Good Filtration doesnt have to be expensive!
A couple of years ago, we decided that we really needed a water condition/filtration system for our home. This was the result of needing to replace the water heater for the second time in ten years because of the amount of gunk in the bottom.
Our area has a high mineral/calcium content. As a result, we have a bad problem with water lines corroding and clogging up. Our toilet also needed replacing because of this.
So, we started searching for information on water conditioners with filtration systems. A salesman came out to our house and confirmed the water hardness was way above normal, and that we had a lot of minerals and gunk in the water. When he was done with his presentation, he showed us a $5, 000. USD quote on the system he was selling, with a finance package that looked like the National Debt! We told him that the price he was quoting was way out of our budget, and that we were sorry for wasting his time. Our neighbor ended up buying one of their systems.
We ended up buying a store brand from Sears, Roebucks, and Co. It cost about $500. USD a tenth the cost of our neighbors. It has needed one service call, and we watched the tech and now know how to do what the tech did.
We had our water tested a second time and the results were the same as our neighbors. This told me that expensive is not necessarily better.