Quick Answer: WaterBoss is a compact, DIY-install water softener sold under $700 at Home Depot, Menards, and Ace Hardware — and, per WaterBoss’s own about page, it’s an A.O. Smith Corporation company, the same publicly traded parent that owns Hague, this site’s dealer-only, no-published-price softener brand. That’s the honest headline: one A.O. Smith subsidiary sells a $3,800-to-$10,000-plus system through an in-home water test and a local dealer, while this one sells a fixed-price, single-cabinet unit you install yourself in about two hours. Watch the grain-capacity number, too — WaterBoss’s own Model 700 spec sheet says 20,500 grains, while Home Depot and Menards market the identical unit as “22,000 Grain.”
Most “who makes this” softener questions on this site have ended with a dealer-only brand and a parent conglomerate that never touches a retail shelf. WaterBoss breaks that pattern — it’s the one A.O. Smith softener you can actually check out online, no sales visit required. This guide decodes the 700/900/950 lineup, the real warranty terms, and where a boxed unit like this fits next to the dealer-only brands and published-price online systems already reviewed on this site.
Who actually makes WaterBoss
WaterBoss states plainly on its own about page that it is “an A.O. Smith Corporation company” — the same publicly traded manufacturer (NYSE: AOS) that acquired Hague Quality Water in September 2017 for $44.5 million. That makes A.O. Smith the only parent company on this site running two water-softener brands at once, and the two could hardly be positioned more differently. Hague is dealer-only: no price appears on haguewater.com, every unit is sized after an in-home water test, and real-world installs run $3,800 to $10,000-plus. WaterBoss is the opposite: a single-cabinet, self-contained unit sold in a box at Home Depot, Menards, and Ace Hardware, with a fixed shelf price under $700 and no consultation of any kind.
WaterBoss has been on the market since 1991 — over three decades of the “designed, engineered, and assembled in the USA” positioning it still leads with today. Unlike a twin-tank Fleck-valve build or a dealer-quoted system, WaterBoss houses the resin bed and brine (salt) storage in one combined cabinet, which is how the compact models fit spaces as narrow as 14.75 inches — a real advantage in a small utility closet where a conventional two-tank softener simply won’t fit.
The 700, 900, and 950, compared
| Model | Grain capacity* | Footprint | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WaterBoss 700 | 20,500 (WaterBoss) / marketed as 22,000 (retail) | 14.75” W x 18.75” D x 25.75” H | 1-4 person households, city or well water | Under $700 (roughly $530-$580) |
| WaterBoss 900 | 38,000 (WaterBoss/Menards) / 36,400 (Home Depot/Amazon) | Slightly larger cabinet than the 700 | Larger households, water with up to 10 ppm iron | Roughly $540-$645 |
| WaterBoss 950 | 20,500 | Same footprint as the 700 | City water needing extra chlorine/taste reduction | Comparable to the 700 |
*See the grain-capacity discrepancy explained below — both figures for the 700 and 900 come from legitimate sources, they just don’t match each other.
The core difference between the three isn’t softening chemistry — all three use standard salt-based ion exchange. The 900 is sized for bigger households and higher iron loads (up to roughly 90 grains-per-gallon hardness and 10 ppm ferrous iron, per WaterBoss’s own spec sheet); the 950 is the same footprint as the 700 but adds a filtration stage aimed at municipal-water chlorine taste and odor, on top of softening. If you’re on well water with iron present, the 900 is the one built for that; if you’re on city water and taste is the complaint, the 950 is the targeted pick over the plain 700.
The grain-capacity number that changes depending on where you buy it
This is a genuinely useful thing to know before comparing WaterBoss to a shelf-tag number on a competing brand. WaterBoss’s own spec page lists the Model 700 at 20,500 grains, but Home Depot and Menards both market the identical unit as a “22,000 Grain Water Softener.” The Model 900 has the mismatch running the other direction: WaterBoss’s own site and Menards list it at 38,000 grains, while Home Depot and Amazon list the same physical model at 36,400 grains. Neither figure is wrong exactly — different testing methodology or a rounding convention likely explains a few thousand grains of difference — but it means a side-by-side “grain capacity” comparison between WaterBoss and another brand is less precise than it looks. Don’t let a 1,600-to-1,500-grain gap be the deciding factor between two otherwise-comparable listings; household size and iron content matter more than the last few thousand grains on the label.
What the warranty actually covers
WaterBoss backs its softeners with a 5/10-year limited warranty: five years of coverage on all mechanical and electronic parts against manufacturing defects, and ten years specifically on the resin tank and brine (salt-storage) cabinet. Labor and the softening media itself are excluded from both tiers — the same kind of carve-out this site has flagged on dealer brands like EcoWater and RainSoft, just at a shorter duration and a much lower price point. For comparison, a published-price competitor like the SpringWell SS1 or a Fleck 5600SXT build typically carries a lifetime warranty on the tank and valve — the trade-off for WaterBoss’s roughly $900-$1,000 lower price is a warranty that runs years, not decades, on the parts most likely to eventually need service.
WaterBoss 700 — the compact, budget pick
WaterBoss 700 Compact Water Softener
- Combines resin tank and brine storage in one cabinet — fits utility closets a twin-tank softener can't.
- Regenerates using roughly 1 lb of salt and 19 gallons of water per cycle, in as little as 19 minutes.
- Works on both municipal and well water, sized for 1-4 person households.
- No in-home water test included — bring your own hardness number before you buy.
Replacement filters on time, every time — Prime ships them free in two days. Try it free for 30 days.
The 700 is the model most WaterBoss buyers land on, and the honest pitch is simple: it’s the cheapest way to get a real, ion-exchange softener into a small space without a sales visit. Test your own water first — without a dealer’s hardness reading, sizing accuracy depends entirely on the number you bring in.
WaterBoss 900 — for bigger households and iron
WaterBoss 900 High-Capacity Water Softener
- Nearly double the 700's grain capacity, sized for larger households or higher-demand homes.
- Rated for up to roughly 90 grains-per-gallon hardness and 10 ppm iron — relevant if you're on well water.
- Same single-cabinet, DIY-install design as the 700, just a larger unit.
- Still no professional water test included — pair it with a water test kit before choosing between the 700 and 900.
If your well water tests above roughly 5 ppm iron or your household runs five-plus people, the 900’s extra capacity is the more defensible buy over the 700 — running a small softener past its rated capacity just means more frequent regeneration cycles, not a hard failure, but it does burn through salt faster.
WaterBoss vs the alternatives
Vs. Hague (same parent, opposite model). Both are A.O. Smith companies, but they don’t compete for the same buyer. Hague is dealer-only — no published price, an in-home water test, real-world installs of $3,800-$10,000-plus. WaterBoss skips all of that: fixed shelf price under $700, DIY install, no consultation. If you want a professional sizing visit and ongoing local service, that’s Hague’s (or another dealer brand’s) category; if you already know your hardness number and want to check out online, WaterBoss is built for it.
Vs. published-price online systems. A SpringWell SS1 at $1,495 or a Fleck 5600SXT build at $650-$900 both carry a lifetime tank-and-valve warranty — years longer than WaterBoss’s 5-year parts / 10-year tank coverage. WaterBoss’s edge is footprint and price floor: its combined single-cabinet design fits a tighter closet, and the 700 undercuts even the cheaper Fleck build by roughly $100-$300 depending on the listing.
Vs. other big-box shelf brands. This site’s own Lowe’s water softener guide lists WaterBoss alongside GE, Whirlpool, AO Smith-branded units, Aquasure, and NorthStar as shelf options in the same rough $400-$1,000 band. The GE GXSH40V and Whirlpool WHES40E both carry a 40,000-grain rating without WaterBoss’s retailer-to-retailer labeling gap, if a consistent number matters more to you than WaterBoss’s smaller footprint. Worth knowing: A.O. Smith’s own-name softener line, sold exclusively at Lowe’s, actually carries a shorter 3-year parts warranty than WaterBoss’s 5-year coverage — the parent company’s flagship badge doesn’t mean the best warranty in its own lineup.
Bottom line
WaterBoss is the one A.O. Smith water softener on this site you can actually buy without a sales visit — a compact, single-cabinet unit for well under $700, DIY-installed in about two hours, backed by a 5-year parts and 10-year tank warranty. It’s a genuinely different animal from its corporate sibling Hague, which sells the same category through a dealer-only, no-published-price model at four to fifteen times the cost. Just bring your own hardness number (WaterBoss doesn’t test your water for you), and don’t let the grain-capacity figure on the shelf tag be the deciding factor — the same 700 and 900 models carry different grain numbers depending on whether you’re reading WaterBoss’s own spec sheet or a Home Depot listing.