Limescale/hard water driving me mad....

[Manictigger]

We've just moved and I'm finding the water here horrendous - watermarks everywhere, kettle furs up after literally a week (and then flakes off into grey chunks) and my hair never feels clean (at first I thought maybe it was my hair being all post-pregnancy yukky but no, other people have the same problem). Has anyone tried those electronic devices that you attach to pipes and if so do they work? I've found ones made by Scalewatcher and Salamander but DH is reluctant to shell out at least £150 unless someone can tell him they're worth it. And in the short term can anyone recommend shampoos etc which might help my hair (MIL's well-intentioned advice was to wash my hair in rainwater)?

Thanks

I live in an extremely hard water area, I too found it very difficult after living in Scotland.

I think your hair etc eventually gets used to it but I find using Pantene products makes a difference.

When my mum comes down here for a week, she gets her hair done at the hairdressers and then refuses to wash it again until she goes home >.

Yes you do get used to showering/washing hair in hard water - don't notice any difference now.

I would get a filter jug and fill the kettle from that - stops the scale building up so fast.

Thanks for the advice, maybe I should visit friends in Scotland more often?! (or start that whole never wash your hair again thing)

Could you get a water softener installed ?? We got one here and the difference was remarkable - hair shone again and dd's exzcema vanished in a week !!

Ours cost about £1000 and they did interset free credit over 10 mths with no deposit.

you can also move them when you move house.

Only ongoing cost is salt for it - about £4.50 every 5-6 wks for me.

I really would recommend them to anyone - I thought they were a con before - but it really is fantastic !

Filter is needed for kettle. I can actually taste the rubbish water.

We now use a coffee machine. Filter the water and keep a supply of coffee.

You get used to the bath water but a good conditioner is essential. I ran out last week and used the free sample in Cosmo i was desperate!

Rainwater does work, but is a bit of a palaver. The easiest way, I think, is to get a waterbutt installed, and once a week or so draw off a bucketful to keep in the bathroom. Make sure to let it run into the bucket through a sieve or colander lined with a muslin to strain out the bits of debris from the roof.

Filter jug makes a huge difference. You can also get a little doofer (looks like a shiny piece of non-prickly steelwool) to put in the kettle to slow down furring. Calgon very useful in the washing machine.

Pssssssst -- >>

PSSSSST not fabric softener

no - really water softener is way to go !! Lovely soft water comes out of taps and you can get a drinking water filter tap put in at same time - in thre long run saves you ££££££ on buying bottled water - you know it makes sense !!

I want a water softener. I'm currently working on dh by waving my gross patch of eczema at him every mor ning so he can see what the hard water is doing to it. He's crumbling...

We had a water softener installed at our last house, and it was absolutely brilliant - all the scale falls out of the pipes a few weeks after you put it in, as the soft water cleans it all out. We have it in our shed now, waiting to install it in our new house, and I cannot wait! It makes a huge difference to metal taps and especially in the shower where we had a glass door.

The company we bought the softener from said those electronic ones don't work, but I found this comment on water-treatment.org.uk "For hard water treatment you may wish to use a magnetic water conditioner as they are signficantly less expensive alternative to water softeners. Although some people claim they don't work, there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence, and some scientific research, to suggest they are equally as effective as water softeners in treating hard water."

I've just had a chat with my parents, who have one of those electrical gizmos fitted, and they said that it doesn't soften the water (the limescale chemical is still present in the water) but reduces the amount of limescale that attaches itself to the pipes. In other words it helps the plumbing and kettles etc, but doesn't make much difference to the washing.