water softner help in chosing and is this true

LimeGreenDefender

frankie wrote: »

Why wouldn't you touch BWT? Have you any evidence of the newer versions being a bad product?

After reading this whole thread I felt that the general consensus that the Cullingham products were not the best and after having two of their Liff softeners break in quick succession I tend to agree. I can't comment on more recent products because all I can go on is the manufacturer's marketing material and personal experience (taken from this thread). With any luck it’ll be 5+ years before people start moaning about about a unit. I cant wait that long to decide if modern BWT units are more reliable.

cybervadim

Thanks to this thread I decided to go with much cheaper single cylinder water softener. Following the advice here I bought Tapworks AD11. I can't say if it is better than others, but it certainly looks decent. As I simply replaced the old MC250 unit which was left from the previous owner the installation was easy. Thanks to the previous owner I have a separate hard water tap on the kitchen, so I have no concerns about the softened water being used in cooking.

I would like to answer one question here about the noise level as I was concerned about it myself. Tapworks AD11 (but I suppose any single cylinder water softener of the same size) takes about 1 hour to regenerate. The default regeneration time is 2am.
The regeneration starts from a valve opening which is quite noisy - you can compare that with a noise of heating system start-up when it also opens the valve and the water starts flowing through the pipes. But that noise lasts for 3-4 seconds only. Then the water flows to drain slowly. That is almost unnoticeable. It is like leaving a kitchen tap slightly open. That period lasts for almost an hour. In the end of the regeneration it flushes a lot of water down the drain for about 1 min - that is like washing machine draining the water in the end of the cycle.
In short, single cylinder water softener does not produce noise that could alter your or your baby sleep (at least it does not produce more noise than a washing machine and it lasts for about 1 minute only).

slowliving

brumster wrote: »

In the end I went for the Coral 15-litre Water Save at a cost of £400 which has the Autotrol Logix 255-762 valve which gets a good write up here.

Great spreadsheet - quick question, what led you to choose the Coral over the Swan? I notice it has the same valve but zero salt use, so guessing it works differently.

I've been recommended the BWT WS355 by a BWT engineer, but it seems although you can buy these easily enough, they don't feature on the sales sites out there - I'm assuming this is because they are maybe an 'older' model. Even BWT doesn't have them on its site!

slowliving

frankie wrote: »

I know the Tapworks has had some mentions on this thread but any updates would be welcome, have't seen comments on the BTW?

I haven't made my choice or had anything installed yet, but today rang the BWT number and was put straight through to a technician who listened to my scenario (size of property, water useage, my concerns etc) and responded helpfully and fully.

He has recommended a WS355, which is £438 on most sites. It's regeneration is metered and salt use proportionate, if you've got that far through the minefield!

slowliving

I'm looking into water softeners, but I'm not really up for falling down the rabbit hole on this (due to it being a complete re-build with a million other things to research & decide on too), so I've narrowed it down to:

BWT WS355

or

Tapworks AD11

Both around £440.

Does anyone have any specific info based on personal experience on either of these? I've had a really positive conversation with a BWT technical advisor today, but see a fair bit of 'Culligan / BET-bashing' online.

Also, any steers on another option that matches these approx (specifically, for a 1-person household on a water meter, offering metred regeneration with proportional brining), that you think I should be considering?

Thank you

brumster

slowliving wrote: »

Great spreadsheet - quick question, what led you to choose the Coral over the Swan? I notice it has the same valve but zero salt use, so guessing it works differently.

I've been recommended the BWT WS355 by a BWT engineer, but it seems although you can buy these easily enough, they don't feature on the sales sites out there - I'm assuming this is because they are maybe an 'older' model. Even BWT doesn't have them on its site!

I went for the Coral based on my requirement and the cheaper price. I didn't need the larger flow rate as I'm filling two large header tanks so it was simply about the overall cost. Not sure about it using zero salt (which is impossible).


Paul

slowliving

Thanks Paul.

The 'zero salt' comment was due to there being a 'zero' in your spreadsheet for salt use for that water softener, so I assumed from that that it must use a different system - it was only the '0' in the relevant cells that made me think that. I'm guessing now from your response that this was down to an oversight or maybe utter boredom with the details of producing the sheet that led to the zeros

brumster

Sorry, the lack of a zero is probably the result of the utter boredom having been throught the softener minefield :-).


If there's no zero it's probably because the manufacturer didn't list the information on their web-site! Good luck.


Paul

Doc_N

slowliving wrote: »

I'm looking into water softeners, but I'm not really up for falling down the rabbit hole on this (due to it being a complete re-build with a million other things to research & decide on too), so I've narrowed it down to:

BWT WS355

or

Tapworks AD11

Both around £440.

Does anyone have any specific info based on personal experience on either of these? I've had a really positive conversation with a BWT technical advisor today, but see a fair bit of 'Culligan / BET-bashing' online.

Also, any steers on another option that matches these approx (specifically, for a 1-person household on a water meter, offering metred regeneration with proportional brining), that you think I should be considering?

Thank you

You've not had much of a read of this thread, then?

yimpster

hey peeps. one of my tubes has sprung a leak (i was using the original ones from the MC250) and looking to buy a single hose. any ideas where i can buy just a single one from that wont break the bank?

all the usual plumbing places only sell washing machine hoses which are much narrower. OR I have to buy a pair which i dont need from the water softner guys and get stung with P & P