water softner help in chosing and is this true

bernlyn

sloughflint wrote:

Hi Ritesh,
It was from: http://www.ezsoftener.com/index.asp?pid=P230&srch=
If you go with them, check very carefully that they offer the 7 year guarantee. They can't sell to me as they would be stepping on Kinetico's toes. I think Kinetico have been on to them after I had a go about the price they were considering selling to me for.
Bernlyn. Are you sure it was inc vat? I ask because this company in Norwich 01603 628555 ( can't find the website now) are selling for £849 all inclusive which isn't far off £699 plus vat. They give same guarantees as Kinetico and it includes delivery and standard installation kit for DIY.They said their installers generally take 4 hours to do the work to help work out what a fair installation price would be for a local plumber if not confident to DIY.
( I can sense Moonrakerz shaking head in despair now!!!!)

the prices i was quoted from ezsoft inc vat.i think they could not find thier site because it seemed to be down for a few days

Super_Mario_3

Interesting thread going on here!

I must declare my hand early on in that I am a water softener dealer, and buy machines from 6 or 7 different manufacturers (including Kinetico & Crown/Mini Max/Twintec). Happy to offer any advice to anyone who might need it or indeed even be interested!! Don't ask me to give you a price though as I don't want to abuse the website AND I WILL be much more expensive that those quoted here!!

A few snippets of info that you might wish to consider before buying:-

Whoever installs your softener (and despite some websites saying that this can be done for £100, £200 to £300 is much more typical) they must do a hardness test and set the softener up in line with this or else all your hard research will be wasted.

The Crowns aren't as adjustable as the Kinetico 2020 so will be slightly less efficient; there are 3 models of Crown, the 500, 750 and 1000 which equates to the volume of water they treat between regens. So it could be very likely that in yoru area a Crown will give you 650 litres of water before regenerating (using salt) but you'll need to buy a 500 to give you soft water all the time (thereby loosing 150 litres of water each time it flushes). The Kinetico can be adjusted more precisely to suit the water hardness.

The comment about a Prismertec using 61 litres of water needs to be clarified as being a bigger machine it will regenerate less often than a Kinteico/Crown (which uses 17 litres). In real temrs their water usage is about the same, and if you actually extrapolate this over the course of a year you might save £10!!

In terms of appliances not being able to use softened water there is huge mis-understanding from boiler manufacturers here. Aluminium is not corroded by soft water but the manual will mention about warranty invalidation on certain models if you use softened water. You can't argue with what's in black and white in your manual, although consider what these companies do if their boilers are supplied to soft water areas (and naturally soft water is far more aggresive than softened water).

Anyway, hope this doesn't sound too much like an essay, only trying to help (and not show off). Please feel free to ask if you'd like any clarification?

Cheers

Mario

George_Bray

moonrakerz wrote: »

Why, in effect, buy TWO softeners ?? A conventional single cylinder unit can be set to regenerate at night...Would you buy a car with two engines, a TV with two screens ? There are an awful lot of very slick salesmen out there who are doing just this with softeners...Come on chaps, you're meant to be "money savers".

I agree with your point about slick salesmen and money saving, given the sky-high prices being given here for what amounts to be very basic physics.

Kinetico's 5 litre tanks will process half as much water as, say, a Culligan water softener with a single 10 litre tank. No matter, Kinetico just swap between one tank and the other every few days and the end result is more or less the same. I like the Kinetico idea of avoiding electrical controls and electricity consumption - there's potentially less to go wrong.

perc

Does anyone have any experience of these at all?

http://www.ukwatersofteners.co.uk/popup.cfm?p_n=129966&p_i=129966

medical

Does anyone out there know anything about tapworks water softners
ta
medical

morganb

What about Scale Wizard Lime Scale Remover? I have seen this on Ebay .. any comments???

vrstu

Just an up to date round up on some Kinetico prices including delivery and a high flow kit if anyone is interested -

Kinetico rep was circa £1400 for his opening gambit however soon buckled to £1100 installed when pressed and after the usual 'phonecall to the manager'.

All About Bathrooms - £1225
Simply Softeners - £900
Elec Mec (Not an authorsied seller) - £875 collect only
Ezsoftener/Lakeside water - £1048
Simply Softeners - £900

Anyone managed any better recently?

moonrakerz

vrstu wrote: »

All About Bathrooms - £1225
Simply Softeners - £900
Elec Mec (Not an authorsied seller) - £875 collect only
Ezsoftener/Lakeside water - £1048
Simply Softeners - £900

Anyone managed any better recently?

I don't know if you have read my posts earlier in this thread - but - these prices are ridiculous !
Why is every one being seduced by slick salesmen selling non-electric, twin cylinder, turbocharged, go faster striped, gold plated water softeners ?

There is absolutely no need whatsoever to spend more than 50% of the cheapest price mentioned above AND it will do they job just as well as the most expensive one !

vrstu

I have read your posts several times and you obviously have your own opinion.

I will agree that the cost of the non electric units is high however having had a good many years service from one in the past my mind was made up for the replacment.

Had a call back from the Kinetico salesman as expected and have secured a unit fully installed with 12 packs of salt for £1000.

moonrakerz

vrstu wrote: »

I have read your posts several times and you obviously have your own opinion.

I will agree that the cost of the non electric units is high however having had a good many years service from one in the past my mind was made up for the replacment.

Had a call back from the Kinetico salesman as expected and have secured a unit fully installed with 12 packs of salt for £1000.

AND 12 packs of salt ! As I said before this is meant to be a Money Saving site.