Rayne Water Review: Is It Worth It?
What are people saying about Rayne Water? Are their systems as affordable and efficient as they claim? What problems might you run into if you buy a Rayne water softener? Are people complaining about maintenance, installation, flooding, customer service, or something else?
First, let’s start with a short history of Rayne Water Company.
A Brief History of Rayne Water
Cleverly named, Rayne Water was founded in 1928 in Southern California. It claims to be the longest-running continual water conditioning company in the business.
Essentially, Rayne Water covers the gamut of all possible water treatment problems and solutions. From water softeners to salt-free conditioners to reverse osmosis and more, they cover it all. They even have commercial and residential systems.
They also claim to have the most efficient reverse osmosis system on the market, the Rayne Guardian 1250 with an XTR2 valve.
That’s one of the systems that we’ll be looking at today.
Rayne Guardian 1250 Review
The Rayne Guardian 1250 is Rayne’s most popular domestic whole-house water softener. Its features include:
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An LCD screen
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A non-corrosive valve
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1.25 cubic feet of resin and .25 cubic feet of carbon
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Custom programming by a technician
The valve even allows you to adjust the feel of your water. If it’s too soft, then you can always dial it back a little bit, and if it’s too hard (you’re noticing limescale build-up and/or mineral deposits), you can adjust it again. This is a clever way to sidestep a bad installation. If the system is too complicated and your plumber messes something up, maybe your water won’t be as softened as you like it. This way you can just take care of it yourself.
Still, what if something goes wrong? They have a tiered warranty for different parts and pieces. It looks like this:
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LIFETIME: Valve Body, Resin Tank and Salt Storage Tank
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5 YEARS: Internal Valve, Timer Assembly or electronics
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1 YEAR: Entire Water Softener
By contrast (just to point it out; you are on FilterSmart’s site, after all), our systems have a lifetime guarantee.
Finally, how much do Rayne water softeners cost?
Here’s where you might run into a little bit of an issue. Typically the prices are easily accessible on the website, but in Rayne’s case, they offer a free quote. A representative will come to your house and decide which system you need. You can definitely do some research yourself, but there’s nothing really stopping them from upselling you on a system.
Generally, this is a pretty common sales tactic. You might have a smaller system in mind when the rep walks through the door, and then you might end up signing a contract for a much more expensive piece of equipment. That’s why it’s always good to get an idea of how much the system typically costs before inviting the rep to your home. On average, a water softener will cost anywhere from $500-$2000, and the exact price range of the Rayne Guardian 1250 is difficult to find. It’s up to you to judge whether or not that’s an issue.
Read more>> Our Culligan Review
What Do People Say About Rayne Water Conditioning?
The reviews for Rayne on Yelp are a mix of good and bad. For whatever reason, they have two Yelp pages with different reviews. Rayne Water claims both pages, though, so they’re both official. Their San Diego page in particular has 93 reviews and a 4.5 star average. Meanwhile, their San Jose page has 39 reviews and a 3.5 star average. Basic math says their true average is about 4 stars out of 5, which isn’t bad.
Negative Rayne Water Softener Reviews: Bad Customer or Technical Service?
The good news is that almost none of the negative reviews actually complain about the systems, which would indicate that they’re doing their job just fine.
However, the bad news is that a lot of the negative reviews share a common theme: bad customer or technical service. In one of these examples, the reviewer checks his bill to discover that he’s been paying $30/month for 15 years for maintenance on a softener that hasn’t actually been functional in a while...
“Not happy with the service!!Been a customer for 5 mos only.They told us that they will replace our 2 tanks for the water softener every 2 weeks.It never happened!We still need to call them(everytime) for the replacement.”
“Rayne was recommended for our water softener repair. The technician and three office people I spoke with ended up being unreliable. The staff was confused as to who was to order parts, didn't call when they said they would to update me on the status of things, did not order parts needed....”
“They charge $30/mo. to "service" the system. What this means is they do absolutely nothing, they do stop by once a month to simply add salt which they charge you for at about triple the rate you can buy it for at Home Depot. The unit itself had never been touched in the 15 years is was installed. When I had a third party plumber take a look at it was filthy and clogged and barely worked.”
To Rayne Water’s credit, they appeared to look into a few of these negative reviews, but there didn’t seem to be any edits after the fact.
Conclusion: Rayne Water Review
Rayne Water offers an extensive line of products, and in this article we were only able to touch on their most popular residential softener, the Rayne Guardian 1250. It has plenty of up-to-date features and appears to do exactly what it sets out to do, with positive reviews aplenty.
On the other hand, the downsides were 1) a lack of pricing information on the website, and 2) a history of negative reviews regarding customer service and technical support (some more egregious than others, to be fair). As a rule of thumb, we recommend consumers avoid companies that aren’t crystal clear about the pricing. As you can see with the customer who was paying for regular maintenance on a non-functioning system, there can be serious issues.
Read our other options about local companies like Kenetico, Rayne Water, Waterboss, Culligan, and Hague
A Better Option?
If you’re interested in researching any alternatives, we here at FilterSmart offer salt-free water conditioning systems with a lifetime guarantee (and you can easily check the prices here; we’re as upfront as possible), and we’re available to answer any of your questions.
Investing is a whole house water filtration system will pay itself back in the long run.
Questions? Concerns? Feel free to get in touch:
Call us: 866.455.9989
Email us: sales@filtersmart.com
