Are Kinetico Water Softeners Worth The Money? You Decide!

Your new home has everything that you wanted and you want to have the best water softener to protect the plumbing and water fixtures in your new home but there are so many different brands out there. You have seen some advertisements for the Kinetico water softeners, but are they as good as advertised?

Kinetico water softeners are very efficient with a compact dual-tank design that delivers continuous soft water but they cost considerably more than most water softeners and can be very expensive to repair. Their intricate design sometimes leads to problems if debris gets into the valve.

All water softeners are designed to soften your water. So naturally, there are many different brands of water softeners available, and they all have their good and bad points about them including Kinetico water softeners.

So read on as I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Kinetico water softeners both from a customer’s point of view and also from a water treatment professional’s point of view.

I have also added some “Technical Notes” along the way to provide some insight from a water treatment technician’s viewpoint.

Who Is Kinetico As A Company And What Makes Them Unique?

The Kinetico brand was created back in 1970 by two engineers that wanted to make better water softener systems that would be more efficient and would work without electricity.

Jim Kewley and Bill Prior set out to design a better water softener system that would require less maintenance and be better for the environment by using less water and salt than a standard water softener. And they did it!

By precisely metering water usage and alternating between two water softener resin tanks, a Kinetico water softener is able to utilize its water softener resin more efficiently so less salt is needed and less water is required.

There are benefits and disadvantages to Kinetico water systems that you should know about when considering the best water softener system that is right for you. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Kinetico water systems from my experience and see if a Kinetico water system is right for you!

Advantages/Benefits (PROS) and Disadvantages (CONS) of Kinetico water softeners!

Advantages (Pros) of Kinetico water softeners:

• Non-Electric Ease Of Use Operation
• Compact Twin-Tank Design
• Alternating Resin Tanks For Continuous Soft Water
• Efficient For Very Hard Water
• Uses Up To 70% Less Salt
• High Water Flow Rate
• Up To A 10 Year Warranty (On Certain Models)

Disadvantages (Cons) of Kinetico water softeners:

• A Premium Price Tag With No Up-Front Pricing
• Very Intricate Control Valve
• Brine Tank Only Has One Shut-Off
• Usually Requires A Water-Sediment Pre-Filter
• Sediment Pre-Filter Only Uses Exclusive Kinetico Cartridges
• It Could Be Quite Expensive To Repair
• Nearly All Parts Are Plastic
• Complicated Design
• Salty Water When Water Pressure Is Low
• Not All Kinetico Water Softeners Are Made By Kinetico

Pros of Kinetico water softeners (In Detail)!

Some of the unique features of Kinetico water softeners that you may find beneficial!

Kinetico Water Softeners Ease Of Use

I really like the fact that there is almost nothing that has to be done with a Kinetico water softener by the average homeowner when hard water is the only concern other than adding sodium (salt in most cases) to your brine tank.

Under normal circumstances where the only water issue is hardness, the only thing that a homeowner has to do on a regular basis is to never forget to add sodium to their brine tank.

Why is it so important to NEVER let your Kinetico water softener run out of salt? Check out my article “What happens if my water softener runs out of salt?“.

In situations where there may be some sediment coming up from a well, however, a sediment pre-filter will need to be changed on a regular basis as well because sediment or other debris can cause gears and other moving parts in the control valve to jam.

Changing a water pre-filter is a simple task that becomes very routine after you have done it just a few times and it is a good idea to have a water-sediment pre-filter before any water softener.

Most Kinetico Water Softener Models Are Non-electric

Kinetico is probably best known for its dual-tank non-electric water softeners. By not relying on electricity, a Kinetico water softener will provide you with soft water as long as you have running water.

And if you would prefer only to have your Kinetico water softener regenerate at a certain time of day, Kinetico has an electric timing device to start your Kinetico water softener at a time that works best for you.

A Kinetico dual-tank water softener carefully meters your water usage to determine when to switch water softener resin tanks to ensure a consistent flow of softened water rather than relying on an electric clock to determine when to regenerate its water softener resin.

Kinetico also offers more traditional electric water softeners if you prefer your water softener to have the programmability that an electric water softener will provide.

For more details about the differences between electric and NON-electric water softeners, check out my article “Electric VS NON-Electric Water Softeners, Which Is Better?“.

Technical Note:

An electrical water softener allows you to program the water softener to regenerate at a time of day when no water is being used so you will not experience a drop in water pressure when the water softener regenerates. An electrical water softener uses about the same amount of electricity as a typical alarm clock.

Kinetico Water Softeners Compact design

Sometimes when space is at a premium, a traditional water softener with a tall single tank just isn’t an option. Many Kinetico water softeners use dual tanks that are much shorter than traditional water softener tanks and can fit comfortably in spaces where a tall water softener would never fit.

This compact design is great for installing under staircases or in half basements where height may be a problem, and because the Kinetico dual-tank system alternates tanks to provide you with soft water, a Kinetico dual-tank water softener will soften your water the same as a taller single tank electric system would.

Kinetico Dual-Tank design for continuous soft water

The dual-tank design is not just a cool feature of a Kinetico water softener that makes it more versatile for cramped space installation, it also serves a very specific purpose.

Not only does one tank provide your home with softened water, but it also provides the other tank with softened water for its regeneration process.

Using clean and softened water from one tank for regeneration of the second tank regenerates the water softener resin better and helps keep iron and debris out of the water softener control valve where it could cause problems.

A Kinetico water softener also switches tanks before one regenerates so there is no interruption in its delivery of softened water to your home.

Technical Note:

Although Kinetico’s dual-tank design allows for a totally uninterrupted supply of softened water for your home, the only time that a traditional single-tank water softener does not provide softened water is when it is regenerating for up to about an hour and a half at 2:00 am in the morning about once per week.

Kinetico Water softeners are Very Effective for “very” hard water

Kinetico water softeners are extremely efficient in water softening. And because they are so efficient, they are very effective for water containing a high level of hardness.

Kinetico water softeners can soften very hard water using less salt and less water than a standard water softener which makes them a great fit for homes where very hard water is an issue as well as conserving water.

In addition to a Kinetico water softener’s efficiency, the fact that their dual-tank water softeners will switch softener tanks and regenerate whenever the capacity of the softener tank has been reached, a Kinetico dual-tank water softener can deliver continuous soft water even when the water being softened is very hard.

Technical Note:

A Kinetico dual-tank water softener may need to regenerate several times per day to soften very hard water. The ion exchange process used to remove hardness from water is the same in a Kinetico water softener as it is in a less expensive electric water softener.

Very efficient salt and water usage

Kinetico dual-tank water softeners use a finer mesh resin than a standard water softener that is packed firmly into its compact tanks.

Because of the less wasted surface area surrounding the resin and no wasted space inside of the tank, a Kinetico dual-tank water softener will use much less water than a standard water softener will and use less salt as well.

In fact, when a standard water softener regenerates, it can be running water through its tank for as much as 2 hours whereas a Kinetico dual-tank water softener takes less than 30 minutes to regenerate which means much less water is used per regeneration.

Kinetico water softeners use up to 70% less salt than a standard water softener

Because a Kinetico water softener uses a fine mesh resin that is packed tightly in its tanks, there is little wasted space for the brine to flow through the tanks inefficiently. This means that more of the brine is able to regenerate the water-softener resin.

When the brine is used more efficiently, less brine is needed, and therefore some (But Not All) Kinetico dual-tank water softener models can use as much as 70% less salt per regeneration than a standard single-tank water softener.

Does The Savings On Salt Justify The Higher Price Tag?

Not all Kinetico water softeners use 70% less salt than a standard single-tank water softener.

Kinetico’s electric single tank models are standard water softeners that do NOT use any less salt than a standard water softener of similar size.

Technical Note:

Even if a Kinetico water softener uses half the salt of a standard water softener, it would most likely be many years before the savings in salt would justify the higher price tag of a Kinetico NON-electric, dual-tank water softener.

Higher water flow rate for high water usage

Some Kinetico dual-tank water softeners are designed for water to flow through both tanks at the same time, giving you twice the water flow of a standard single-tank water softener of the same size.

This can be a great feature for larger homes where there is a high demand for water or for commercial applications when there will be high volumes of treated water needed.

Kinetico’s very reliable Mach Series Bypass

I have seen many different water softener bypass designs, some work well while others are hard to operate and can leak.

The Kinetico “MACH” series bypass valve has a lever that moves smoothly and can be operated using two hands which makes it much easier to turn.

Technical Note:

I have yet to see a Kinetico “MACH” series bypass fail, seize or leak since I first operated one when I started in the water treatment industry back in 2008. It is one of the finest bypass valves that I have ever used.

Up To A 10-Year Limited Warranty (On Certain Models)

Kinetico warranties their “Premier” series water treatment systems for a full 10 years for all parts including:

• Macrolite® filtration media

• Ion exchange resin (*)

• Kinetico by-pass valves and prefilter assemblies (except as otherwise noted)

• Polyglass resin/media tanks and brine storage tanks

And A 5 Year Limited warranty on other models:

The Kinetico “Signature” and “Essential” series systems are warrantied for 5 years on their:

• Valve Body

• Brine Valve

• All Parts

• Ion exchange resin(*)

• Kinetico by-pass valves and prefilter assemblies (except as otherwise noted)

• Polyglass resin/media tanks and brine storage tanks

Technical Note:

Although Kinetico does offer a good warranty for their water softeners, labor is NOT included with the warranty and you may be without a functioning water softener for a while before Kinetico has determined that your problem is under warranty and the problem is resolved.

For more details about Kinetico water treatment warranties, you can check out their full warranty information HERE!

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Cons of Kinetico water softeners (In Detail)!

Some not-so-great things about Kinetico water softeners that you should be aware of!

Kinetico Water Softeners Are Very expensive compared to most water softeners

Considering that you can buy a basic water softener that will soften your water just as well as a Kinetico water softener, if high water efficiency and being non-electric are not features that are very important to you, a Kinetico water softener may not be the best value for you.

I have found the basic Kinetico electric Pro series water softener for as much as $1800.00 and it functions very much the same as a standard Fleck water softener that you can get for about half the price.

Kinetico also has a mid-sized dual-tank water softener called the S150. This is a relatively small profiled water softener that could be used in a standard-sized home much like a standard but taller single tank water softener that would cost around $1,200 – $1,500, but the S150 by Kinetico costs as much as $3,500 depending on where you are located.

The S150 is actually a newer version of what used to be called a K2030 and is also known as a K735 which costs less than the S150 simply because it doesn’t have a small dial called an “Accudial” which is designed to “fine-tune” the water softener resin regeneration to make it even more efficient than the K735.

Technical Note:

A big problem with the original Accudial is that it broke off easily when struck. This Accudial can snap off when hit by your hand or if it is tapped by a bag of salt that you are putting into the water softener brine tank. Fortunately, Kinetico has improved its Accudial to prevent this problem from happening.

Technical Note:

Overall, in my opinion, the value of the extra bells and whistles on a Kinetico water softener does not add up enough to justify the significant price difference between a Kinetico water softener and a much less expensive standard water softener.

Most popular water softeners will last as long as a Kinetico water softener and potential repair costs during the lifespan of a Kinetico water softener along with the initial cost can amount to more than three times the cost of a simple water softener.

Why Are Kinetico Water Softeners So Expensive?

There are a number of factors that will make a Kinetico water softener more expensive than competing models. These consist of:

Name brand

Kinetico has developed a reputation for offering top-notch goods throughout the years. They can afford to charge more for access to their water softeners because of their well-known brand.

No do-it-yourself installation

A Kinetico device you buy will need to be professionally installed by a specialist. Technically, doing it yourself may save you some money. However, this might mean that the warranty won’t cover you.
sales strategy. Kinetico doesn’t conduct direct business with customers.

The salesman must first visit your home to discuss your needs before offering you a Kinetico system. This helps them understand the kind of water softener you require. But if you haven’t done any prior research, it can also make it simpler for them to upsell you.

Hard to locate pricing information

Wait for the salesman to provide you with a quote. On their website, Kinetico does not provide the prices of their systems.

high-grade components

Systems from Kinetico are made to last a very long time. There will be a robust warranty to back this up. Several components can have coverage for five to ten years, depending on the Kinetico model that you choose.

Very intricate mechanical control valve

The Kinetico control valve is comprised of many gears, impellers, and valves which all have to work smoothly for the valve to operate correctly. If any one of these moving parts breaks, sticks, jams, or gets worn out, the control valve will not work correctly.

Considering that many of these gears and turbines are turning every time that water is used in your home, they do get a lot of use, and like any mechanical part, they don’t operate properly forever.

Technical Note:

Overall, a water softener can be a pretty simple device and does not need to have a very intricate series of moving parts to perform a regeneration or water softener resin. Although the Kinetico water softener control valve is a fine working valve, the same functions can be performed by a simpler working electric water softener.

A Kinetico brine tank has no backup shut off

A standard electric water softener is programmed to know how much of a salt dosage is needed to regenerate its water softener resin and it will fill the brine tank for a specific amount of time to add the appropriate amount of water to the tank.

Once an electric water softener has added the pre-determined amount of water to its brine tank, the control valve will shut the water off going to the brine tank.

An electric water softener also has a secondary shut-off connected to a float to shut off the water to the brine tank if the control valve should not stop feeding water to the brine tank.

Since a Kinetico water softener has no electronic computer to regulate how much water it puts into its brine tank, the only way that it shuts off the water going to the brine tank is by using a float connected to a shut-off valve.

If this shut-off valve should fail due to a tiny piece of dirt or debris getting between the rubber seal and the stopper, the float will not shut off the water going to the brine tank, and the brine tank will continue to fill and the brine tank will overflow.

And since the Kinetico water softener has no way of knowing that the brine tank is overflowing, it will continue to overflow until the water softener is put into bypass mode or the water is shut off.

Homeowner TIP!

If you have a Kinetico water softener and it is in or near a finished area of your home, I highly recommend that you run an overflow drain line to a floor drain or use a waterflood alarm to protect your home from potential brine tank overflowing.

Technical Note:

The fact that just a tiny bit of sediment can cause a Kinetico water softener brine tank to continue to fill and eventually overflow has always been a primary concern of mine. I always emphasize to Kinetico water softener owners that they should NEVER let their Kinetico water softener run out of salt.

When you add salt to the water in a Kinetico brine tank that has run out of salt, you can stir up any sediment that has settled at the bottom of the tank. This sediment can then get lodged in the brine float shut-off and cause it not to seal correctly which allows the Kinetico water softener to continue to add water to the brine tank and cause it to overflow.

You MUST use a water Sediment pre-filter in most situations

Because a Kinetico water softener control valve works solely on the water flowing through it, and it operates using spinning gears and turbines, even a tiny bit of dirt or debris can cause the entire valve to simply stop working.

Even if you get your water from a municipal water source, there still can be some debris in your water from time to time so you should have a water-sediment pre-filter installed before your Kinetico water softener.

It is very important that you protect a Kinetico water softener from debris and change your water pre-filter often. Failure to change your water pre-filter often enough can cause a drop in your water pressure and the filter can tear, allowing sediment to get past the filter and potentially cause your Kinetico control valve to stop working.

Technical Note:

I recommend using a pleated polyester filter cartridge to capture as much debris as possible, making filter changes less frequent, and because the filter cartridge is polyester, it can be rinsed off and reused several times if needed.

You must use a special Kinetico pre-filter cartridge if you get the water pre-filter that comes from Kinetico

As for pretty much any parts of a Kinetico water softener, they have their own specially designed sediment filter cartridge that you have to use if you have one of their sediment pre-filter housings.

Although the Kinetico pre-filter cartridge is not particularly expensive, once you have the Kinetico brand filter housing, you are locked into using their filter cartridges as long as you use their filter housing.

Technical Note:

I don’t feel that Kinetico water filter cartridges work any better than a standard water filter cartridge.

Although some Kinetico dealers may not charge more for their water filter cartridges than a standard filter cartridge you are still locked into getting to the Kinetico dealer when they are open and paying whatever they wish to charge you.

High-priced Kinetico repair bills

Since you can only get parts for a Kinetico water softener exclusively from a Kinetico dealer and they generally will not sell parts to the public, a Kinetico dealer has you at their mercy when it comes to repairing prices for your Kinetico water system.

Once you have purchased a Kinetico water system, if any problems arise, you better be prepared to pay a pretty hefty repair bill.

A Kinetico dealer can pretty much charge whatever price they choose for servicing or repairing a Kinetico water system.

Although most Kinetico dealers do keep their prices on the high side but somewhat reasonable, others may charge as much for a basic control valve as it would be to replace the entire system with a standard water softener.

A Kinetico may last you for many years without any need for a major repair, but if the day comes when your Kinetico water system stops working and you find out that it will be more than just basic service, don’t be surprised if they hand you a bill that may shock you.

Technical Note:

A complete Kinetico valve replacement could cost $1,000.00 or more.

You can easily do a complete valve rebuild on a very reliable Fleck water softener valve for just a few hundred dollars and many basic water softeners will last for 10 – 15 years before any substantial repairs are required.

You can’t get Kinetico parts to fix your Kinetico on your own

If you are a handy person and like to be able to maintain and fix the appliances in your home, you are pretty much out of luck.

Kinetico maintains tight control of its products and the parts that are needed for its products to make sure that only its authorized dealers are able to get their products or replacement parts.

What this means is that the privately owned Kinetico dealership may or may not sell you replacement parts to repair your water softener yourself and can charge you any price that they wish for any parts or services for your Kinetico water softener.

Technical Note:

If your Kinetico water softener ever needs to be repaired, you are at the mercy of your local Kinetico dealer to do the repairs.

Kinetico dealers can charge any price that they wish for the parts and labor required to repair your Kinetico water softener and you can’t shop around for the best price because Kinetico ONLY allows your local Kinetico dealer to service all Kinetico systems in your area.

You can easily get most parts needed to repair many of the most popular water softeners available online so any plumber or water treatment service person can repair the most popular water softeners at a very reasonable cost.

Leaking slider bypass valves on their signature series water softeners

Kinetico uses a slider-style bypass for their Signature series water softener that has a “hard water mixing valve” on it for people that do not like to have perfectly softened water.

Although the idea of mixing a little hard water with your softened water may be a good selling point, if you try to use the valve to blend your soft and hard water together, it leaks!

This doesn’t apparently happen on every bypass valve but I have seen it happen on many of them when the valve is used. To make the valve stop leaking, you have to turn it all the way to soft water only which defeats the purpose of the valve anyway.

Technical Note:

Having a valve within a water softener bypass to allow some hard water to mix with your soft water is nothing new, and they never really worked well from the beginning.

If you simply leave the valve in the closed position, it shouldn’t leak and the bypass should work just fine.

Nearly all of the parts of a Kinetico control valve are plastic

Naturally, since a Kinetico water softener control valve has water flowing through it all of the time, it wouldn’t make any sense to make all of the parts out of metal that could corrode or rust.

But a Kinetico water softener control valve is made up almost entirely of plastic parts.

The parts of a Kinetico control valve that are not plastic are the screws that hold it together and the stems that the gears and turbines sit on.

For the most part, the plastic parts are made of strong plastic that works quite well, but if something bangs into your Kinetico valve, you could have a serious crack which could mean a serious leak.

Technical Note:

To be fair, most water softeners primarily use plastic parts.

Using plastic parts does not make or break any mechanical device but considering that the valves, gears, and impellers in a Kinetico water softener valve are moving any time that water is used and when it regenerates, any imperfections in the plastic used for the parts could cause them to malfunction.

When a mechanical device is as intricate as a Kinetico control valve, all of the parts in the valve must be of the highest quality for it to perform properly.

Kinetico Water Softeners have a Very Complicated design

The steps that are needed to regenerate water softener resin are really very simple, run brine over the water softener resin to perform the ion exchange process that removes the hard ions from the resin, and then rinse the resin with water to remove the excess sodium.

Although a Kinetico water softener only does these simple processes, because it only uses the water flowing through the valve, it has to perform the regeneration process in a very complicated way using many gears, pistons, and valves.

A standard water softener uses a single piston to direct the flow of water through the valve to perform the regeneration cycles using very few moving parts to regenerate the water softener resin in the same way that a Kinetico water softener does it.

Technical Note:

Fewer moving parts often mean less chance of problems, and the more rugged moving parts in a standard water softener are less likely to be affected by dirt and debris than the intricate moving parts of a Kinetico water softener valve.

salty-tasting water when water pressure is low

A Kinetico water softener requires a steady flow of water with sufficient pressure to operate its control valve, and perform the regeneration of its water softener resin.

Because the Kinetico water softener regeneration process is very short (usually less than 30 minutes), if the water flow that powers the regeneration process is irregular or has inadequate pressure, the cycles of the regeneration process may not perform properly.

The reason that you can get salty water from your Kinetico water softener when the pressure going to the system is too low is that the brine from the brine tank gets drawn into the water softener slowly so by the time the whole regeneration process is finished, the brine is still going into the water softener when it should have been done long before so that freshwater would have rinsed away the brine from the water softener tank.

A clogged water pre-filter is often the cause of poor pressure to a Kinetico water softener which causes the salty water, but any loss of water pressure going to a Kinetico can cause the brine to draw slowly and you can end up with salty-tasting water.

Technical Note:

Overall, the design of a Kinetico water softener is a fine system that should soften your water for many years with minimal issues, but just like anything else, it does have its setbacks.

Changing your water sediment filter regularly should prevent any loss of water pressure to your Kinetico water softener and prevent salty-tasting water from occurring.

Not All Kinetico Water Softeners Are Made By Kinetico

Kinetico is best known for its unique NON-electric dual-tank design which has been what sets Kinetico water softeners apart from other, more traditional water softeners.

But not everyone is crazy about the premium price tag that is associated with Kinetico’s NON-electric dual-tank water softeners.

This is why Kinetico also offers their more traditional “Powerline PRO” line of more affordable “Single-Tank” electric water softeners that are made for Kinetico, but NOT by Kinetico.

The Kinetico “Powerline PRO” series of water softeners have changed over the years but they are essentially just inexpensive single-tank electric water softeners that are manufactured to Kinetico specifications by a company that makes economy water softeners and then puts Kinetico’s sticker on the tank.

Technical Note:

Some of Kinetico’s “Powerline PRO” series water softeners have been just fine and worked well as a standard single tank water softener (But with a premium price tag). If you like the benefits of Kinetico’s NON-electric, dual-tank design, then a Kinetico may be a great choice for you.

But if the price is a factor in your buying decision, you may want to consider a conventional water softener that has a proven track record at a much lower price.

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Highly Recommended Kinetico Water Softener Alternatives

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To Sum Up:

In my opinion, Kinetico water softeners certainly have some beneficial qualities that may fit your needs just fine but whether their benefits are worth the premium price is up to you.

If you don’t mind changing a water-sediment pre-filter on a regular basis and are the type of person that would NEVER let your water softener run out of salt, then a Kinetico water softener might be a great fit for you.

But if you are looking for a basic water softener that will soften your water just as well as a Kinetico water softener at a much more affordable price, you may want to consider checking out my recommended water softeners for an easy-to-use and highly reliable basic water softener.