Update 1 year in: still working like a charm, and now the faucets furthest away from the iSpring have developed some white calcium residue that we have to clean semi-regularly. It’s minimal, but noticeable. This is because they’re so far from the iSpring unit that its effectiveness is diminished, so I take it as further evidence that the unit works exactly as described. I shudder to think of all my faucets looking like that (or likely worse). I might buy a second and install it to mitigate this, but still one VERY happy customer! Original review: I purposely waited 7 months to write this review, to give this iSpring device a fair shot to either work, or…well, not. We built a new home, so new pipes, faucets, appliances, everything. We’re also on a well here, which was new for us to get used to. The well water is really good—basically filtered mineral water, healthy and pure right from the tap with a TDS of around 550. BUT!…that also means in our first month we began to notice white chalky deposits on our taps and shower heads, and some powder on the glasses/silverware after using the dishwasher. We learned it was due to our high TDS well water, and needed a way to protect our new home’s plumbing and appliances somehow. The conventional wisdom was to install a water softener, but besides the cost we also didn’t want to add salt to our excellent tap water. So I did some pretty exhaustive research and settled on this device instead. It seemed a little like science voodoo, but I figured if it didn’t show results in a month or so I’d return it and get the water softener if I had to. Well, it did show some results, and then some more. It seemed like magic at first, but the shower heads just stopped having powder and sediment building up. The dishwasher did the same, and the taps seemed to run clearer too. We noticed the water felt different when washing—at first we told ourselves we were imagining it, and maybe we were—but soap began to sud better, and washing hands or in the shower felt less “scaly” than before. Also less water spots on surfaces. Then it just kept happening like that, and seven months after install we have absolutely no powder on the dishwasher we use almost daily, the shower heads look the same as the day they were installed, and the water has a “softer” feel. It’s NOT actually softer at all—the TDS is about the same, and the six month water test at both the well and the tap are basically identical to when we first moved in. So I’ve experienced enough to say for us, this thing works—works like a magical charm!—money well spent and im so relieved not to have to put salt in my water and maintain a softener system. I also sleep better knowing the dishwasher, washing machine, and fridge won’t get gummed up with the great minerals that are in our well water. A few items I’ll note here that might be helpful (as others’ were for me as I researched this): our well water is moderately hard, and the hardness mostly comes from calcium and iron. I don’t know how effectively this device would work on other types of hard water. We also are fortunate to have an indoor water heater and a large crawl space, so I was able to install the device after the well pump but before the water heater (this protecting it as well, I hope). So the iSpring is covering both our cold and hot water, which may not be possible in all well system setups. The install wasn’t difficult, but wasn’t exactly simple either. At one point I had to call the customer service line, which was picked up promptly by someone like it was a cell number!…and after I recovered from my surprise at getting a real human right away, he talked me through the issue I had (direction of wire wrapping) and solved the problem in short order. Last, this is the 7 month mark only—I’ll return to update if issues start happening past 12 months. Since I have a brand new plumbing system, anything that occurs will be a good benchmark for the longevity of this product. Overall, I’m an iSpring convert—it works for us, and has made a huge difference in our water quality and confidence that our new really expensive appliances won’t get gummed up with mineral deposits. It still kind of seems like magic, but science can be like that…and, so what, it works! I’m a happy customer.
