[rugbyjohn]

Just moved in and received the "scary information" regarding how much we may suffer from "everything" if we don't put in a 'water cleaner". Naturally a big surprise and not exactly a $4000 purchase that I had planned for. So the question to this august group is - "do I really need a unit that cleanses my water"?

[mac9]

Been here for 4 years and have never had one. It sounded like a lot of nothing to us. But, if you do decide to get it, hold out with them. My neighbor started out at $3500 for it and wound up paying $600!

[spk7951]

We ended up putting in a whole house system but not because we listened to the folks who bombarded us with calls and knocks on the door right after we moved in. Neither of us cared for the taste of the water, the dry skin after a shower or the condition of the dishes/glasses coming out of the dishwasher. When we checked on the dishwasher we were told we needed special soap. But we decided to check with a couple of the water treatment companies listed in the phone book and eventually went with one of them. Since then the taste of the water is better, no problems with dry skin and the dishes/glasses coming out of the dishwasher look a lot better. Perhaps it is just us but we do feel that spending the $3,000 was a good move for us.

As far as the folks who will hound you once you move in I would not give them the time of day. A couple of them starting pricing their products at around $2,000 and then after a couple of days they would call and drop their prices, one of them to as low as $900. As I told them since they were so willing to drop prices once I would not commit right away that made me feel as though this was someone I could not trust.

[Tom Hannon]

I have been hammered with calls about the water from the day I closed. AAfter asking the neighbors they assured me their line about safety was all BS. Unless you can get a much lower price as MAC9 suggested, I wouldn't bother.

[Tbugs]

Yes, we do have hard water here in The Villages. On the day we got our our telephone line from Comcast, I had several phone calls from water treatment companies wanting to come to the house to show me how The Villages water was poluted. I just hung up on them.

One of my friends had them come out. Their scientific test was to take a glass of tap water, put a dark colored dye in it, the water turned dark - therefore, it was unsafe to drink. My friend told them to get out.

The water here is hard. It tastes fine to me but some people do not like it. A water softner unit is a good solution but is not necessary to me. It is up to each person. There is nothing unsafe about the drinking water.

[Sparky-30]

In Sept when we came down, same thing, said it was the welcome wagon and they had coupons to give us, and they would test our water at the same time. Well this guy shows up with a metal suitcase, no coupons, took out all these little water thingys, starts mixing up stuff with different colors, and says, Walah, you need our water system, ya see that stuff in there?

I immediately ran to the window to look outside and see if there was a covered wagon out their with "Bubba's Elixirs and snake oil"

MY wife immediately became angry and said"You misrepresented yourself over the phone", he asked if she wanted him to leave, she said YES!
The water scam is the biggest down here, there is nothing wrong with the water.
Watch out, you will be bombarded with all kinds of scams from windows, lawn services, be wary.

[jaspal]

Thanks for the warning. We moved in in November but we were never approached about water systems.
I do however find the water undrinkable. I have been buying bottled water. My husband does not mind the water.

Any suggestions on water purifiers?

[MikeH]

There are only a couple of companies that make water treatment systems. One company probably makes 80% of them under different brand names. Bought one from Sears---very same thing big brand name company wanted thousands for. Have been very pleased with Sears system. Go on internet and research.......it pays.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

We bought a resale in Duval recently. Water quality is absolutely fine at our place - looks fine, tastes fine, seems soft enough, etc.

Bill

[drdodge]

You can buy a good one at Home Depot or Lowes for around 500 dollars and install it yourself. Real simple. I bought mine from HD. Go on line and look up Water Boss, it will tell you all about them


DRD

[Yoda]

We are old and some of us are stupid. They are not looking for the smart ones.

Yoda

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by jaspal

Thanks for the warning. We moved in in November but we were never approached about water systems.
I do however find the water undrinkable. I have been buying bottled water. My husband does not mind the water.

Any suggestions on water purifiers?

I also found the water undrinkable. My wife quickly got tired of lugging home jugs of water.
I bought a whole house filter from Home Depot for around $38.00. It came with a sediment filter insert, which I did not use. Instead I bought a 2 pack of charcoal filter inserts for the filter gizmo for about $12.00. I found a Handiman to install the filter. The whole thing, whole house filter, charcoal filters, and installation came out to be a less than $100.00. My water tastes great now.

[bike42]

Many of the water-softening systems add salt to your water. If you plan to drink it -- ??? do you really need more salt?

On tap water safety and taste vs bottled water -- watch Penn & Teller's Bull****
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc[/ame]

[punkpup]

I am someone who hasn't imbibed tap water unless it's an absolute emergency in 30 years!!!!

Being the daughter of a Chemist has made me hyper vigilant in regard to things that can potentially contaminate our environment and as a result tap water has become a pet peeve of mine. I'm not necessarily advocating for any particular brand of bottled water or filtration system because I think that whatever you do you must first consider the quality of water wherever you live. For example the filtration system I chose might be considered overkill as it's good enough to use if I had a well with untreated water but I live in Boston, MA and use city water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. Even our pets are served filtered water. lol

If you're curious about your water quality and what it all means go to this site www.ewg.org/tap-water/home and enter your zip code, (you don't need the name of the water company and as a matter of fact you'll get better results just entering the zip.)

Water in The Villages is referred to as "Hard Water" and as such is high in mineral content as is most water in Florida. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water for more of an explanation.

When we buy in The Villages I will probably install a Whole House filter to pull out sediments and other particulates and then if necessary add a heavy duty filtration system like I currently use to remove other contaminants.

[Russ_Boston]

Learn something every day.

Today it was the word imbibed

I probably would have used something pedestrian like consumed.