AO Smith Whole House Salt Free Descaler System - Works with City & Well Water Filters - 6yr, 600,000 Gl - Water Softener Alternative for Home - AO-WH-DSCLR

Making sure the water coming into my home faucets, showers, hoses, and sprinklers is as pure as possible is very important to me. All city and well water has either chemicals for treatment and/or minerals that can reduce the life of appliances like dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, and these chemicals and minerals are not good for your skin, hair, sinks, showers, and clothes. I originally called 5 different plumbers to quote me to install a whole house system that could address these issues. Prices ranged from $3000 to $10,000 installed. I did EXTENSIVE research including talking to my city water department to determine exactly which chemicals were added to treat my water. I also had the water tested to determine the amount of chemicals, minerals, and sediment that I was trying to remove from the water. After a week of research I found this product on Amazon that would filter most of my concerns for only $329. Because I have brand new appliances including two tankless water heaters, I wanted extra purification features. For this I bought separately the GOLDEN ICEPURE 3 Stage Whole House Water Filter System for $299. I'm fairly handy but was not comfortable installing on my own. I hired a plumber, and for $600 and they installed both units for me in about 4 hours. So, out the door I only spent $1200 for a great system! My family immediately noticed a difference in the shower. Everybody noticed their skin was softer and not irritated, soap and shampoo washed off easier, and clothes came out cleaner and softer. I like to wash/detail my cars at home and I noticed the water spotting was much less and easier to clean than before I had the system installed. PROS: 1. MUCH CHEAPER than a whole house water filtration system even when adding on additional filtration system. 2. Low profile for space saving installation 3. Works great and water tested showing chloramine, sediment, and water hardness removed 4. Saves money up front and long term by extending life of appliances that use water and are normally damaged due to mineral deposits 5. Skin feels better and not irritated 6. No salt to refill 7. If the power fails the system will still function as apposed to electric descalers 8. My wife is happy! CONS: 1. I would not attempt to install this on my own. Its not really supposed to be a DIY for the average home owner. My plumber said it was easy to install and I'm happy with that. This has been installed for 9 months without any issues. I will update the review if something changes.

Works as it should. Put on pump suction line and it cleared my rust problem up. Only been in operation for a week. Easy to install arrows for flow.

self installed 3 days ago, easy for a retired plumber or even someone with decent mechanical ability and a little piping know how. just started using it and it seems to be working as it should as far as cleaning up the water system. I noticed the odor smells better and fresher, showers feel better and taste is better. I'm on a city system so I can't say how it would hold up on a well system. But I can say it's a definite improvement on my water system. Priced right compared to other systems for sure.

I just purchased the Descaler to see if it works without buying the rest of the system. We have very hard water with a PH of 8.2. We live in Florida in a brand new built home. The directions advise to also buy the pre-filter by the same company at Lowes. Look online for the PDF directions so you know what I mean, search ao-wh-dsclr_ownersmanual.pdf online. If I knew that I would have purchase the pre-filter as well but I did not install the pre-filter and figured I can install that later if I feel I still need it. This was just a test to see if it works or not and now that it is installed and I have tested it... I may go back and install the pre-filter to see if that gets me to 100% No watermarks instead of 90%. First impression after it was installed: PROS • Water feels GREAT! My son has sensitive skin and noticed his skin feels better after a shower and he is not itchy anymore. Great! it solved my sons skin problems. • Washing my crystal glasses shines like it never did before • Water has no odor • Water PH dropped to 7 range from 8 range. I was very happy to realize that after testing PH. My aquarium fish like lower ph and I have been trying to get the PH to drop for a long time with chemicals or Reverse Osmosis but neither was great long term). I was hoping the Descaler would drop the PH and it DID. My fish are happier and yes I can tell when my babies are happier. CONS • not easy to install if you have yellow pipes instead of PVC white pipes • Water has a weird taste - We don't care since we don't drink faucet water and only drink bottled water. • Not a 100% cure for hard-water and build up but helps about 90%. For the price It's good for now. It does not cure the water-spots 100%. If water sits on the granite too long it still drys with minimal water rings. Maybe nothing cures water-spots and rings, or maybe a full expensive system would cure 100% water spots and rings. idk. Installation was not easy. We had to configure pipes with elbows and two types of piping sizes. Our house was built with the yellow/creme color pipes which withstands heat better then the white pvc pipes. The problem was our builder put the inline pipes for the water-softer at the bottom by the floor and so we had to configure it going up and then into the tank. It was a puzzle to figure out LOL! Even though the yellow and white pipes state the same size they do not fit together and are off size, that was so frustrating and took a lot of trial and error in buying all sorts of pipping before we figured out what will fit together and how to do it. The directions are very vague and terrible!! No help to figure out what type of adhesive to use or how to fit the yellow pipes to the tank. Also the yellow pipes use a different adhesive than the white pipes. If you have the yellow pipes you need to make sure the adhesive you buy supports both pipes or it won't bond the pipes.

I finally got around to having this installed by a plumber in my water softener loop. I had one that was 8 years old (another MFR) that I recently removed and decided that I NEEDED a chlorine filter. My old one was about 4 feet high and I wasn't sure if I needed to replace it or not, but I felt after 8 years, it must be due. I flushed this with the garden hose and the water was running clear in less than 10 minutes, so that was easy. What took me so long to install this was actually the plumber I was using. He had been to my home for a water softener and then again to remove the old chlorine filter. After BOTH visits, my water tasted and smelled like acetone for about 3 days even after flushing for over an hour. Well, I will tell you WHY this happened. The original plumber was in a rush and did not let the pvc primers/glue cure and completely dry enough before turning the water back on! I got a new plumber who waited about 45 minutes for it to cure and dry.....no smell or taste in the water! If you are doing this yourself or hiring someone, make sure you/they wait more than enough time for it to cure and dry COMPLETELY. If your water smells or tastes like acetone, there was not enough time given to dry/cure. And in my case 15-20 minutes was not enough time but 45 minutes worked well. If you get the smell/taste of acetone after turning the water on, the only thing you can do is wait it out, about 2-3 full days. The thing I noticed about this filter is that it is made by the same manufacturer that makes Aquasana filters. How do I know this? It was on the shipping label from the MFR to Amazon, then Amazon to me (there were 2 labels on the box) These exact filters are sold in lowes too for the same price here, but you don't have to lug it around and you may save on sales tax ordering online. I thought they were much heavier than they actually are which is why I ordered here. It works well, I smell no chlorine on any tap in the house. I also installed a pre-filter, (AO smith as well) that I picked up locally and installed that BEFORE this charcoal filter to get any sediment and rust particles from the city water. Yes, city water does have it and after one day, you can see the prefilter is no longer pristine white. After 3 days the prefilter is a light orange and I NEVER had a visible rust problem in my home. Now I know why my salt softener filter was slightly orange after a month! rust in the water. AFTER the charcoal filter is my salt water softener. I will absolutely buy this filter again in 6 years when it comes time to replace it. Great filter, great price, Amazon convenience and customer service if you need it.

DO NOT PURCHASE We purchased this with the other piece and prefilter in May 2025. It made our water worse. It also damaged our dishwasher. Hard water feel all over the dishes. We had element replaced and it still has hard water feel. This is a piece of crap. And I think it is leaking from time to time bc I see a wetness around the base of the unit from time to time. I thought the problem was my dishwasher but it wasn't. These things are not doing anything and making it worse. If I could get my money back I would. Save your money and just get the salt type.

It has been delivered on time, and in the good condition. Unit is assembled. You do not need to add bids by yourself. ( before you can weight the bids bag to verify if it is 6lb.)

Great filter housing. Sturdy, heavy duty, easy to set up. Came with brackets as well, which I am very glad. Our well water had an odor, and tased off, but now with a 4 stage filter system, from 20 micron to 5 micron to 1 micron to carbon filter…and then to a UV filter…our water tastes clean and great.