water softner help in chosing and is this true

Doc_N · 11 June 2017 at 8:08PM

peterpaz wrote: »

Is the Tapworks AD11 Water Softener metered?

It is: http://tapworks.co.uk/water-softener-ad11/

Best bought on eBay for price, I think - several good sellers when I bought mine.

I stress - I have nothing whatever to do with Tapworks. I was a happy Ecowater customer for many years until I discovered they were near-identical to Tapworks models sold at a fraction of the price.

A few more owners in this thread who may feed back their views, good or bad.

SomeOne_2 · 11 June 2017 at 8:30PM

I think softened water is discouraged for garden use...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=691

Doc_N wrote: »

See above.

Doc_N · 11 June 2017 at 8:34PM

SomeOne wrote: »

I think softened water is discouraged for garden use...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=691

A very good point - high sodium. As well as increased costs.

opentoideas · 3 July 2017 at 9:20PM

Hi There well thank you to all for a LOT of information!

took a couple of days to get through it all but thanks to all of the info i have just plumbed in my first water softener and i hope you may help me with a couple of queries.

i have been using reverse osmosis for years for my aquarium so am already familiar with many of the chemical aspects of ion exchange resins and testing to ensure quality is maintained but it seems that most just work with "feel" of the water or perhaps a tablet test. i presume that the TDS meter i have will not tell me anything usefull as i am assuming that the total dissolved solids would remain unchanged or am i wrong in this assumption?

for the moment i have picked up a used Lakeside 300 with a reasonably genuine history and although its another over priced twin tank:eek:

as i got it essentially for nothing, i figured it was worth a punt to see if it works:beer:

so far i have got it plumbed in and i think i have managed to manually trigger regeneration on both tanks but i need to test the water to see if it is working.

also i presume i will need to calibrate it to my water hardness:huh: - i have found what i think is a reversible brine inlet and presumably given the markings 300g or 350g salt per regen depending on which way up it is attached but i am guessing.

i will contact the manufacturer in the morning but suspect from the comments here that they may not be forthcoming.

is anyone familiar with this models calibration and setup that may be able to help?

also what types of water tests are best to check operation?

given how little salt is in contact with the water i am guessing it will take a few days for the brine to become fully saturated and a true regeneration to happen but any advice would be appreciated

thanks in advance

Dave

opentoideas · 4 July 2017 at 3:30PM

well i was in Screwfix and they had a test kit so the results are that the softener is working so thats a result:j

numbers for anyone interested were :

TDS - 300ppm (continuity type TDS meter i already have) same before and after the softener which was what i expected.

the hardness test kit tablets are branded Palintest and before the treatment by the softener took 6 tablets for the colour change which is 230ppm according to the scale on the box.

with the softener in line the colour change was instant and too small an amount to measure. they call 1-2 tablets soft and 3 is the first measure at 100ppm and even when rinsing the bottle i could not get the colour to change back even when the solution was diluted to at least 100:1 whereas a single drop of untreated water brought it back to red so within the limits of this kit it certainly seems that the softener is working:cool:

just for my own interest if i can figure out my usage and time between regenerations it would be fun to see if there is a detectable change between the product water at the point just before it triggers the regeneration but i suspect if its working well that it may not be detectable with this kit even if there is a change.

anyway this is more my geeky nature than anything meaningful. as a yes/no test the softener is doing its job.

endurium · 19 July 2017 at 2:15PM

I've read through this thread as I'm in the market for a water softener and have had a few water softener suppliers/specialists visit and recommend. After researching and asking questions, I've narrowed my choices down to either a Harveys M2 Minimax or a Hague Maximizer 410. The former is a twin tank non-electric and the latter a single tank that needs power supplied, which will add about £60 to the installation cost, so that's a minus for the Hague. The Harveys is a twin-tank which means uninterrupted soft water, unlike the Hague that will stop delivering soft water during regeneration (but scheduled for middle of the night/2am).

So far it seems that the Harveys M2 is the better bet as it's 200 quid cheaper and doesn't require electrics, but according to the specs, the amount of softened water delivered per regeneration is 400 litres, versus over 1000 litres for the Hague, more than double the Harveys so it's salt consumption would be far less, so much so that over a 10 year operating life, the Hague would work out cheaper than the Harveys.

Also, because the Harveys is non-electric it relies on water pressure to regenerate which would mean that whilst it's a twin-tank, only one tank would be working during regeneration (which could happen whilst having a shower for example) and thus delivering half the flow of softened water.

So everything seems to point to the Hague as the best choice. But the one thing that's crucial is a reliable softener and as far as I can see, the Harveys is more reliable and has plenty of customers/users who attest to that. If the softener is unreliable or affects the water flow, my missus will just get rid of it and we'll be back to hard water. Do water softeners affect the flow? Our hot water system is a mains-fed combi boiler in the loft.

Is there anything I've overlooked that would help make a clearer and better informed decision?

I don't want a "contract-type" softener as I want to be able to call on someone to fix it asap and I don't know any plumbers in my area who are water softener experts. Also, the contract softeners have very short warranties.

Any advice or feedback much appreciated

Doc_N · 6 September 2017 at 11:43AM

In case anyone's got a decent price on salt, or is looking for one, here's a new thread for salt prices:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5706254

gaschick · 6 September 2017 at 6:17PM

Hi,
I am after some help with deciding whether we need to replace our water softener, or whether there is any way of reconditioning it. We have a Twin Tec S2 dual chamber water softener, which was installed 12 years ago. Over the past few months, intermittently, what seemed to be scale came out in the bath/shower etc. When we returned from holiday and ran a bath, I realised that the 'scale' was coloured yellow/orange, and after a bit of further digging realised that this might in fact be the resin particles from the softer.

We have been quoted some quite astronomical figures to replace this softer from local companies (£1495 for a Kinetico Premier compact + installation), a Twin Tec S3 for £1164 (they claimed this was a discount as we had a Twintec model already). We have now discontected the water softener from the mains supply.

Does anyone have any idea what has happened to the softener and whether we can just replace the ion exchange resin, or what would be a reasonable replacement to ours and price?

Thanks in advance,

Zoe, Wiltshire

csgohan4 · 6 September 2017 at 6:21PM

gaschick wrote: »

Hi,
I am after some help with deciding whether we need to replace our water softener, or whether there is any way of reconditioning it. We have a Twin Tec S2 dual chamber water softener, which was installed 12 years ago. Over the past few months, intermittently, what seemed to be scale came out in the bath/shower etc. When we returned from holiday and ran a bath, I realised that the 'scale' was coloured yellow/orange, and after a bit of further digging realised that this might in fact be the resin particles from the softer.

We have been quoted some quite astronomical figures to replace this softer from local companies (£1495 for a Kinetico Premier compact + installation), a Twin Tec S3 for £1164 (they claimed this was a discount as we had a Twintec model already). We have now discontected the water softener from the mains supply.

Does anyone have any idea what has happened to the softener and whether we can just replace the ion exchange resin, or what would be a reasonable replacement to ours and price?

Thanks in advance,

Zoe, Wiltshire

read the whole thread and you will get an idea of which are the better models, if you have to pay over 1k for a water softner your being ripped off.

I bought mine separately and got a local plumber to fit, £50 to fit including materials.

gaschick · 6 September 2017 at 9:26PM

Thanks, the present softener isn't plugged in to the mains, so we seem to be quite limited in the choice of softener as the cheaper ones seem to be all electric.

water softner help in chosing and is this true

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