Recommendation on water softener

JohnTravoltage

We've recently moved to an area with very hard water and are looking to get a water softener installed. 

Any recommendations on a reliable one for a family of 4? It will need to support 2 baths (very likely to be used simultaneously most weekday mornings) and various taps and appliances across 3 floors. 

Harvey's seems to have the best marketing game around (but also much, much more expensive than the competition). I'm looking for recommendations to help me decide if it's worth ponying up the extra dosh for a Harvey's or if there are others that are equally good but better value for money. 

UncleZen

I recently bought a BWT softener. They have various sizes depending on num of people etc.
I bought it direct from BWT as it was cheapest that way and got my local plumber to install it. Installation was simply plug and play to replace an old one that had started leaking after 25yrs, so I had all the pipework and isolators already. I cannot comment whether it is better or worse than the competition. It comes with various attachments to fit every conceivable size of pipe.

Grumpy_chap

We have a Harvey's and it has been very good for 15 years.  When we bought it, the Harvey's was the most competitive.

All the ion exchange types work exactly the same, so this is one area where buying on price is sound.  I would avoid any that have electronics and fancy stuff as that is more likely to go wrong.

cpbackhouse

We also bought a BWT one recently. 

Been pretty happy with it so far. It was a good price and is metered so it only regenerates when it needs to. Others at the same price seemed to only have a timer on them ... and with others the price seemed to be through to roof for something that looked to do the same thing!
They have them a Screwfix but I think we got ours from tradingdepot as it was cheaper there.