Whole system water softening

Medz

Hello everyone, 

I live in a hard water area. My shower screen; chrome fittings; and kettle etc become scaled up very quickly no matter how often I clean.

I would like to have installed a ‘water softener’(?) at the point where the mains water enters my home so that everything inside is protected from limescale. 

I did some preliminary research online but I’m finding it difficult to understand the options; and near impossible to find online guidance as to how much this will cost. 

I would be very grateful for advice on what I actually need to have fitted to meet my objective. 

I would also be grateful for recommendations on specific models to go for and/or avoid. 

My thanks as always for your kind advice. 

Best wishes. 

silvercar

The general advice is that you shouldn’t drink artificially softened water. That leaves two main options. Either exclude you kitchen drinking tap from the softening system or have reverse osmosis filter fitted, so that the softened water is made suitable for drinking.
we took the latter approach to avoid the kitchen sink and kettle being scaled up.

[Deleted User]

You only need to worry if you have very hard water, otherwise the small amount of sodium in the water isn't a problem.

https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/blog/health-effects-drinking-softened-water#:~:text=However%2C%20there%20has%20been%20no,is%20considered%20safe%20to%20drink.&text=Areas%20with%20especially%20hard%20water,water%20contains%20higher%20sodium%20levels.

Another option is to just buy bottled water for drinking. It's wasteful (plastic) and more expensive but a decent reverse osmosis filter will run to hundreds of Pounds plus installation and needs filters replacing regularly so if you don't drink a lot of tap water bottled is okay.

I asked about these a while back and still have not got around to buying one, but soon...

M.E.

OH installed ours when the house was built 40 years ago. It excludes the kitchen tap but includes all the other taps. It has been a blessing. We live in a hard water area and to have softened water is great. The toilet bowls are like new and we need less detergent. We placed it next to the immersion in the airing cupboard so filling with salt is relatively easy though those 25kg bags get heavier each time as our ageing limbs complain going upstairs. Our unit is quite large and tall but has been trouble free. We use a jug filter for tea and coffee though have cold water from the kitchen tap. As an aside, when the houses here change hands the outgoing toilets and sinks are really encrusted, showing how hard the water is.

cheap-information

I've got a TapWorks AD11 installed and it is excellent, all water softeners act in the same way and will have soft water but their efficiency with both water and salt can vary.

However, we find it somewhat annoying as we couldn't have a separate drinking tap so we turn off the softener to fill up water bottles for drinking.

We will shortly be moving elsewhere and after quite a bit of research will be getting a polyphosphate conditioner instead, we will get a combimate, only needs refills once a year and so will work out cheaper, much smaller, doesn't need a waste water pipe and doesn't need an electrical connection.

The water it provides prevents scale building up and is perfectly drinkable with no change in taste (which sadly salt ones do change)

Ectophile

cheap-information said:

However, we find it somewhat annoying as we couldn't have a separate drinking tap so we turn off the softener to fill up water bottles for drinking.

What was the problem getting a drinking water tap?   Doesn't it just tee off of the incoming water pipe, before the softener?

Carrot007

Medz said:

I live in a hard water area. My shower screen; chrome fittings; and kettle etc become scaled up very quickly no matter how often I clean.

It's fairly hard around here. However soft water is horrible. Fake soft water even more so.

It's horrible to shower in particularly so that does not solve a problem if you like showers.

Are you using a cheap aldi window vac to remove water of all surfaces of the shower after use. Does not take long and works wonders. You can then clean using a cheap descaler once a week.

And beyond the shower never really had much issues. My washer is very old, not i have never used any nonsence tablets. The last one was 15 when I changed it as well.

The hard water problem is not one. You just need to do things appropriately.

silvercar

Ectophile said:

cheap-information said:

However, we find it somewhat annoying as we couldn't have a separate drinking tap so we turn off the softener to fill up water bottles for drinking.

What was the problem getting a drinking water tap?   Doesn't it just tee off of the incoming water pipe, before the softener?

A drinking water tap will be hard water, so scale up the kitchen sink and your kettle and fridge water pipe if you have.

we went for a reverse osmosis filter feeding to a drinking water tap, so that water is very pure. As an example of how pure it is, the ice cubes produced from the water from that tap are clear And transparent as opposed to having a white-ish tinge and opaque

cheap-information

Ectophile said:

cheap-information said:

However, we find it somewhat annoying as we couldn't have a separate drinking tap so we turn off the softener to fill up water bottles for drinking.

What was the problem getting a drinking water tap?   Doesn't it just tee off of the incoming water pipe, before the softener?

Sadly not, have an mains coming in and it splits for the rest of the flat at the same place so no way to feasibly do it.

Doc_N

fs13jfw said:

softened water is fine to drink if you get a good quality softener! single tank systems make it too salty so you need to isolate your kitchen drinking water. But twin tanks are usually good if you get them from Harvey or kinetico! I bought a Kinetico but have a friend with a Harvey S4, we got ours from an online company called Spam Water Softeners. Got such a good deal, they had offers online and then we also went direct, had the softener up and running in 5 days!

Spam, spam, spam.

Grumpy_chap

What's with half a dozen new threads all about water softeners?
I can answer any questions anyone has, but it really is not clear what the question actually is.