Quooker - connect to water softner or not?

[JessieJayne]

Having the kitchen renovated and completely confused about all the water supplies coming in.

As we live in a hard water area we're having a water softner system installed. We are also having a (probably) Brita filtered drinking water tap installed - this will have to take water from the mains rather than the softened water.

We also hope to have a Quooker installed however 2 questions;

Do we drink the softened water or the mains water?
Do Quookers have filters on them (a la Brita filter)?

Confused. Please help.

Softened water has higher salt content so better not to drink it IMO - so use the brita system for you drinking water and if poss your quooker too ! Always tell anyone with small children visiting to only use the kitchen tap for drinking and bottle making etc too !

When I say kitchen tap - I'm assuming that's the one that will have the brita filter !!

Yes the kitchen tap will have filtered water but I don't understand how that will then go to the Quooker? I've looked on the Quooker website and it doesn't say anything about a filter. I asked the kitchen fitter at Intoto kitchens and he didn't know (?!)

softened water does not contain salt, but it does contain a tiny amount of sodium bicarbonate, as used in indigestion remedies and baking powder. If you were to drink two litres of softened water a day, for a month, you would ingest as much additional sodium as is found in a teaspoonful of salt.

FF babies and people with kidney disease who have been prescribed a low-sodium diet (can't eat ordinary bread, cornflakes, ketchup, marmite or burgers) should not drink softened water. Softened water will prevent your kettle and other water heaters from scaling up, but you could ask the makers.

It is thought that drinking hard water is healthier for the heart, and possibly teeth.

Our softened water goes to the Quooker tap. For all the reasons PigletJohn states, and the fact that then the Quooker mechanism won't get wrecked with hard water.

We have a non-softened tap in our utility room, and fill a large carafe from there for drinking water that isn't in hot drinks, because I prefer the taste of non-softened when it's cold (can't taste the difference in tea, although I prefer the non-filmy look of softened water tea).

I also wanted to avoid any hard water in the kitchen sink for limescale / cleaning reasons.

So it's down to personal taste, quite literally, then !!

I think so.

Consider the evidence, investigate scare stories, and make up your own mind.

It is usually recommended that you have a hard-water tap for drinking. I confess that I haven't, after weighing it up. I agree about the tea.

You will need a hard-water tap for the garden, to save the slight expense of softening it.

After washing my car, I rinse it with soft to avoid watermarks. Soft water is very good for cleaning windows and mirrors.

valleycresttakeson.com/watermanagement/technology/the-hidden-risks-of-softened-water/
Interesting article about not using it on your plants and gardens !!

no don't drink softened water (i.e. don't connect your quoter to it either!).

I put our drinking water through the britta filter (jug)

OnePlanOnHouzz

I agree that actual salt is undesirable, but your link does not grasp, or deliberately omits, the fact that softened water contains tiny amounts of sodium bicarbonate, not salt.

ah - the person who wrote it isn't as well informed as you - obviously !

?

Hey Fiscal - to clarify - my last post was in response to PigletJohn's last comment ....

I am of the same opinion as you - as in, not to drink softened water !

I've just had this confirmation of filters from the MD of Quooker UK

"Thanks and yes it has a carbon filter installed as standard and you can add the following.

You can use a water softener with a Quooker providing the mains pressure is maintained above 2b and that the PH value of the delivered water has a reading of between +6.5- +7.5.

Enclosed details on the scale control unit we offer and further info on the link below.

quookeruk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/theres-something-in-water-and-we-dont.html

You can filter the cold supply of a Quooker with the below-:

www.abodedesigns.co.uk/swich_home.html"

This might help other people, like me, who are confused by taps and different water supplies.

That's interesting. We not long ago put a Quooker tap in and ended up connecting to to the hard water supply - I thought that was on Quookers recommendation, but may have that wrong as its all a bit of a blur now. Another thing I was more surprised at was that all my plumbed kitchen appliances (steam over and dishwasher) were also required to be on the hard water feed - this was definitely on manufacturers recommendations. I can only imagine the sodium content might have caused more potential damage than the hard water, but a bit .

On the drinking softener water I'm sure an engineer once told me the salt supplied to for water softeners was 'industrial grade', ie possibly not pure enough for consumption. And that is why you are apparently not recommended to drink it.

water softener salt is food grade, and is not in the softened water. It is used to regenerate the resin which absorbs calcium.

ScaryMcLary - I would be putting a Quooker in to the hard water supply too but fitting it with the carbon filter and perhaps the anti limescale filter they talk about (all very confusing isn't it)

You've just thrown another spanner in to the works saying that your dishwasher and steam oven had to be plumbed in to the hard water feed. Don't know anything about steam ovens but I assumed the dishwasher would have been soft-watered. Isn't that the whole point of the exercise?

Away to do more research.

all my appliances run on softened water with no sign of distress.

and mine! And my washing machine is 25 years old plus!

You should avoid drinking softened water.

Install the quooker on a cold hard water feed, the same one that supplies the cold hard water in your kitchen. If you are in a very hard water area, the scale control filter may not be a bad idea.

kmdesign

what is the factor that makes you say that?

I think I've changed my mind. It's getting too complicated and I wasn't completely sold anyway.

We are going with a filtered water tap and we are going with a water softener but instead of the Quooker I think we will have this thing of beauty www.johnlewis.com/eva-solo-xo-stainless-steel-stovetop-kettle/p231858575 as we are having an induction oven it should be fast.

Good option !

:-)

kmdesign are correct. The best plan is to connect a Quooker to the mains and fit a scale control filter if you live in a hard water area. Lots of parents tell us they find the Quooker very useful for cleaning baby equipment and making up feeds. With a true boiling tap you can also do away with a kettle, which can be tipped over. Our tap has multiple safety features to make it safer in the kitchen than a kettle.

We just did a bit of routine maintenance on our quooker after the red light kept flashing. Qooker were brilliant and sent out a pack gratis, and it did the job...but the amount of limescaley crap that came out was gross!