water softner help in chosing and is this true

128hdays

Doc_N wrote: »

On the basis that you're genuinely enquiring about this, perhaps you could share with us the 'concerning reports' - I've never seen any.

As to the filter you mention, I've never heard of it, and I doubt many other here have. This is a thread relating to water softeners and the product you mention is some kind of filter, presumably.

Filters very rarely soften water effectively, so I'd give it a miss if I were you.

Reverse osmosis systems can soften the water along with taking out chemicals such as chlorine and flouride. We recently had one installed for our drinking water.

Chance89

128hdays wrote: »

Reverse osmosis systems can soften the water along with taking out chemicals such as chlorine and flouride. We recently had one installed for our drinking water.

Quite right! Having read some previous posts in this thread I notice there is a concern over drinking softened water. An RO system is the answer to this, it would allow you to soften the water to the entire property, so no limescale anywhere. The RO system would then be installed on the drinking water tap to remove 95-98% of salts, metals and other nasty chemicals. They actually produce very, very clean drinking water, BETTER THAN A HARD WATER SUPPLY!!!

RowCutter

Hey Pokerron

Just started looking at all this. I spoke to BWT who were very helpful but my concern is that they state with the WS series (i'm looking at the WS555) a minimum water flow of 10 ltr/min is required for accurate metering. I have not found many other sites stating a minimum flow. Essentially this would mean that the system might think you have used less water than you have and consequently not regenerate as often as it should. I measured the flow when washing hands under the tap or rinsing tooth brush these were around 2.5ltr/min and my slow shower was 5 ltr/min with even my high shower only just reaching 9.5ltr/min. I was all set to buy one of these but on reading through this forum I am now thinking of the Coral but don't know its minimum flow. Can anyone shed any light on the minimum flow issue?

RowCutter

Hey Chickereee.
Did you chose the Wrekin ECO15 or the ECO15 Ultra?
I notice the max flow seems lower than others have you seen any issues?

The_Bookman

The_Bookman wrote: »

I have a Kinetico block salt softener, installed with a new bathroom, almost exactly 14 years ago. I have never had it serviced.


For the last few months I have come to the conclusion that is not working as effectively as it used to; I'm seeing a slight build up of scale around tap ends, and in the "monsoon" shower head, the flow through the nipple jets is now a little erratic and when I pinch each nipple, I can feel what I'm assuming is scale between my fingers and the flow then clears.


So..... is it likely that the softener can somehow be defective? If so, why? Is there any maintenance that I can do which would help, or should I call in a professional? Is it likely that it is beyond maintenance and needs replacing?


All thoughts gratefully received.

Found a service engineer via the Which? website. £95.00 and an hour's work later, including replacing a broken piston, I now have a working softener again, guaranteed for 1 year, and my nipples are clogged no more. Thanks for the help.

Chance89

RowCutter wrote: »

Hey Pokerron

Just started looking at all this. I spoke to BWT who were very helpful but my concern is that they state with the WS series (i'm looking at the WS555) a minimum water flow of 10 ltr/min is required for accurate metering. I have not found many other sites stating a minimum flow. Essentially this would mean that the system might think you have used less water than you have and consequently not regenerate as often as it should. I measured the flow when washing hands under the tap or rinsing tooth brush these were around 2.5ltr/min and my slow shower was 5 ltr/min with even my high shower only just reaching 9.5ltr/min. I was all set to buy one of these but on reading through this forum I am now thinking of the Coral but don't know its minimum flow. Can anyone shed any light on the minimum flow issue?

A lot of meter controlled water softeners do have a minimum flow in order for the metering system to work but finding details of these flow rates can be difficult. It is normally electronic meter controlled softeners that have this issue rather than mechanical meters so that would be a useful question to ask.

Also the flow rates you measured may have been fed from a cold water storage tank in a loft? As the water softener would be installed on your rising main it is this flow that needs to be measured that could differ quite considerably.

csgohan4

Silly question, how do I know which fitting to buy as there are 15mm and 22mm?

malc_b

The water softener industry seems to need a big shake up if you ask me. I'm looking to chose a softener so from the models I want the following minimum information:

litres of water softened
Regen salt and regen water used.

Without that how can you compare the running costs? Answer you can't and strikes me that's why the don't publish that information. Phrases like uses 40% less water than typical are pointless if you don't define typical.

I called kennetwater (coral) to ask them what the regen water usage was and was told I needed to phone a dealer. Eh? That's like phoning ford to ask the mpg of Ka only to be told we can't tell but our dealer can. Why isn't it written down? Why can I only be told this over the phone, call me cynically but it feels like no one wants a written record.

Even tapworks I see, doesn't have a contact phone/email on the web site (only mobiles for area sales managers if you want to stock tapworks), and does not say how much salt and water it uses.

This is like trying to chose a car and not having mpg figures.

Doc_N

malc_b wrote: »

The water softener industry seems to need a big shake up if you ask me. I'm looking to chose a softener so from the models I want the following minimum information:

litres of water softened
Regen salt and regen water used.

Without that how can you compare the running costs? Answer you can't and strikes me that's why the don't publish that information. Phrases like uses 40% less water than typical are pointless if you don't define typical.

I called kennetwater (coral) to ask them what the regen water usage was and was told I needed to phone a dealer. Eh? That's like phoning ford to ask the mpg of Ka only to be told we can't tell but our dealer can. Why isn't it written down? Why can I only be told this over the phone, call me cynically but it feels like no one wants a written record.

Even tapworks I see, doesn't have a contact phone/email on the web site (only mobiles for area sales managers if you want to stock tapworks), and does not say how much salt and water it uses.

This is like trying to chose a car and not having mpg figures.

I can speak only for Tapworks, which I do know something about, as a customer.

The information you're looking for is shown for each model on the right hand side of the page, via links:

http://tapworks.co.uk/

malc_b

I assume you mean like http://tapworks.co.uk/infinity/ which does not say how much salt or water a regen uses. I have looked. If I missed it then please point me towards the right page.

As update, I found some useful info on http://www.easyh2o.co.uk which is about the only site I have found to say water and salt used in regen as well as litres between regen.