Water softeners advice please

andycap

andycap

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I'm soon to be fitting a new kitchen and considering putting in a water softener , I am in a hard water area and understand soft water is far better for boiler / dishwasher /washing machine etc , but are they worth having and can any one recommend a particular model. Will they de scale my appliances or just stop them getting worse .Purchase cost, Running costs , life expectancy etc would be appreciated . Many thanks.
 
We had one at the last house, used block salt etc

They are nice for the soft water and less cleaning the sinks etc but can be costly to buy
 
I fit quite a few and they are definitely worth having. It won't descale anything but when you replace appliances it will certainly help maintain them. There's alot of different ones available but in general you get what you pay for. Should think you can pick up a good one for around 500 quid but you can spend anything up to 1000

Running costs depends on how many people in your house, average for a family will be 2 or 3 bags of tablets per year.
 
Kinetico is a very good make http://www.kinetico.co.uk/ but are expensive.

Whichever make or model you go for get one with mechanical metering as they carry out a regeneration based on flow and not time. This will mean that you will only use the salt you need too and this will save you money.
 
I have one from a company called ensign. I pay for it as a rental, its £15 a month. for that they come and fit it for free, do all the servicing etc. Salt costs me about £6 a month. I fitted it as 2 of my kids have eczema. I has done wonders for their skin and also the kettle and washing machine is limescale free. they also fitted a drinking water tap in the kitchen. I do wish they did my outside tap now too, so i could wash the car and not have to bother drying it!!

Also with the rental, if i move house, they will remove and reinstall. and if i ever choose to buy it, they discount the total rental i have paid and discount. so its kind of like a HP agreement....
 
Thanks for all the advice, didn't realise that you could not drink the water. That means i've got to get the kitchen , bathroom and 2 en suites plus the garden tap separated from the system , which seems a bit too much to hassle at the moment
 
Do you drink from your bathrooms and hose then? Wasn't a problem or me.... Special tap for drinking came fitted to my kitchen sink, and the garden hose is separated from the system anyway....
 
we are in a hard water area so have got a Harveys Twintec water softener fitted about 4 years ago for around £1000 and running costs to buy salt blocks is about £50 a year though does depend on how much water you use. The Harveys is a softener that has a meter installed in it so will regenerate itself when it needs to rather than an electric softener which will do it at a certain time whether it needs to or not.

Whoever comes to fit the softener should be able to keep the garden tap using hard water and only feeding softened water into the rest of the house. It is ok to drink small quantities of softened water though don't give it to small children or elderly (this is what i was told when it was being fitted so passing this info on)

Using one over the years has meant less cleaning products used compared to before and has left the shower screen without as much limescale on it.

You will have to get a separate drinking tap fitted to supply hard water so this would be a bit of initial expense if you don't already have one fitted.

Hope this helps a bit
 
Ricardododo said:
Before you buy, you need to know a lot. These include Type, Salt-free, Salt-based, Electronic, Materials and Quality, Brand, Size, Water Softener Price, and After-sales Service. Of course, the most important thing is whether it is used with your water quality. The characteristics of hard water. Or, you can ask a reliable water softeners company to do these things.
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I think your advice may be a bit late ;)
 
When I had a flat in hard water area I considered getting an electronic conditioner that just fits round the inlet pipe. It never got fitted as the flat was sold. The method had been reviewed n programmes like Tommorows World.

See ScaleGuard.co.uk
 
Karateka said:
Using a Water Softener to get soft water can be really great as they come with the latest technological advancements and removes excessive minerals. I am having a Northstar Water Softener at home which softens the entire home's water supply.
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And how do you propose we get a home survey from across the Atlantic?
Does it come in a tin, or can we buy it cut to the weight we want?;)
 
Coming from a place with hard water I say it is recommended to install water softener. Actually it took long for me to convince myself to get one but I think having it is worth it. I also did a research and found a link on how to maintain the system properly. You only need to call professional service when the issue is very technical and complicated and the rest you can do it by yourself.
 
mjacobsavvy said:
Coming from a place with hard water I say it is recommended to install water softener. Actually it took long for me to convince myself to get one but I think having it is worth it. I also did a research and found a link on how to maintain the system properly. You only need to call professional service when the issue is very technical and complicated and the rest you can do it by yourself.
Click to expand...
Recommended by whom?
The softenor manufacturers or spam companies you work for?
 
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