THe first thing you need is a comprehensive water test from an independent lab. Living on well water can be more complicated and expensive than municipal water because you don't just make the water nice, you also have to make the water safe.

Along with the common water problems like hardness and iron you have to consider bacteria and nitrates among other things for the water to be potable.

Few have more money than they know what to do with but why throw your hard earned cash down the drain? Do yourself a big favor and stay away from box store softeners. They work but are not as long lived and easy to service as a real softener and surprise, surprise, not really that much cheaper, if at all.

Use the search at the top of the page and read up. There are volumes on this forum regarding water treatment.

I've read most of the old subjects here, and nearly all seem to be concerned with people spending $2000.00-$5000.00 on these units.

All I'm concerned with is getting a little iron out. Other than that, a softener would not be necessary. If I can do that with a $500 unit, it sounds better. I guess I'm wanting to know if there are solid reasons to reject the inexpensive units, if all I want is a low level of performance. With such a huge difference in price, I have to at least consider it.

I'll of course have the water tested as soon as I can. I grew up on well water, and we have another well on the property, but too far from the house. I've had it tested and treated it with bleach before to keep it cleaned up.

Every holed punched in the earth is a unique water supply even next door or across the road. You might want to research treating your well with bleach "to keep it cleaned up" cause you are treating the symptom and not curing the disease. Repeated shocking (bleaching) can be a bad thing to do.

Getting a little iron out is easier said than done if you want it done completely, consistently, and reliably for a lengthy period of time. Done correctly with quality equipment there will be routine maintenance to be performed.

The negatives regarding the (Sears, GE, Whirlpool, Morton, Waterboss, et al) pre-built box store softeners are ...

Lower quality materials in the control valve, mostly ABS which ages and becomes brittle. ABS does not do well with hard and/or iron water. On 3 gr hardness city water most any softener will give a decent service life BUT harder water than that with iron or manganese separates the pre-built box store softeners from the quality ones.

Most of the parts are proprietary and only available from limited sources and they tend to be expensive and are rarely stocked locally.

The pre-built softeners are "cabinet" (all-in-one) designs and are much harder to work on. The cabinet design puts the resin tank inside the brine tank. Cleaning the brine tank is more difficult and takes a lot more time than a conventional design softener but the Sears type does take less floor space (the ONLY advantage in it's design).

A common misconception is that pre-built BOX store softeners are less expensive than the industry standard softeners.

The Sears softeners around 40000 hardness capacity generally run a little under $500. For $508 you can have a Fleck 5600 on demand metered softener delivered to your home including shipping. You'll need to assemble it (takes less than 30 minutes) and install it. You can have a plumber assemble it and install it (you'd need a plumber to install the Sears softener also or DIY). If buying from a local independent water treatment pro the same softener will be more expensive but will include delivery, installation, and service after the sale.

You'll get a control valve that has proved it's reliability over 20+ years, is made of state of the art materials (Noryl) which does not turn brittle and is totally inert. You'll get a 5 year warranty on the control valve and ten year warranty on the resin tank. You can buy parts for the Fleck control valve locally or all over the internet. Complete parts and service/repair manuals are available for download and there is always someone everywhere who can service Fleck control valves as they are the long established industry standard AND they are as easy OR easier to program than the pre-built softeners. Properly sized for the water usage, water conditions, and plumbing requirements they tolerate well water with no problem.

Real softeners generally last 20+ years EVEN on ludicrously hard water with iron while the service life on a pre-built softener seems to be under 5 years (if you're lucky) on well water and lasting longer than that is a rare exception.

Sears, GE, Waterboss, Morton and the like are the most commonly complained about water softeners on this forum and all over the internet. Fleck based water softeners just work and work and work and work and work ...

Why buy a lesser quality water softener for about the same money?

Justalurker is a knowledgable, helpful and an excellent source of information. He helped me out with a water softener, while I had never seen one before.

I needed it to soften about 13 grains of hardness for a water purifier, so I wouldn't have to clean the quartz tube all the time. We have some coliform in the well that my brother and I have shared for over 30 years. He doesn't care, nobody has ever been sick, but I got a Fleck-head softener free, so, what the heck.

Iron in Pennsylvania is common, so are other metals. Most people don't do anything about it, but there might be some other technology out there because 3.5 hard water is OK.

By the way, having used hard water for well over half a century and then using soft water for the first time, I absolutely hate it. It's slimy and doesn't taste good.

The more threads I uncover on here, the more I think I might be better served with one of these BIRM, Pyrolex, etc type iron filter systems. Never knew they existed, just thought you had to use a softener.
The links I've seen to the Clean Water Store are very informative, at the least. Lots of products there, if you know what you need.
The iron is my chief concern, I know some folks hate soft water for a variety of reasons, while others say the downside of any hardness is worse....
I'll have my plumber installing whatever I decide on, so that's a bonus. As soon as I can get some more water out to do a complete test I should know better water system might work best. Should have the electricity connected in a week or two.

Your plumbing and every fixture and appliance loves soft water. What you'll save in repairs and not prematurely replacing fixtures and appliances along with the savings in soaps and detergents will cover the cost of a softener.

Regarding iron... if we're talking 1-3 ppm then a softener will be the most effective, most cost effective, reliable, and easy to maintain option. Higher than 4-5 ppm and you're looking at a dedicated iron filter.

When you get accurate numbers on hardness, iron, and manganese then we can speak intelligently regarding the options along with the pros and cons.