New water softener - how long for whole of house water to be soft?

Mr_Ted

Avoriaz wrote: »

Mr Ted's comments are inaccurate and unhelpful. No offence intended Mr Ted but you clearly do not understand water softeners.

:rotfl::TNah know nuffin bout nuffin me

I only maintained commercial systems as part of LSP regimes for 20 years

Much bigger yeh but also much more throughput and requiring explicit setup so no numptys caught Legionaires Disease :T

Boys an their toys dont really impress me, much as most domestic engineers dont

yangptangkipperbang

Avoriaz wrote: »

Mr Ted's comments are inaccurate and unhelpful. No offence intended Mr Ted but you clearly do not understand water softeners.

Obviously a water softener salesman then !

Avoriaz

tillycat123 wrote: »

Many thanks Avoriaz - cold tap in kitchen giving a softened reading, will just have to be patient for the rest.

Or you could call in a professional with 20 years experience who thinks that his experience on different machines in a different environment qualifies him to spout absolute rubbish about domestic softeners.

Avoriaz

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

Obviously a water softener salesman then !

Whatever he is and whatever his background in commercial systems, he was wrong in his comments above.

As Tilly has posted, her kitchen tap is providing soft water now, just as it should. It has been supplying soft water to the tank in the attic, gradually replacing the existing hard water. Within a few days all the hard water in her tank will have been replaced with soft water, just as Innys stated in his two informative post above and just as I have experienced with softeners similar to her Harvey model.

If Tilly had a direct mains water system with no storage tank then she would have soft water throughout her house almost immediately as the only hard water would be in the pipework and that would be flushed out within a few seconds.

But in her case she had a lot of stored hard water than takes time to be used up.

Tilly, if you ever forget to top your softener up with salt and it runs out the water will gradually go hard again. When you put more salt in it will again take a number of days to go completely soft again.

yangptangkipperbang

Avoriaz wrote: »

Whatever he is and whatever his background in commercial systems, he was wrong in his comments above.

I didn't say he was wrong - I made a light hearted post which was in agreement with your comment.
I had my first softener fitted in the early eighties so I don't need an explanation of their workings, thank you.

Avoriaz

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

I didn't say he was wrong - I made a light hearted post which was in agreement with your comment.
I had my first softener fitted in the early eighties so I don't need an explanation of their workings, thank you.

My post wasn't directed at you.

It was simply further comment for Tilly's benefit, or any anyone else who might be interested.

I don't want to get into a fight about who knows more about domestic water softeners. I know enough to be confident that my comments and advice to her are correct.

southcoastrgi

Avoriaz wrote: »

Do you have a tap (at the kitchen sink perhaps) that is piped directly from the softener and not via the tank in the loft?

Avoriaz wrote: »

As Tilly has posted, her kitchen tap is providing soft water now, just as it should.

Both of these statements are not necessary true, water softners are normally installed in the kitchen as this is where the mains cold water enters the house, at least one cold tap in the house should be connected to the "hard" water to be used as a drinking tap, while i don't know the medical reasons for this it is highly recommended that artifically softnered water isn't drunk in any quanity

Avoriaz

^^^^^^The first quote above was a question, not a statement.

The second quote was a statement confirming that a tap that is connected to the water softener should be providing soft water.

The ideal water softener arrangement is to provide soft water to all the taps in the house, including the kitchen hot and cold taps, and to install a third tap at the kitchen sink to provide unsoftened water for drinking and cooking. That tap can have an inline filter to remove chlorine etc.

That is the ideal arrangement but is not always followed. Sometimes softened water is provided to all taps with no separate tap for unsoftened water.

In theory that presents a risk of excessive sodium consumption by humans, and it is not recommended that baby formula milk be made with softened water, but the actual risks are small.

There is more sodium in a few slices of bread that in several litres of softened water.

Tilly, do you have a third drinking water tap? If not you could probably have one installed quite easily.

missile

If it is an issue for OP, perhaps she could close the tap feeding the cold water tank and allow it to empty. Then open the feed and thereafter the water would be soft.

Softener_Geek

That would be a very bad idea. Once the tank is empty you may well get an air lock in one of the pipes feeding the hot or cold water.