Pelican Water Systems Review: What Happened to the Brand, and What Owners Should Do Now

Pelican Water Systems is now part of Pentair, which bought it in 2019. If you own a Pelican, it is still supported and the parts are still sold. If you were thinking of buying one, Lowe's and Home Depot list the Pelican systems they carried as discontinued. Pelican owners call me too, so this page covers both.

What happened to Pelican Water Systems

Pelican went from a factory-direct brand founded in 2007 to a legacy name inside Pentair by 2022. Every line below names its source; the archived ones are dated.

For a new system, Pentair now sends people to its dealers. Its own FAQ answers "Where can I buy Pentair systems now?" with its True Blue Dealer page and names its lines: "Fleck, Autotrol, Structural, and Pentek." Fleck is the control valve on the softeners we sell. How Pentair's own softeners compare: Pentair water softeners explained.

Owners felt the change. One wrote on Reddit in December 2023: "When it was Pelican, the support was amazing now I'm not sure what's going on under Pentair." Another, at the 5-year mark on a PSE1800 in January 2025, asked whether to "replace media, or replace the whole system." The parts do still exist; the next section lists where.

If you own a Pelican system

A working Pelican system is worth keeping, because every part it needs on a schedule is still sold. Two parts get changed on a schedule: the sediment cartridge every 6 to 9 months, and the carbon every 5 years. Pentair says it built these systems for owners to look after, and that "about 90% of our customers perform the service themselves."

Where to buy Pelican parts

Pelican also sold salt-based softeners, greensand iron filters and UV lights. US Water Systems lists parts for several of those too, including the WF iron filters and the PUV lamps. How US Water Systems compares as a seller: US Water Systems review.

Changing the Pelican carbon

The carbon change is the one bigger job, and Pentair says "any plumber or handyman" can do it too. The old carbon has to come out of the tank first. I tell people to use a wet/dry vac with a length of 1 1/2 or 2 inch PVC pipe pushed down into the tank, so the vac can reach the bottom. Then the new media goes in through the funnel. US Water Systems says its PC600 kit includes "catalytic carbon, GAC, KDF-55, a funnel, O-ring, and lubricant."

Who supports a Pelican now

Write to Pentair first: the support address on its Pelican FAQ is pws.tech@pentair.com. Pentair's warranty page says "We no longer require registration of products for warranty," so you send your proof of purchase instead. That page lists 5 years on tanks, valves and NaturSoft media for its systems, and says Pentair's warranties go "solely to direct transactional customers of Pentair and to the original home installation only." Pelican itself sold a "Limited Lifetime" warranty, which its 2021 pages describe as "a limited lifetime of twelve (12) years." If you bought from Pelican, send Pentair the receipt and ask which terms apply to your system.

Some Pelican owners find our number while looking for Pelican service. We do not service Pelican equipment, and nobody at our company comes to the house: we sell and ship systems, and I help owners and their plumbers by phone or text.

When the NaturSoft stops working well

If scale is coming back, you have three choices, and the right one depends on what bothers you.

Two Pelican owners came to me this year for the last row. A Massachusetts well owner with a Pelican salt-free tank told me in June, "I went through hot water heaters like you wouldn't believe. And I think I'm on my 4th one." A customer with a 12-year-old Pelican wrote in July about scale on the fixtures, and I pointed them to the 48,000 grain softener. At my own house I tried a salt-free conditioner, then put in a salt-based softener and a carbon filter.

Not sure what your Pelican needs

Send Aidan a photo of your tanks

Text a photo of the label on each Pelican tank, plus your hardness number if you have one. Aidan will tell you whether a media kit, a carbon refill or a softener makes sense, even if the parts come from somewhere else.

Text Aidan443-277-2204 Call800-460-5810Aidan

8 AM to 5 PM Eastern, seven days a week. A real person, not a call center.

Does the Pelican NaturSoft work?

NaturSoft was built to stop scale from sticking, not to soften water, and it never removed hardness. Pelican's own FAQ said so: "If the water is tested after the NaturSoft System is installed the hardness level will not be reduced." Pelican called the media's method "Template Induced Crystallization," or T.I.C. When a caller asks me about a salt-free tank, I put it the same way: "the media inside converts dissolved hardness to a crystal, and basically it can't attach itself to the plumbing and water-using appliances. And that's all it does. It doesn't remove it."

The numbers on NaturSoft's box need a closer look than they usually get.

Pelican's limits for the media were water up to 75 grains per gallon of hardness, and "If any iron or manganese is present in the source water, you must pre-treat the water." I tell callers a salt-free conditioner is good up to about 25 grains.

Owners who were happy with it said the same thing about hardness. On the DoItYourself.com forum in 2010, one NS3 owner wrote, "This system does not remove minerals like a water softener so don't expect it to act like one." Another: "Soap still lathers good...but not as good as with the salt system." Owners who expected soft water were not happy. A Reddit owner in 2025: "It doesn't do what the sales people told me." More on how salt-free conditioners compare: salt-free conditioners compared, and the study in detail: HALO 5 review.

Can you still buy a Pelican?

Not from the big stores: Lowe's and Home Depot list the Pelican systems they carried as discontinued. Pentair's Pelican page offers help with legacy systems, not new ones. Two web sellers still listed the systems for sale on October 6, 2026: Healthier Elements had the PC600 at $1,299, the PC1000 at $1,599, the NS3 at $1,699 and the NS6 at $1,979, and PAX Depot listed the NS6 at $1,803.12. Before you buy a leftover unit, ask the seller who backs the warranty, because Pentair's warranty page covers Pentair's direct customers.

When Pelican sold direct, its own site listed these sale prices (each page also showed a much higher "Suggested Retail Price"):

Pelican's own archived pages (carbon filters, NaturSoft), February 2015 and March to May 2019. Bathroom bands are Pelican's; flow ratings are from Pentair's 2021 manuals.

What replaces a Pelican system today

The Pelican idea, a tank of carbon that needs no drain and no electricity, is still sold, and you do not need a Pelican to get it.

Two honest notes on that table. A salt-free conditioner is the one I talk people out of most: "I always try to persuade people not to buy 'em because it doesn't, uh, remove hardness." Its media also needs replacing about every 3 years, at about $1,200, which is why the carbon plus softener package costs less and does more. The carbon in our tanks lasts about 5 years, the same as Pelican's.

What ships: every tank ships empty, and the carbon, resin or conditioning media comes in separate boxes or bags that you pour in at install through the funnel. A carbon tank or a salt-free conditioner has no drain line and no electricity, just an inlet and an outlet, so it is about an hour or two of a plumber's time. No drain tubing is included. Water softeners are a bigger job because of the 1/2 inch drain line to a floor drain, standpipe or utility sink, with an air gap. A plumber takes about 2 to 3 hours and charges about $800. I recommend having a plumber do the install, and I'm a phone call away for your plumber. If you'd rather do it yourself, text me with any questions.

If you do not know your hardness or what else is in your water, a lab test settles it before you buy anything: the city water test kit or the well water test kit, $199 each. On a well, test before anything else, because iron changes the answer. A Florida well owner with Pelican's Iron Series filter told me in May, "it's not really pulling out the iron in it."

Where Pelican got it right

Pelican got several things right. It put its prices on its own website and shipped factory direct, the same way we sell. It built carbon tanks that need no drain, no electricity and no programming, and it made them for owners to service. Its carbon systems carried an IAPMO R&T certificate to NSF/ANSI 42 for chlorine reduction from 2019 to 2024.

The case where a Pelican wins today: you own a working one on city water and you like your water. Keep it. Ten years of parts at today's prices, two PC600 carbon kits and four or five packs of cartridges, comes to about $885 to $970, well under the $1,695 a new carbon tank costs.

Where Pelican fell short

• The softener name. Pelican called NaturSoft a "salt free water softener," and the water still tested hard.
• The paperwork. "Lifetime" media now has a 5-year warranty, and the DVGW claim outlived its certificate by years.
• Support after the sale. The direct company owners liked is gone; Pelican support now runs through a Pentair email address.

Frequently asked questions