Hi all,

I'm getting ready to purchase my first water softener, and all my googling seems to keep leading me back to this place - seems to be the place to be if you want the real scoop on softeners! I've done a lot of research so I think I have a good idea of what I need, but I'd like to be sure. Hoping someone can confirm my plans, or tell me I'm way off base and provide some recommendations.

Here's my details:
- 2 bathroom house
- no jacuzzi or anything like that, only a dishwasher and a washing machine
- 4 people
- max flow rate seems to be outdoor hose @ ~12gpm
- 3/4" plumbing

Now for my water. This data comes from a Quality Report done by the city. There are 6 water sources that combine, and the data is provided as ranges, so I took the weighted averages of all the sources.

- hardness: 14.6-28.8 gpg (avg 22.7 gpg)
- iron: 0
- manganese: .0045 ppm
- not sure how to average pH, so here's the weighted data of each water source to give you an idea:
---- (38%) 8.2
---- (1.6%) 8.3
---- (0.4%) 8.0
---- (20%) -
---- (25%) 8.22
---- (15%) 8.14

Regarding the hardness, it's a really wide range, so I wasn't sure what to base my sizing on. I called the city water dept. and the girl I talked to said to use 21 gpg, but I take that with a grain of salt (no pun intended). I also wasn't sure how many "gallons/day per person" to use because my water bill over the past few months calculates to between 100 and 133 g/d per person. I don't know how much of that to write off for garden watering, etc., but that number is way over the 75 g/d that seems to the accepted standard. In any case, here are calculations I came up with if I stick w/ the 75 g/d standard:

assuming average of the hardness range:
4people x 75gal x 23gpg x 7 days = 48,300 grains to be removed per week

assuming max hardness:
4peeps x 75gal x 29gpg x 7 days = 60,900

If I assume the first calculation, I probably need 2.5 cubic ft of resin.
If I assume the latter, I probably need 3.0 cubic ft. (btw, I noticed Ohio Pure Water doesn't list 3.0 as an option - do they offer "made to order" systems?).

I'd greatly appreciate any recommendations on my scenario. I'd also be interested in anyone's advice on whether to go w/ the fleck 7000SXT or the 2510SXT, and also whether the vortech tank is preferable or not.

Thanks!