House water supply very hard. What are my options for our situation?

Jack_Bauer

Hi,

Firstly, thanks for reading.

Our house is located in an extremely hard water area and we have horrible limescale marks in our bathrooms, sink, dishes etc. Our brand new pots and pans look absolutely horrible after the first wash for example. We are considering a water softener but we aren't sure if soft water is safe to drink or even if we would like the taste. To get around that, I've read that you can get bypass taps at the kitchen sink however our house has been fully renovated and I don't think it's possible to get such a tap fitted without ripping the house up to lay new plumbing?

Our water mains comes in under the house in the cellar (under the main hallway) so the softener would have to be installed there. A single pipe leaves the cellar, and then goes under the floorboards towards the kitchen (rear part of the house) where I believe all the pipework then splits to go to the various parts of the house such as the boiler, sink, upstairs etc.

If a drinking water tap cannot be fitted, I've also read there is an option of fitting a reverse osmosis filter at the kitchen sink for water, but based on further reading, this water is not considered safe to drink. Indeed even the WHO state this water is not safe for long term human consumption as it removes most if not all the essential minerals from the water, as well as the salt from the softened water.

For those more knowledgeable in these things, can you suggest what our options are?

Thanks

Carrot007

Jack_Bauer said:

For those more knowledgeable in these things, can you suggest what our options are?

Do nothing, ignore everything carry on as normal hard water is best and causes not many issues. Only point maybe worth doing anything is the boiler inlet as it's hard to get a dot-to-dot "engineer" to consider a descaling. Still with modern boilers probably need changing before that anyway.

Yes you need to clean scale of things like the shower and taps. It's no harder a job though as you would have been cleaning them anyway. If you do it oftern enough a  descaling cloth is all that is needed, and if you leave it maybe a littel spay first.

Do ignore the scary leaflets they post thropugh the door with pictures where they found a house that had not been cleaned in 10 years or more likely faked it.

Soft water is, a. horrible to drink (I know people in such an area, they buy bottled water), and b. horrible to shower in. DO you do much else with it (I already mentioned the boiler).

Slinky

I doubt Carrot lives in a REALLY hard water area. We have a softener and I really wouldn't want to go back to living without one. The water is lovely to shower in.  We don't drink it as the previous house owner had installed a separate mains drinking water tap. 

We're looking at relocating our softener to the garage and the incoming main will need to be moved. We are hoping to be able to keep the mains water in the kitchen by getting the builders to spur the new main off the existing incoming pipework.  Is there any option for you to spur off the incoming main and introduce a separate pipe outside running to your kitchen?

Grumpy_chap

Jack_Bauer said:

Hi,

Firstly, thanks for reading.

Our house is located in an extremely hard water area and we have horrible limescale marks in our bathrooms, sink, dishes etc. Our brand new pots and pans look absolutely horrible after the first wash for example. We are considering a water softener but we aren't sure if soft water is safe to drink or even if we would like the taste. To get around that, I've read that you can get bypass taps at the kitchen sink however our house has been fully renovated and I don't think it's possible to get such a tap fitted without ripping the house up to lay new plumbing?

Our water mains comes in under the house in the cellar (under the main hallway) so the softener would have to be installed there. A single pipe leaves the cellar, and then goes under the floorboards towards the kitchen (rear part of the house) where I believe all the pipework then splits to go to the various parts of the house such as the boiler, sink, upstairs etc.

If a drinking water tap cannot be fitted, I've also read there is an option of fitting a reverse osmosis filter at the kitchen sink for water, but based on further reading, this water is not considered safe to drink. Indeed even the WHO state this water is not safe for long term human consumption as it removes most if not all the essential minerals from the water, as well as the salt from the softened water.

For those more knowledgeable in these things, can you suggest what our options are?

Thanks

A water softener - the proper type that use salt - is the best technical solution and it does not sound as though it would be as hard to install as you have suggested.

The single pipe from the cellar goes to the kitchen and then splits to different parts of the house.  Can you simply install the softener under the kitchen sink with the un-softened pipe to the tap and then the split for everything else via the softener and off around the house.

Hope that helps.

silvercar

We have a hard water softener installed under the kitchen sink, with a reverse osmosis filter for our drinking water tap. The whole point of the RO was to turn the softened water into drinkable water.

koalakoala

Carrot007 said:

Soft water is, a. horrible to drink (I know people in such an area, they buy bottled water), and b. horrible to shower in. DO you do much else with it (I already mentioned the boiler).

Really?    In what way?   I find it perfect for everything

[Deleted User]

I've lived in hard water areas all my life and whilst it's a nuisance dealing with limescale it's not a hardship, change the way you look at it and just get on with life, there will be other things that challenge you a lot more.

another_casualty

Living in on the coast , the water here is hard . 

My local friend advised me that it's best to get a brita filter . I must say I do like the water coming out of the jug . 

However , I haven't a washing machine and I find the jug gets dirty on the ouside very quickly and more or less impossible to move . Living on my own , I doubt I could justify or afford a water softener under the kitchen sink . You still have to buy packets of salt I believe a few times a year, though I stand to be corrected .
I purchased my second brita jug a couple of months ago, and bizarrely it may seem best to buy a new jug on special offer with filters a few times a year. 

The taps in the bathroom and kitchen attract limescale quicker I find including showerheads. 

The toilet bowl a couple of months ago was drying up at the back ,and white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda have got rid of that . 

The shower door is another thing that is affected . 

I'll leave it there ..

Jack_Bauer

silvercar said:

We have a hard water softener installed under the kitchen sink, with a reverse osmosis filter for our drinking water tap. The whole point of the RO was to turn the softened water into drinkable water.

From everything I can find online, RO water is unsafe to drink. The rational being that the removal of all minerals from the water is more unsafe than using an RO filter to remove slightly elevated levels of salt added by the water softener.

Eldi_Dos

If there are babies or young children in the household I would err on the side of caution with these devices.

ispookie666

We live in hard water area and have had softener since 2014 and RO installed at the same time. The first thing I did after moving last December, was to have a new softner and RO installed.

RO water is not safe to drink because - it's devoid of minerals but the big problem is it does not remove bacterial buildup, as the carbon block removes any residual chlorine. 

The only thing I would add is, if possible plumb the RO before the water softener to reduce salt wastage. If possible get ones with 1/2" tubing rather than 1/4", you get better pressure and flow at the faucet.