Drinking water after water softener installation.

QEOP

Hello -

I am considering installing a water softener in my house. But as I have toddler, I have been advised that it's best to either separate a hard water feed into a drinking tap for drinking water or install a reverse osmosis and remineralise water purification system for drinking water.

But I was wondering if the reverse osmosis and remineralisation system is an overkill. I will be installing a Quooker instant boiling water tap which has filters in them anyways. Is it better to just feed hard water into the tap? I am not too sure about the science behind RO and remineralisation and wonder if it would do more harm than good by alternating the balance of minerals and contents in drinking water.

Carrot007

Softend water is better for the life of your appliances.


It tastes awful. Keep a drinking tap unless you plan on buying bottled water to drink.


At TBH properly cared for hard water if fine. Way to waste money.

jk0

I drank soft water for several years in drinks, but started waking up with headaches so bad it was hard to get out of bed. Took me years to realise it was the sodium in the water. As soon as I stopped, no more headaches.


I now have a hard water tap in the bathroom also, (between bath taps) and fit these in my rentals.

silvercar

We have a water softener and reverse osmosis filter.

It works well for us and the kitchen sink and kettle are limescale free.

I suppose we miss out on essential minerals, but I guess you can't have everything.

QEOP

silvercar wrote: »

We have a water softener and reverse osmosis filter.

It works well for us and the kitchen sink and kettle are limescale free.

I suppose we miss out on essential minerals, but I guess you can't have everything.

I was told the RO filter adds the essential minerals back to the softened water? Is that not true?

traineepensioner

QEOP wrote: »

I was told the RO filter adds the essential minerals back to the softened water? Is that not true?

Some do, some don't. There's an extra filter added to the system.(6 or 7 stage)

We use a 5 stage system in our apartment in Spain. Our water pressure was a bit low (2.5bar) so we needed system with a booster pump. We bought this one and have been very pleased with it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finerfilters-Domestic-Stage-Reverse-Osmosis/dp/B0798RNHPD/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=reverse+osmosis+water+filter+system&qid=1564828418&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFISFBWSDRMUElOWjMmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA5NTE5MTlMR1JXRktLMzlKUzMmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMTA0MzA0NjExQUtNSk85NlFCWlImd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

We also bought a TDS meter to check the water before & after the RO system.....The water before the filter was 360 PPM and after the filter 6 PPM, tastes a lot better & no more furring kettle.

coffeehound

QEOP wrote: »

I will be installing a Quooker instant boiling water tap which has filters in them anyways. Is it better to just feed hard water into the tap?

The carbon filter in a Quooker tap should give you good tasting drinking water with the minerals still present.

QEOP

coffeehound wrote: »

The carbon filter in a Quooker tap should give you good tasting drinking water with the minerals still present.

So it does sound like installing a RO system as suggested by the salesman is an overkill.

Would you then suggest just feeding hard water into the Quooker for boiling and filtered water?

Gaffajp

What warranty is the company offering?
Manufacturers make identical re branded versions of their retail products for a trade market that sometimes carry better support.

coffeehound

QEOP wrote: »

So it does sound like installing a RO system as suggested by the salesman is an overkill.

Would you then suggest just feeding hard water into the Quooker for boiling and filtered water?

Hmm, thinking about this further, if you have hard water going to the Quooker heater, it is going to get furred-up with limescale quite quickly, so I can see why the salesman recommended an RO system.

You don't want softened water going to the Quooker, because it is unhealthy, as jk0's post illustrates.

Perhaps Quooker owners can advise you further on whether you definitely need an RO system to run a Quooker tap.

But as far as healthy drinking water goes, a simple under-sink carbon filter plumbed to a separate tap would give tasty drinking water with the good minerals, and without excess sodium.