Very Hard Water

Aj_newbie

Hello hello!

I live in a very hard water area, and looking for remedies to prevent limescale on appliances. Upon researching (googling) there are so many options - 
Combimate - limescale prevention
Water softeners
ScaleGuard - limescale remover

I am more inclined towards ScaleGuard. Has anyone used it? It is any good?
What is the recommendation for a 3 bed family house in a very hard water area.

Seasalt3

Citric acid powder works wonders.  It's cheap and non toxic

bouicca21

I find that using a water filter reduces the build up in my kettle.

propertyrental

Get a water softener. It will be far better in the long run (unless of course you plan to move in the next year or so).

There are many on the market. Prices vary from around £500 to 2000. Personally, I think the top end ones are priced based on their ubiquitous names rather than any huge advantage.

Don't waste money on a dual tank one. These are designed so that during the intermittent 'down-time' while they refresh, the 2nd tank operates, meaning no break in delivery of soft water. But most cheaper ones will time the refresh for 3 AM (usually flexible if you're a night owl). How much water do most people use at 3 AM.....

Do a search of the forum - there are masses of posts on this topic.

anselld

propertyrental said:

Get a water softener. It will be far better in the long run (unless of course you plan to move in the next year or so).

There are many on the market. Prices vary from around £500 to 2000. Personally, I think the top end ones are priced based on their ubiquitous names rather than any huge advantage.

Don't waste money on a dual tank one. These are designed so that during the intermittent 'down-time' while they refresh, the 2nd tank operates, meaning no break in delivery of soft water. But most cheaper ones will time the refresh for 3 AM (usually flexible if you're a night owl). How much water do most people use at 3 AM.....

Do a search of the forum - there are masses of posts on this topic.

The downtime is not the real issue, it is the fact that if the refresh is a fixed time at 3am it will do it regardless of how much water has been used.  This is wasteful of salt and water.  Whereas the dual tank ones meter the water so it only refreshes when known quantity of water has been used.  Not sure how long the payback is on that basis but they are certainly more economical to run.
It is also the case that some of the cheaper brands still use the ubiquitous Kinetico mechanism so it is worth shopping around and researching what is under the bonnet.

Grumpy_chap

Aj_newbie said:

Hello hello!

I live in a very hard water area, and looking for remedies to prevent limescale on appliances. Upon researching (googling) there are so many options - 
Combimate - limescale prevention
Water softeners
ScaleGuard - limescale remover

I am more inclined towards ScaleGuard. Has anyone used it? It is any good?
What is the recommendation for a 3 bed family house in a very hard water area.

The only solution from those that is guaranteed to work is the water softener. 

The scale guard is cheap.  There is no evidence they work.

pjs493

install a water softener. It’s the only way to protect things like your boiler etc. I currently live in military housing in a really hard water area, it’s ruined my pans and kettle. Every three months they need to replace the pump on my water system because it gets damaged by the hard water. Obviously the best thing would be to install a water softener, but they’d rather pay for constant repairs than a more expensive one off fix. I hate to think what it’s doing to my dishwasher and washing machine. 

We had a water softener installed in a previous military house we lived in overseas (where they were mandatory which is why it was installed). All we needed to do was rinse the filter periodically, and top up the salt once in a while. 

ThorOdinson

I have an Eddy Electronic Water Descaler in our very hard water area. It makes a real difference. It doesn't remove the scale, it just stops it building up on stuff.

Doesn't use much energy and doesn't need any salt.

propertyrental

anselld said:

propertyrental said:

Get a water softener. It will be far better in the long run (unless of course you plan to move in the next year or so).

There are many on the market. Prices vary from around £500 to 2000. Personally, I think the top end ones are priced based on their ubiquitous names rather than any huge advantage.

Don't waste money on a dual tank one. These are designed so that during the intermittent 'down-time' while they refresh, the 2nd tank operates, meaning no break in delivery of soft water. But most cheaper ones will time the refresh for 3 AM (usually flexible if you're a night owl). How much water do most people use at 3 AM.....

Do a search of the forum - there are masses of posts on this topic.

The downtime is not the real issue, it is the fact that if the refresh is a fixed time at 3am it will do it regardless of how much water has been used.  This is wasteful of salt and water.  Whereas the dual tank ones meter the water so it only refreshes when known quantity of water has been used.  Not sure how long the payback is on that basis but they are certainly more economical to run.
It is also the case that some of the cheaper brands still use the ubiquitous Kinetico mechanism so it is worth shopping around and researching what is under the bonnet.

Not so with my system. This monitors water usage and only refreshes when needed, but then times the refresh to middle of the night (I can alter the time to whatever time I prefer). So no, not wasteful of water or salt.

In fact to my amazement it was 9 months before I needed to top up the salt (single person household, low water usage).