Household water softener

[lordshipmonkey]

Hi all, I'm getting fed up with the constant limescale battle, has anyone installed a whole house water softener and filter? Would love to hear about the pros and cons.,

Thanks

[Friernlocal]

You will find that water from a domestic water softener is not recommended for drinking or cooking. The reason being a softener removes dissolved calcium ions from the water and replaces them with sodium ions. It is calcium carbonate that forms limescale.

The problem with having sodium in drinking water is sodium is linked to high blood pressure. That's why people are advised to limit their intake. Also the water from a softener can contain significantly higher levels of bacteria than mains water as the water moves slowly through the softener and can stagnate.

If you want to reduce limescale in your kettle you'd be better using something like a Brita filter jug. This doesn't add sodium, but does remove calcium.

A whole house softener would though reduce the amount of detergent needed in a washing machine.

Hope this helps with your decision.

[apbremer]

We have had a household softener for the past ten years. We would not be without it. No hard water scum or limescale furring up pipes and showering and washing with soft water is incomparably nicer.

You do need to leave a mains supply in the kitchen for drinking and cooking as softened water does not taste nice.

[ed26]

Agree with the above. You would need to keep the kitchen mains hard for cooking / drinking, and any other taps that you want to retain mains pressure, such as an outdoor tap. Your boiler will last longer as it will be heating softened water. The valves in your water tanks / toilet will last longer and be less prone to leaking, reducing the chance of floods. You'll use less detergent (and you'll have to, unless you want a foam party in the kitchen). And you may not need hair conditioner (so I'm told) or fabric softener, which is better for the environment. We were complimented on our new bathroom in spite of it being 10 years old, as everything stays shiny.

The softener does need to be kept topped up with salt, which means additional storage and cost, and it will probably take a couple of hours to flush and regenerate the softening core each week. It's usually on a timer or sensor, so it doesn't need active involvement, but you'll have a couple of hours of whooshing and whirring to put up with, so have it installed somewhere where it won't disturb you.

The only drawback is that it reduces the water flow. We had a power shower with its own feeder tank, and the water feeding the tank went in more slowly than the water coming out of the shower, so the tank could run dry after a while, stopping the shower. We got used to it but a few visitors ended up with soapy hair and no water coming from the shower.

[BeatrixPaddler]

We’ve had one for years and I’d thoroughly recommend it. It wasn’t til it had to be unplugged for a kitchen renovation that I remembered what a pain it was constantly having to deal with limescale. We haven’t had any noticeable difference in water pressure, either.

Ours is a Harvey’s. We’ve had it around 12 years and have never had any issues with it.

[Penguin68]

The only thing you have to be careful of is to ensure that you don't use the softened water for drinking, cooking or watering plants - which probably means drawing water for those purposes exclusively from the kitchen tap - which should be routed directly from the mains and not via the water softener. That will require some additional plumbing work. [The water isn't poisonous, per se, but it isn't advised for drinking. Teeth cleaning etc. no problem.]

[zenoria65]

I had a Harvey's for years but the cost of the salt blocks became prohibitive. Now I have an Aquabion system (apparently the NHS use them) and it's made such a difference.... Cost about £600 for the unit and £150 to be fitted - compared with £3,000 for the Harvey's water softener, plus it doesn't take up any room....