Hi,

Water softening is commodity process. It works the same regardless of who's label is on it. That said, there is a difference in hardware quality.

The two most critical parts of the water softener are the resin and the control valve. The control valve has mechanical parts and will be the thing that will give you the most difficulty if it's low quality. Many, probably most, companies have gone to lower-cost imported resins. That means that the primary differentiation is going to be the control valve.

The two most reliable control valves are the Clack valves and the Fleck valves.

Clack is not sold online. Fleck based water softeners are.

So, if your choice is between a Clack based unit and a Watts based unit - I'd go with the Clack.

I've been a big fan of the Fleck based softeners being sold on Amazon. For ~$600 a complete unit is shipped to your door. Of course, that doesn't include testing the water, sizing the unit, installing it, or initial setup.