Solutions to hard water

am988

Hi,

We're trying to solve our hard water problem which has become a nightmare - we have installed a new shower room a few months ago and it is a shame to have to scrub and scrub and ultimately scratch it!

We're looking around for any solutions and there seems to be lots: water conditioners, water softeners, chemical, electrical. There seems to be good points for both but we do not want to be paying much for something that does not work.

The electrical ones, seem to range between £85 - £250 and then there are the ionisation ones (the ones you have to add salt). We were thinking of trying the electrical because they are cheaper and people seem to say they work.

Could anyone please tell us what is worth buying and what really works. We don't want to be paying more for a product which does the same as the other which is half the price.

Thanks!

diveleader

In my opinion (industrial water treatment for the last 19 years), the best way to cure the hardness problem is to fit a 'traditional' base exchange water softener. This is a unit that uses salt to replace the hardness causing ions in the water (calcium and magnesium) with sodium. This prevents future scaling and also gives you the advantage of being able to reduce soap shampoo and detergent usage, as the absence of the hardness salts reduces the loading on the soap etc.
I would recommend that you do not soften the cold water supply to your drinking water (ie kitchen tap) due to the increase in sodium that the softened water has.

The disadvantage of the above is the fitting and running costs (ie salt usage).

Electronic (ie magnetic and radio frequency) units generally work on the principle that the scale forming ions in the water are caused to stick or flocculate together. this silt does not have the rigid chemical structure of hardness scale crystals and is less likely to stick to shower screens and tap heads etc. In my opinion, only the more upmarket version work and the location of the device is quite important.

Hope that this helps you

am988

Thanks - that certainly helps.

We heard that the salt method 'softened' water does not taste very good.

I am not sure we are allowed to mention brands on this forum, would 'scalewatcher' help? are they a good brand?

A

Ememem_2

How about Aquatec?? Are they a good company and does the system work? Seems alot of money to spend, however, it also seems that you save alot of money too... confused??