Hard water/anti-limescale devices?

[souperb]

We have shocking hard water here and limescale is taking over appliances, killing kettles and drinking gallons of vinegar, viakal and washing machine tonic.

I've seen devices for sale in Wilkinsons/local hardware stores which clip onto a water pipe and claim to resolve the issue. There is usually a television (JML-style) with a chap claiming extraordinary benefits. Has anyone used such a device? Did it work? Or is there a simple solution I don't know about?

hahahahahahaha!

sorry.

these will be devices which claim to pass a magic magnetic field through the water, causing the dissolved calcium which it contains to not precipitate.

I Many people say they are effective in the same way that wearing a copper bracelet cures arthritis, or a drop of purified water cures pimples.

Never mind, you will find from the product literature that the suppliers guarantee to refund your money when if it doesn't work (if you get round to applying for a refund). They have been forced by the government to give this undertaking. Can you guess why?

These things do no harm, except to your wallet.

I expect now to be deluged by people telling me that their arthritis got better when they started wearing a copper bracelet, or their pimples cleared up when they swallowed a drop of purified water, or their kettles stopped scaling when they clipped an expensive magnet to the pipe.

We too have shocking limescale. We don't have devices but we use
Kilrock formic acid descaler in our kettle and on the shower head (usually on offer in Robert Dyas)
Limelite cleaning spray weekly in wet bits of the bathroom and kitchen,
Oxygen bleach stain remover with each machine wash (did use own brand calgon tablets but oxygen bleach does the same job and removes stains).

We try to squeegee and dry wet things with microfibre cloths and use them for cleans/wipe ups without products, just hot water. Shower curtain goes in the machine periodically with biological detergent which gets rid of the red scum. I also started using the lowest calcium bottled water I could find when I got a new iron (29p a bottle own brand usually).

This sounds like a massive faff written out but I'm pretty slatternly really compared with some on mn, this is all part of the normal cleaning regime.

Invested in a water softener in th end. Absolutely revolutionised my life, grew up with soft water and never got used to the scum this hard stuff leaves everywhere. Shower takes WEEKS to get limescaley, worth every penny.

me too.

Water softeners work.

Tell me about water softeners! Very interested - been living with this hard water nonsense for 8 months, and truly bored of it now.

This is the one we got:

There are several ways to provide ‘conditioned water’ for a house, but the most commonly recognised is the water softener. We supply softeners from several manufacturers, but one we can fully recommend and endorse is the Atlantis AT210, which we have been offering for about six years. During that time we have had only the smallest problems with estimated breakdowns of less than one a year! It is offered as either standard (conventional coldwater storage tank) or highflow (pressurised water system) options.

We have a Monarch water softener. It works well and we have a big house. Much cheaper than lime scale furring everything up! You need a cupboard to put it in though and feed it salt!

The working parts of softeners are fairly standardised. There are some very cheap ones in the DIY sheds, but in your nearest town there is pretty sure to be a softener company that assembles, sells and repairs them, and also sells and delivers salt. If you buy from a local company you can expect them to guarantee and service them (if you buy one from a shed you may have to bin it when it goes wrong).

Mine have lasted at least ten years between repairs. Last time I bought a reconditioned one identical to my old one, it was not much dearer than a repair.

Don't carry salt in your own car, the smallest spillage will rust a hole through the floor. Look in the back of the salt delivery van and you will be shocked.

Thanks - will look into water softeners.

I am thinking about getting a Monarch Midi meter control water softener - but am worried about lugging 25 kgs salt bags around and as I may rent the flat out periodically, am worried about tenants not bothering to fill up salt if it's too cumbersome.
Does anybody have any similar experience or recommend an alternative?

I now have mine delivered in 10kg bags, which are much easier to handle. I get ten at a time from a company called NGS. There will be a company near you, I'm sure. You can also get smaller solid blocks, which work out expensive.

Don't carry salt bags in your own car, because any spillage will rust a hole in the floor very quickly. Have a look at the delivery truck and you will be amazed at the rust.

BTW if your tenants don't top it up, all that will happen is that their towels, skin, hair, kettles and WC pans get scaly. As soon as you start using salt again, the soft water will start to dissolve the scale.