three numbers each maker publishes: price, grain capacity, and warranty. We show you the raw figure next to each score. Enter your ZIP code and we will size the pick to your own county water.
It has the highest score in our table, built from price, grain capacity and warranty.
Check PriceIt is built to take on iron and grit as well as hardness.
Check PriceSpringWell backs it with a lifetime warranty and 32,000 grains of capacity.
Check PriceCheck Price opens the maker's own site. If you buy there, they may pay us a cut. Your price stays the same, and the money never touches our scores.
You already know what you want
You are not here to be told what a softener is. You want the short list.
So here is the short version of how we built it. We took three numbers off each maker's own page. Price. Grain capacity. Warranty. Each one counts the same, and every score sits beside the number it came from. We show customer reviews of that exact model too, where we found enough of them, but reviews do not count toward the score.
We do not take these units apart, and we do not run them in a lab. We read what the makers publish, and we show our work.
Here is every whole house softener we track
They are sorted by overall score. Every figure comes from the maker's own page.
Why it ranks here: It scores 8.1 on our three checks: price, grain capacity and warranty.
Best for: A home that wants 32,000 grains of capacity at $1,512.00.
Not for: A home whose water is much harder or whose household is much bigger than this capacity covers.
Check PriceWhy it ranks here: We show its specs here, but it is a separate well-water combo product line, not scored under this softener formula.
Best for: A well water home that wants iron and grit handled alongside hardness.
Not for: A home on city water with no iron or sediment to treat.
Check PriceThe maker does not publish this number. We have left it blank rather than guess.
One number decides which one you buy
Two homes can buy the same whole house water softener and get different results. The water is what changes.
Grain capacity has to cover how hard your water is and how much your household uses. Under size it and the unit runs out mid week. Over size it and you paid for room you do not need.
Our tool reads public water data for your county and gives you a capacity range to shop for. It takes one ZIP code.
Check the water in your ZIP codeThe result is an estimate for your county. It is not a test of your own tap.
If you are on a well, read this first
Well water is not city water. Nobody treats it before it reaches you, so iron, grit and smell are all on your side of the pipe.
A plain softener is built for hardness. Iron will foul the media in one that is not made to handle it, so buy a unit that says on its own spec sheet that it handles iron.
Get your well water tested before you buy anything. A lab report tells you what is in it. We can tell you how hard your county's water tends to be, but only a test of your own well tells you about your well.
See the systems built for well water