water softner help in chosing and is this true

Doc_N

Lamy wrote: »

I am thinking about getting either
Tapworks AD11 or an Atlantis AT210
I can't seem to find in the specifications whether either of them will impede water pressure?

This is an uneducated guess, but I'd say it's likely that they'll both impede water pressure to some extent - it goes with the territory.

The exact extent is something only the manufacturer/vendor will be able to confirm.

Lamy_2

Doc_N wrote: »

This is an uneducated guess, but I'd say it's likely that they'll both impede water pressure to some extent - it goes with the territory.

The exact extent is something only the manufacturer/vendor will be able to confirm.

Thank you .

Save2017

I am shopping for a water softner and the salesperson I spoke ot last said the could throw in a kitchen sink tap with a bypass and it has its own charcoal type filter so it is more like a brita filter and not a salt filter.

Nick_C

Save2017 wrote: »

I am shopping for a water softner and the salesperson I spoke ot last said the could throw in a kitchen sink tap with a bypass and it has its own charcoal type filter so it is more like a brita filter and not a salt filter.

Be aware that you need to have a supply to your kitchen sink that is not softened.

If you plumb the softener in where the supply enters the property and you don't have an untreated supply in the kitchen, then you will need a reverse osmosis filtration system to remove any excess sodium from the softened water.

chillcoat

Thanks everyone for a brilliant thread - this is the best resource I have found anywhere on the web about water softeners. I'd like to contribute my own experience and hope it will help.

I got Harveys in to demonstrate a softener and signed up for their three month free trial. They quoted an eye-watering £1600 for the softener plus an additional £100 for the under-sink hard water filter tap. When I rang to cancel the trial it was like calling to cancel your Sky TV contract: suddenly the price came down to about £1200. Not cheap enough so they came to remove the unit - for free, as they promised.

I've now had a Monarch Midi fitted. It cost £800 in total: £450 for the softener and about £350 to get a good plumber to fit it and add a few extra valves which weren't included.

The only thing to be aware of is the size of the units: the Monarch Midi is surprisingly large and takes up most of a kitchen cupboard. I had to pull out my washing machine and run the pipes behind it into a corner cupboard. Conversely the Harveys unit fits under the kitchen sink.

So overall I saved £400 by getting the Monarch fitted, and if I knew how to plumb/DIY with confidence I could potentially have done it for less. Just note that even the "high flow 22mm" kit sold by some places includes the right hoses but not the right valves; any plumber will know which parts to replace.

kittyscruff

[FONT=&quot]Hi - I've been reading 'closed' threads and replies on this topic, and I have some specific questions, if anyone can help - I can't seem to get a message through to the expert contributor - Gromituk...

I've had quotes from Harveys and Kinetic - clearly not the cheapest options. Then I discovered the Monarch Watersilk range (£400-500), and the Water2Buy systems (£600). I have acertained that there is some maintenance on these units where there isn't on the Harveys / Kinetic systems. Have I got this right? I like the idea of simply having to replace salt blocks and no flushing out / cleaning every year or so.

Gromituk mentioned the metered systems which seem to have an advantage over the non-metered? I don't want to sacrifice any pressure. Nor do I want to have regeneration occurring while we're using water, hence decreasing or losing water supply.

As for electric vs non-electric - I'm a little confused over the benefits from one system to the other apart from having control over the timing of regeneration (and the energy consumption).

Finally, I'm concerned to read on some threads that many boilers shouldn’t use softened water. We are replacing our old central heating and immersion storage tank system in the next 6 months to a megaflow system (with heating being electric, so no combi boiler) but I don't want to have issues before the new boiler is installed.

Appreciate any advice - thank you!
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manda1205

I have a monarch and it doesn't need any maintenance other than keeping it full of salt. I don't flush it or clean it. It doesn't say you have to in the instructions and monarch have said little needs to be done to maintain them. It's been in for 7 years now and only once had bother but as in guarantee monarch came and fixed it. It is electric and again no bother with that. And also metered. It meters how much water is flowing through the system so then it can gauge how often a regen should be. For a family of 2, this happens at midnight and around every 3 days.
As for the boiler issue. Mine is a combi Worcester Bosch oil boiler and it was Bosch who told me to get a softener. As scale clogged up our heat exchanger in the first year the boiler was put in. They wouldn't replace it again unless we put a softener in. Most boilers can cope with softened water just check with the manufacter first.
Hope that helps a bit.

malc_b

If you want regeneration to happen during the night then you need electric otherwise how does it know the time? You can have timer only, so regens when you set it to (like a CH timeclock), say 2am every 3 days. Or you can have meter which measures the water you use. That then wait until you have used say 75% of the capacity then regen that night. Usually there is also a default regen anyway after so many days to keep things fresh. Metered saves water and salt so is cheaper to run but more expensive to buy.

Boilers can have 2 sides. A combi will have a hot water side. This is always softened if you don't want it to fur up, so using a softener is fine and better than the inline ones that would be fitted by the installer. The CH side also needs water. Some manufacturers used to say don't use softened water on the CH side but now that has changed. If it doubt just connect the filling loop to an unsoftened water source.

Motchan79

If its 12 years old the resin will need to be replaced as it starts to not work or break down. Because they are sealed units it's not easy to open them up and replace the resin and then seal them up again to maintain the pressure and not leak so you are usually best off replacing the softener for a new one as they can't guarantee how well it will work afterwards.

Sterlingtimes

Amended post: I bought my water softener on 17 July 1997 for £308. It was made by European Water Care with an Autotrol timer. It looks identical to the current model sold by Wickes which they call an E10T. It has never had a fault.

I understand that in time the filtration bags become contaminated and that the softener will then no longer be viable. How would I determine whether my softener is still effective?

My inclination would be to buy the same softener again. I am disinclined to request quotations from companies who do not advertise a fixed price, and I minded to think that companies who offer "free installation" would be poor value for a person who has satisfactory plumbing already installed.

The E10T appears to be sold at VAT inclusive prices by some catering companies a little cheaper than Wickes.